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Q & A: On Primo Levi’s Centenary, Reflecting On A Writer Who Was ‘The Perfect Scientist’

JL;DR SUMMARY Primo Levi, an Italian chemist and writer born in 1919, is renowned for his penetrating Holocaust memoirs, such as "If This is a Man" and "The Truce," which detail his harrowing experiences in Auschwitz and his journey home. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

AuschwitzHolocaustMemoirsTranslationScienceLanguageItalian LiteraturePrimo LeviAnn Goldstein

Places mentioned

Turin, Italy
"The chemist and writer, born in Turin, Italy on July 31, 1919, is most famous in America for his memoirs of his experience during the Holocaust."
Auschwitz, Lesser Poland, Poland
"If This is a Man, which surveys Levis time in the Italian resistance and then in Auschwitz, and The Truce, which covers his nine-month journey home after the camps liberation, are stunning chronicles of the costs of a staggering crime."
United States
"On his only trip to America, he was sort of stunned at being treated as a Jewish Holocaust writer."

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Retrieved 2025-08-15 05:32:13 UTC
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