Levi’s Testimonial suicide: Between Améry and Kafka

On 18th of May 2022 Prof. Dr. Yochai Ataria of the Academic and Technology College Tel Hai presented a lecture titled “Levi’s Testimonial suicide: Between Améry and Kafka”. The event was part of our monthly ABM Talks and was organised in collaboration with the Arbeitsstelle Holocaustliteratur, Justus-Liebig-University Gießen. The talk investigated the relationship between Primo Levi and Jean Améry, both survivors of Auschwitz. Prof. Ataria analysed the reasons for their suicides, tieing Levi’s fate to that of Kafka’s protagonist Josef K. in his novel “The Trial”.

If you are interested in Ataria’s work, check out his most recent book titled “Primo Levi and Ka-Tzetnik. The map and the territory”.

Source of the featured image: Primo Levi (1960) by Anonymous author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons