Woman's Hour | Primo Levi

Primo Levi discusses 'If Not Now, When?', his forthcoming novel published in 1986. It was his first work of fiction and was based on his experiences as a partisan in Italy before his betrayal, capture and subsequent removal to Auschwitz. He also describes the circumstances that allowed him to survive the camp and recalls a surprising encounter with one of the camp's doctors some years later.

Primo Levi committed suicide in 1987, some say as a result of the guilt he suffered at his survival of the Holocaust, following a bout of severe depression. His camp number remained tattooed on his arm and was also engraved on his headstone.