With the chapter ‘I sommersi e i salvati’, Levi introduces the theme of Prominenz into his reconstruction of life in the Lager. From here on, Levi highlights the web of political relations structuring the concentration camp, wherein power circulates despite and as a function of the persecutors’ will to domination (Forti 2014). A web of relations following the gregarious dynamics of the human--animal as ‘social animal’ (see the conviction ‘every stranger is an enemy’ in the Preface) tends to establish hierarchical forms of cohabitation.

However, Levi also inspects such a ‘hierarchy of Prominenz’ from an ethical perspective: the ‘saved’ enter the circuit of Prominenz by assuming a certain ethical posture, that is, by calibrating their privilege either with solidarity towards their fellow inmates (such as Alberto or Lorenzo) or with a will to power and prestige that becomes blind towards his fellows’ oppression (such as Alfred L, Elias, Alex or Frenkel).

Pikolo is no exception: like any other human figure of salvation in SQ, he is initially presented to readers for his ethical value. The first part of ‘Il canto di Ulisse’ describes Pikolo’s story of salvation: he obtained his privilege shrewdly as he understood the voids of power that could be filled with his collaboration. However, he does not use his privilege to increase the oppression of those located in the lower ranks, such as Levi, but works instead to share the advantages his higher position affords him. It is not by chance that Pikolo’s decision to ask Levi to help him to carry out a convenient job that day also, and unconsciously, creates the condition for one of the most intense and memorable dialogues of our literary tradition. If Dante’s verses could resound in Auschwitz and, with them, a moment of hope and mental wellbeing (‘it is doing me good’), it is because of a simple and small act of solidarity that we can never take for granted wherever privilege rules.

SG

With the chapter ‘I sommersi e i salvati’, Levi introduces the theme of Prominenz into his reconstruction of life in the Lager. From here on, Levi highlights the web of political relations structuring the concentration camp, wherein power circulates despite and as a function of the persecutors’ will to domination (Forti 2014). A web of relations following the gregarious dynamics of the human--animal as ‘social animal’ (see the conviction ‘every stranger is an enemy’ in the Preface) tends to establish hierarchical forms of cohabitation.

However, Levi also inspects such a ‘hierarchy of Prominenz’ from an ethical perspective: the ‘saved’ enter the circuit of Prominenz by assuming a certain ethical posture, that is, by calibrating their privilege either with solidarity towards their fellow inmates (such as Alberto or Lorenzo) or with a will to power and prestige that becomes blind towards his fellows’ oppression (such as Alfred L, Elias, Alex or Frenkel).

Pikolo is no exception: like any other human figure of salvation in SQ, he is initially presented to readers for his ethical value. The first part of ‘Il canto di Ulisse’ describes Pikolo’s story of salvation: he obtained his privilege shrewdly as he understood the voids of power that could be filled with his collaboration. However, he does not use his privilege to increase the oppression of those located in the lower ranks, such as Levi, but works instead to share the advantages his higher position affords him. It is not by chance that Pikolo’s decision to ask Levi to help him to carry out a convenient job that day also, and unconsciously, creates the condition for one of the most intense and memorable dialogues of our literary tradition. If Dante’s verses could resound in Auschwitz and, with them, a moment of hope and mental wellbeing (‘it is doing me good’), it is because of a simple and small act of solidarity that we can never take for granted wherever privilege rules.

SG