If this is a man
by Primo Levi · first published 1960
75% recommend25% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Firsthand memoir of surviving Auschwitz. The writing is strong, and the book is widely regarded as important reading on the Holocaust. It pairs well with The Drowned and the Saved.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Mentions per year
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Here are all books I read (this year so far I read 50 books): https://books.j11g.com/search.php?log=3 Three books from 2021 stick out: - If This Is a Man by Primo Levi. I would urge everyone to read this. This history should be known to everyone. - Defying Hitler (the story of a German 1914 - 1933) by Sebastian Haffner. Masterfully written autobiography…
on “Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?” ↗Slightly off-topic, but Primo Levi's "If this is a man" is an excellent description of life in a camp. In his case, it was Auschwitz.
on “The Economic Organization of a POW Camp (1945) [pdf]” ↗Well if you've read Frankl then I think you should read Primo Levi. The Drowned and The Saved and also If This Is A Man. One could say he came to less easily swallowed conclusions, but I think it is essential reading. For me personally however I think Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment more or less informed my world-view…
on “Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?” ↗The Magus, John Fowles Dune (all 6) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Pirsig Manufacturing Consent The Demon-Haunted World, Carl Sagan If This Is a Man, Primo Levi Light, M. John Harrison
on “Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?” ↗Anyone interested in the life of a dwarf at Auschwitz should read Primo Levi's excellent memoir, whose title has been translated both as "Survival in Auschwitz" and "If this is a man". Levi himself was not a dwarf, but he encountered one in the year he spent in Auschwitz, and the entire book is very well written. http://appliedsciencefreelibraryguide.org/view.php?id=388132
on “The dwarves of Auschwitz (2013)” ↗Primo Levi and Paul Celan are both excellent, excellent writers. Any one who wants to learn about the Holocaust should read Levi's "If This Is a Man" and "The Truce". And Paul Celan's poem "Todesfuge" is one of the most moving writings from a survivor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todesfuge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_This_Is_a_Man I don't…
on “Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Holocaust Survivor, Dies at 87” ↗…#13. Anything You Want - Derek Sivers - 4.5* #14. South of the Border, West of the Sun - Haruki Murakami - 3.5* #15. As A Man Thinketh / The Path Of Prosperity - James Allen - 4* Currently I'm reading If This Is a Man / The Truce by Primo Levi - and so far it seems to be one of the top 3 books I've read this year - definitely a 4+* book.
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2016?” ↗…autobiographical writings: T. E. Lawrence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mint_(book) Władysław Szpilman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pianist_(memoir) Primo Levi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_This_Is_a_Man
on “Ask HN: Biographies recommendations – both Westerner and Non-westerner” ↗Oh yes. Books like Primo Levi “If This Is a Man” are good to read. Also some can you into deep depression… it’s important to be careful to let the door to your mind opened to anything.
on “Can reading make you happier? (2015)” ↗After reading Primo Levi's "The Drowned and the Saved", I went on a binge of his earlier works: "If This Is a Man", "The Truce", "If not now, when?". All great, but I keep coming back to "The Drowned and the Saved"; it's hard to put my finger on it, but it's a book that provides more meaning about life than anything…
on “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” ↗I think it would be really important for a good book to come out and to be publicized tremendously, like The Archipelago of Gulag or If This Is a Man, that would capture the public conscience to what is happening. Unfortunately written in the first person.
on “I am an Uighur who faced China’s concentration camps” ↗I remember one thing in "Se questo è un uomo" (If This Is a Man) by Primo Levi. In Auschwitz camp, where money, trade and basically private property rights were abolished and where they tried to destroy all what makes people human, Primo Levi mentioned there was always…
on “Friedrich Hayek and the Collective Brain” ↗As a counterpoint, in "If This is a Man", Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi describes his inability to find meaning in his experiences, and a lack of triumph of the human spirit, in himself and other inmates. As the title implies, the book claims…
on “How extreme isolation warps the mind” ↗…Jane Eyre “Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.” ―Primo Levi, If This is A Man To create and be free like an animal outside a cage, ask, write, and draw your own questions. Look, and find out for yourself, rather than blindly believing what others tell you. Two useful books: Drawing…
on “It’s still worth blogging in the age of AI” ↗…Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton * Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood * Dawn by Octavia Butler I then diverged from this list (I have more) to re-read (though it's not such a great divergence): * If This Is a Man / The Truce by Primo Levi Other books I enjoyed reading this year in no particular order: * Tau Zero by Poul Anderson * Machine Vendetta by Alastair Reynolds * Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds *…
on “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” ↗