The Black Hole of Auschwitz

The Black Hole of Auschwitz is a collection of essays by the Italian author Primo Levi. Originally published under the Italian title L'asimmetria e la vita (Asymmetry and Life) it has two distinct halves. The first half, The Black Hole of Auschwitz is a collection of essays, often prefaces to other books, which make a plea against Holocaust denial. The second half, Other People's Trades, is a mixture of essays on a wide variety of subjects. All of these works were collected together in the production of the Italian anthology of Levi's works, Opere, in 1997.

Contents
PART I: THE BLACK HOLE OF AUSCHWITZ

Deportees. Anniversary

The Monument at Auschwitz

'Arbeit Macht Frei'

The Time of Swastikas

Preface to the German Edition of If This Is a Man

Preface to the School Edition of The Truce

Resistance in the Camps

Preface to Y. Katzenelson's The Song of the Murdered Jewish People

Note to the Theatre Version of If This Is a Man

Preface to L. Poliakov's Auschwitz

To the Young: Preface to If This Is a Man

A Past We Thought Would Never Return

Preface to J. Presser's The Night of the Girondins

Films and Swastikas

Letter to Latanzio:'Resign'

Women to the Slaughter

So That the SS do not Return

It began with Kristallnacht

Jean Amery, Philosopher and Suicide

But We Were There

Concentration Camp at Italy's Door

No Return to the Holocausts of the Past (Nazi Massacres, Crowds and the TV)

Images of Holocaust

Europe in Hell

Anne Frank, the Voice of History

Seekers of Lies to Deny the Holocaust

To the Visitor

You Tell Me if This is a Fortunate Jew

The Pharaoh with the Swastika

Preface to H. Langbein's People in Auschwitz

Why See These Images Again?

Preface to R. Hoss's Commandant of Auschwitz

The Black Hole of Auschwitz

Preface to La vita offesa

To Our Generation

PART II: OTHER PEOPLE'S TRADES

The Writer Who is Not a Writer

Racial Intolerance

Preface to L. Caglioti's I due voiti della chimica (The Two Faces of Chemistry)

We See No Other Adam in the Neighbourhood

Horseshoe Nails

Let's See How Much has Come True

Our First Ancestors were Not Animals

Collectors of Torments

Brute Force

Note to Franz Kafka's The Trial

Asymmetry and Life

Preface to Jews in Turin

Itinerary of a Jewish Writer

With the Key of Science

Preface to The Jews of Eastern Europe

What was it that Burned Up in Space?

The Plague has No Frontiers

The Community of Venice and its Ancient Cemetery

The Philosopher-Engineer and his Forbidden Dreams

Guest of Captain Nemo