Primo Levi

Italian chemist, partisan, Holocaust survivor, and writer (1919–1987)

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Fame65.2
Momentum1.3
Scientists rank#166
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Lived 1919–1987, aged 68Italy

Italy ScientistsScientist

Wikipedia
67 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1919–1987
Aged 68
Known for
The Truce
1997

Summary

Updated 2026-06-21

He survived Auschwitz, became a chemist, then wrote what may be the most precise account of the camps ever set down — a testimony that refuses both rage and self-pity, built instead from the clinical eye of a scientist watching his own extinction.

Biography

About

Primo Michele Levi was born 31 July 1919 in Italy, trained as a chemist, and joined the partisans during the war. Captured and deported to Auschwitz, he spent a year as a prisoner in Nazi-occupied Poland. He returned and in 1947 published "If This Is a Man" (released in the United States as "Survival in Auschwitz"), his account of that year. In 1975 he published "The Periodic Table", a collection of mostly autobiographical short stories each named after a chemical element that plays a role in the narrative; the Royal Institution later named it the best science book ever written. On 11 April 19…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Primo Levi

Primo Levi

said1986

I beg the reader not to go in search of messages.

— "The Premise," The Mirror Maker (1986)

Primo Levi

said25 Mar 1983

Those who deny Auschwitz would be ready to remake it.

— Interview with Daniel Toaff, Sorgenti di Vita (25 March 1983); translated by Mirto Stone

Primo Levi

said1975

In order for the wheel to turn, for life to be lived, impurities are needed, and the impurities of impurities in the soil, too, as is known, if it is to be fertile.

— "Zinc"

Primo Levi

said1947

A country is considered the more civilised the more the wisdom and efficiency of its laws hinder a weak man from becoming too weak and a powerful one too powerful.

— Also known as Survival at Auschwitz (US publication title)

Primo Levi

said1947