Primo Levi was an Italian Jewish chemist and writer who is best known for his account of the year he spent as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp. He wrote to bear witness to the horrors of the Holocaust and visited many schools to educate others. The poem references historical events but provides no context, so students will research topics like the eruption of Pompeii, Anne Frank's death, or the bombing of Hiroshima to develop an understanding of the context before analyzing the poem.