About

Primo Levi (1919-1987)

Benito Mussolini made himself dictator of fascist Italy in 1925. Primo Levi, born of Jewish parents in Turin, swore his allegiance to that nation in 1933 when, at the age of 14, he joined the fascist Avanguardistis, as was expected of all schoolboys.

Five years later, Mussolini enacted racial laws that deprived Jews of their civil rights and their opportunity to pursue certain professions. When Italy signed a pact with Nazi Germany in 1940 and both countries declared war on England and France, the Jews found themselves in the cross hairs.

In 1941, Levi graduated university with a degree in chemistry, his certificate marked “of Jewish race.” As a Jew, finding work was so difficult that he used false papers to get a job as a lab chemist at a nickel mine. For a time he worked in Switzerland to escape the racial laws. Upon returning to Turin, he found his mother and sister in hiding, being hunted as Jews.