Améry and Primo Levi: the intellectual’s experience in the Lager and the duty of bear witness

Abstract

In this article, it is intended to understand the conception of the intellectual in Jean Améry’s and Levi’s thought. This conception is understood in connection with the idea of the need of testifying the unnamable experience of the life in the Lager. Both have different conceptions on the reach and the load of the testimony, in reason also of the different relationships they establish with the public space. The ideas discussed in this article are about exclusively the two intellectuals’ conception regarding the limits of the spirit and the human condition in Lager, like Améry designates that empty space in that the sense gets lost. They are not valid for any type of intervention in the public space.

Keywords

• Nacional-socialismo. O intelectual no Lager. Testemunho no espaço público.