Written near the end of Levi's life, this book of essays reflects on the Nazi camps and their meaning decades later, published in English as The Drowned and the Saved. Levi considers memory and its distortions, shame felt by survivors, the problem of communication, violence, and the grey zone in which victims were forced into complicity. He also discusses the uses of education and the dangers of forgetting. The tone is thoughtful, unsparing and humane. It is a central work for understanding how ordinary people take part in atrocity and how survivors live with its legacy.