Auschwitz Report (book)
Auschwitz Report (2006) is a non-fiction report on the Auschwitz extermination camp by Primo Levi and Leonardo de Benedetti. When Levi and de Benedetti were in a Soviet holding camp in Katowice in 1945 the Soviet authorities asked them to document the living conditions in Auschwitz. De Benedetti had been on Levi's transport from Fossoli, near Modena, Italy. Both had been left behind when the camp was evacuated and so their time at Auschwitz coincided exactly. De Benedetti was a medical doctor, though he acted as one only in the final weeks of his time  at the camp. His survival was extremely unusual, since he was in his 40s when he arrived: normally, those over the age of 30 were sent directly to the gas chambers on arrival. Much of the report describes the facilities for treating the sick. Treatments were rudimentary, medicines were in short supply and the skill of the nurses was minimal. Normal practices of hygiene were ignored. Cross-contamination and infection were widespread. The hospital was set up only a few months before Levi's arrival. There had previously been no medical treatment at all. Sick inmates worked until they collapsed , at which point they were beaten: if they moved, they were sent back to work, and if not, they were sent to the gas chambers. The book ends with two obituary notices written by Levi about de Benedetti.