How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Only much later, and slowly, a few of us learnt something of the funereal science of the numbers of Auschwitz, which epitomize the stages of destruction of European Judaism. To the old hands of the camp, the numbers told everything: the period of entry into the camp, the convoy of which one formed a part, and consequently the nationality. Everyone will treat with respect the numbers from 30,000 to 80,000: there are only a few hundred left and they represent the few survivals from the Polish ghettos. It is as well to watch out in commercial dealings with a 116,000 or a 117,000: they now number only about forty, but they represent the Greeks of Salonica, so take care they do not pull the wool over your eyes. As for the high numbers, they carry an essentially comic air about them, like the words "freshman" or "conscript" in ordinary life. The typical high number is a corpulent, docile and stupid fellow: he can be convinced that leather shoes are distributed at the infirmary to all those with delicate feet, and can be persuaded to run there and leave his bowl of soup "in your custody"; you can sell him a spoon for three rations of bread; you can send him to the most ferocious of the Kapos to ask him (as happened to me!) if it is true that his is the Kartoffelschalenkommando, the "Potato Peeling Command," and if one can be enrolled in it. (2.26)
The Nazis presided over this entire process with a sort of cold, mechanized proficiency. That's part of what those prisoner numbers mean: each contains information about the prisoner, such as where they came from and which transport brought them in. Primo here points out the very real human stories and traits behind those impersonal numbers. It really gives us some insight into the social interactions of the camp. There's even a moment of dark humor here when Primo points out his own initial gullibility when he inquires about the "Potato Peeling Command."
Quote #5
Then there's the dormitory: there are only one hundred and forty-eight bunks on three levels, fitted close to each other like the cells of a beehive, and divided by three corridors so as to utilize without wastage all the space in the room up to the roof. Here all the ordinary Häftlinge live, about two hundred to two hundred and fifty per hut. Consequently there are two men in most of the bunks, which are portable planks of wood, each covered by a thin straw sack and two blankets. (2.50)
The prisoners were forced to live in crowded conditions, with two men in most of the sleeping bunks. As you can imagine, it's hard for them to get sleep because of the cramped and uncomfortable conditions. Just try sleeping on a board covered with straw sometime to get a remote taste of what this might have been like. Here's a visual.
Quote #6
In this place it is practically pointless to wash every day in the turbid water of the filthy washbasins for purposes of cleanliness and health; but it is most important as a symptom of remaining vitality, and necessary as an instrument of moral survival. (3.9)
Primo's right: there's no way the prisoners can keep clean under these conditions. But, as he discovers from Steinlauf, they can at least make the attempt. This is one way for them to retain their humanity under the most horrible of conditions. Plus, having at least the appearance of being clean can help them to pass the selections, since it gives the aura of being healthier than some of the others.