What the Holocaust Meant: The Thinking of Primo Levy and Jean Améry

A decade ago there appeared in English translation a remarkable little book, At the Mind’s Limits, by Jean Amery. It was a book that struck many of its readers as one of the most thoughtful and abrasively honest reflections (to quote from Amery’s subtitle) “by a survivor on Auschwitz and its realities.”

Now, Pantheon Books has reissued At the Mind’s Limits, with a foreword by Alexander Stille, which tells the story of Amery’s tragic life and contrasts his views about the Holocaust with those of Primo Levi. With Pantheon’s kind permission, we print below Stille’s essay. – EDS .

After reading At the Mind’s Limits, first published in 1966, Primo...