If this is a man (1947)

You who live safe
In your warm houses,
You who find, returning in the evening,
Hot food and friendly faces:
Consider if this is a man
Who works in the mud
Who does not know peace
Who fights for a scrap of bread
Who dies because of a yes or a no. Consider if this is a woman,
Without hair and without name
With no more strength to remember,
Her eyes empty and her womb cold
Like a frog in winter.
Meditate that this came about:
I commend these words to you.
Carve them in your hearts
At home, in the street,
Going to bed, rising;
Repeat them to your children,
Or may your house fall apart,
May illness impede you,
May your children turn their faces from you.

Primo Levi, in If this is a Man, 2003. 

ACTIVITIES:

1. Look for information about Primo Levi. What is Auschwitz? What happened there? Why?
2. What do we learn from this poem? 3. When is a human being no longer a human being?
4. The term “dignity” is not in this text, but it could help you. What constitutes a person's dignity?