Survival in Auschwitz (If this is a man) Theme of Language and Communication

From the babble (Babel) of numerous languages spoken at the camp, to the way that the Nazis use all sorts of euphemisms to distract everyone from what they are really trying to accomplish in the concentration camps, language and communication play key roles in the relationships between people and in the relationship between the individual and the power structure in Survival in Auschwitz. In a more positive light, language and cultural identity were two of the things that the Nazis couldn't easily strip away from their prisoners like their possessions and hair. But language also divides the prisoners. The image of the Tower of Babel looms large in many scenes, and the confusion of languages keeps prisoners separated and disoriented.

1. How does Levi characterize the German language? Why is this significant?
2. In what ways is Primo outcast from the other Jews because he doesn't speak or understand Yiddish? What does this tell us about the difference between Primo and some of the other Jews?
3. When the Hungarian prisoner Sómogyi is dying in Ka-Be toward the end of the book, he keeps repeating "Jawohl" over and over. Why does this disturb Primo so much?
4. Why is Primo so frustrated that he cannot communicate "The Canto of Ulysses" to Jean, the Pikolo? Does this go beyond mere differences in language? Why else is it difficult for Primo to get his point across?

Language use in the camp is so slippery and imprecise because all existing words are insufficient to articulate what is happening there. A new language has to be invented to describe the horrors of the camp.

Keeping their own language is one way that the prisoners can defy the Nazis and retain their cultural and human identity.