If This is a Man

If This is a Man is not a novel, but an authentic account of survival in Auschwitz and an analysis of the dehumanizing effect of the two classes of people, the übermensch and the untermensch.

The title resonates with the compassion of classical humanism and can be read three ways: Pointing at the degradation and gradual dehumanization of Jews, or poiting at the inhumanity of their wardens and executioners. Finally it may also allude to the fate of "a man" in the sense of a moral, sentient being.