A Change of Mind

Chapter 3: Initiation
Many thoughts that I have never considered before crossed my mind as I read chapter three. While one certainly loses the will to stay sanitized when put into and environment like that of the concentration camps and therefore is often careless about trivial things, one can also simultaneously be very thoughtful of small things. In the chapter, for example, Primo Levi claims the act of washing one’s hand in the concentration camps as worthless and futile, considering the general unclean state of the camps. He then thinks deeply about the act in terms of obeying the codes and rules set by the Nazi’s in the camps. As worthless the act of washing one’s hands in the camps can be, Levi debates within him the significance of doing so. He thinks about the point of view held by the ex-sergeant Steinlauf, which claims that washing one’s hand provides a mental strength to survive the brutality of the persecution. So I thought when one is degraded to a severe level and can barely survive, one probably focuses on things only related to one’s survival, but also could contemplate about small things that one usually takes for granted, like washing hands.
I also thought about Steinlauf’s view on the significance of washing oneself. Levi states that Steinlauf thought that one should wash “not because the regulation states it, but for dignify and propriety. [One] must walk erect, without dragging [one’s] feet, not in homage to Prussian discipline but to remain alive, not to begin to die.” Here Steinlauf implies that washing is actually an act of rebellion rather than consent (with authority). I debated whether trying to disobey the Nazi’s in a way can be beneficial to the people in the camps, and I actually thought that it was better to obey the orders given, while still keeping alive one’s faith. Just because one obeys authority does not mean he is deprived of hope; a Jew in the camp can do what the Nazi’s tell him to do and still be vital enough to seek survival. I actually think Steinlauf is optimistic, which is good, but the way he reaches it will give a disadvantage to people. A person with a disobedient state of mind will only be harmed more than one with an obedient, yet hopeful mind.
In sun, I realized the mental change and complexity one faces when severely displaced from one’s usual life. Primo Levi shows the extremities of his thoughts at the camps in this chapter, those usually unseen in people living in normal conditions.