Primo LeviBorn 31 Jul 1919; died 11 Apr 1987 at age 67. An Italian novelist, short-story writer and poet, Primo Levi was also a chemist most of his professional life. As a memoirist, he is noted for his restrained and moving autobiographical account of and reflections on survival in the Nazi concentration camps. In his science work, The Periodic Table, he wrote: "...conquering matter is to understand it, and understanding matter is necessary to understanding the universe and ourselves." His gift of writing brought the subject to life. Chemistry, in turn, saved his life. Imprisoned as a Jew in Auschwitz, the young Italian chemist was granted a tenuous reprieve as a technician in the laboratory of an I. G. Farben rubber factory built by slave laborers on the camp's grounds. He died by suicide in 1987, after a long illness. |
