Moments of Reprieve: Essays

Having already written two memoirs on his experiences at Auschwitz, Primo Levi knew there was still more to tell. Collected in this book are portraits of fifteen people from the Holocaust. Some Levi knew personally, like the young Romani man who smuggled a creased photo of his bride past the camp guards or the starving prisoner who still insisted on fasting on Yom Kippur. While others Levi learned about only secondhand, like Chaim Rumkowski, the "King of Jews," who ruled over the Lodz ghetto like a personal fiefdom.

To Levi, these individuals were neither simple heroes nor victims, but individuals who retained a spark of human vitality in the face of unspeakable hardship. They represented "bizarre, marginal moments of reprieve" that sustained Levi in his darkest hour. Moments of Reprieve shines with lyricism and insight.