never forget

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a communist;

Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a socialist;

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a trade unionist;

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a Jew;

Then they came for me—
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Martin Niemöller

Only after writing about Primo Levi just now, did I remember that today is Holocaust Memorial Day, and the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

An Italian Jew, Primo Levi was captured trying to join the Resistance in 1944 and sent to Auschwitz. The short stories in The Periodic Table are mainly about his life before and after Auschwitz, while his other writings address this in more detail.