I Felt Reborn (Primo Levi): From the Nobel Dynamite Factory to a Remembrance Place

From Firenze University Press: Substantia. An International Journal of the History of Chemistry

Luigi Dei, Department of Chemistry ‘Ugo Schiff’, University of Florence

The editorial team of Firenze University Press poses the question: “Which element from the periodic table tells your story?”

The Periodic Table by Primo Levi has been designed by the Royal Institution of Great Britain “the best science book ever written”. Indeed, in this book there is a perfect mixture of science, allegory, chemistry, life, memory, history and human experience. The book is built as a collection of chapters or stories each entitled with an element of the very periodic table by Mendeleev: in total 21 elements each recalling a life experience of the author, the chemist and writer Primo Levi, an author famous in the world as one of the most important witnesses of the Shoah.

Primo Levi was born in Turin on July 31st, 1919 to two Jewish families of Provence (France) and Spanish origins. Immediately we discover in his childhood, adolescence, and youth a first paradox of the fate: he could not attend with constancy the primary school due to the very precarious conditions of his health, the same health that in the future will reveal fundamental for his survival in the lager. From 1934 Primo attended the High School Liceo Classico “Massimo D’Azeglio” in Turin where got his baccalaureate in 1937: second paradox of the fate, he didn’t succeed in passing the exam of Italian literature — he had to pass a supplementary exam — the subject that made him famous in all the world. In the same years he started to attend the Chemistry Faculty at the University of Turin.

In 1938 the Italian government under the Fascist tyranny of Mussolini promulgated the “racial laws” imitating the German anti-Semitism actions. These laws prohibited the University studies to young people of “Jewish race”, but allowed them to conclude their studies if they already attended University courses at the coming into force of them.

Therefore, Primo Levi succeeded in graduating in Chemistry in 1941 discussing a thesis on the Walden inversion with the grade 100/100 cum laude.

Chemistry is not just inert matter: in Levi’s hands, it becomes living testimony against oblivion.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.13128/Substantia-8
Read Full Text: View of I Felt Reborn (Primo Levi): From the Nobel Dynamite Factory to a Remembrance Place | Substantia