50 pages • 1 hour read
The Truce
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Chapters 13-17Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary: “Holidays”
The Italians feel a growing urge to return home. Life at Starye Dorogi feels like “a holiday interlude” (329) that is exacerbated by idleness. Occasionally, people try to leave the camp. They discover, however, that returning to Italy across post-war Europe is difficult, with the heavily-guarded borders and frontiers preventing free movement across the continent. As such, most of those who leave eventually return to Starye Dorogi.
Levi recounts his halting efforts to learn snippets of Russian from the soldiers and locals. While many Russian soldiers struggle to make themselves understood to the Italians, there are some whose theatrical gestures and performances of anecdotes and war stories endear them to the Italians. Among the Russians, only a young man known as the Lieutenant speaks Italian. Even though he can converse with the Italians, he is reluctant to do so. He has never been to Italy, he says, but he does not explain how he learned Italian.
Levi and Leonardo continue to run their small clinic. A woman comes to the clinic, whereupon she is told that she is three months pregnant. Levi recognizes her as Flora, who was in one of the camps and the sight of whom helped him pass the time with his friend, Alberto. She is a sex worker who was routinely abused by the camp guards. She struck up a friendship with Levi in difficult circumstances, and they shared bread when they could. Now, she lives with a cobbler from Bergamo, “not as a wife, but as a slave” (335). She does all his chores and he beats her in fits of violent jealousy. Having been told of the pregnancy, she sits alone in the clinic to savor these rare moments of peace.
The monotony of the camp is broken by the arrival of a Soviet film truck. Three films are shown over a series of nights. These prove very popular; guards and survivors alike cram themselves into the cinema. They watch an Austrian film about World War I, in which the Italians are amused to see their nationality portrayed in such a villainous manner. They watch a Soviet movie that is very popular with the Russian soldiers. The final film is from the United States, which Levi considers “typically individualistic” (339). When the film troupe departs, the Russian soldiers make “a renewed and bold […] attempt to invade the feminine quarters” (341), though they are repelled.
Chapter 14 Summary: “The Theater”
The wealthy Rumanian-Italians organize a theater show. The quiet austere Lieutenant takes an intense round of tap-dancing classes to perform at the show. Levi describes the Italian performances, in which traditional songs are sung and scenes from famous plays and folklore are performed. The Russians supply the instruments for a small orchestral performance.
A traditional show titled The Shipwreck of the Spiritless is reimagined to be about life in Starye Dorogi. The performance causes an uproar from the Russians, however, who interpret the show as critical of them. The Italians fear that they will be punished, especially when the Russians begin acting in a strange manner. As rumor spreads among the Italians, however, they are shocked when the Russians begin to hand out money. This money is “compensation” (347) owed to the Italians, since they are technically considered prisoners of war. They are to be paid for their work; even if they have not worked, the Russians hand out money anyway.
Gradually, a feeling spreads through the community that something is about to happen, though no one can explain why or what. When the repatriation of the Italians is eventually announced, it is immediately followed by a string of delays. The camp is visited by the famous Marshal Timoshenko, who meets with the Italians and soldiers. In broken Italian, he give his assurances that the Italians are to leave “soon, very soon” (351).
Chapter 15 Summary: “From Starye Dorogi to Iasi”
In spite of the Marshal’s promises, the departure continues to be delayed. The Italians eventually leave Starye Dorogi on September 15th, 1945, though even this departure is delayed for a day. After so long together, the displaced Italians have formed “an organized community” (353), and so they divide themselves among the trucks of the train according to their social groups. Levi is one of 20 people who ride in the so-called medical unit, though there are very few medical supplies to justify this designation. He travels with Leonardo, Cesare, Daniele, the Moor, and others. Eventually, the train begins to move and Levi thinks about the pain and suffering in his recent past in contrast with the imminent return to Italy. This train journey, he notes, will not be as direct or as simple as he might have hoped.
The Italians are accompanied on their journey by several 18-year-old Russian soldiers. They command little authority but they are well-mannered and cheerful. As they travel, those aboard realize that they are not heading south as expected (toward Italy) but north instead. No one knows the details of their journey, or their itinerary. This lack of certainty grates on Cesare, who becomes so frustrated that he searches for new ways to entertain himself. He buys a copper ring from an Italian and, while stopped in a station, leaps out to sell the ring to a Russian soldier. He lies, claiming that the ring is gold. His plan to hop aboard the departing train just after the conclusion of the sale is threatened when the train unexpectedly stops. Cesare manages to hide from the annoyed Russian soldier.
During another stop, Levi spots a woman named Gallina. She is a Russian girl who helped him to translate documents in the camp. They exchange “a few hurried and embarrassed words, in a language which was neither hers nor [Levi’s]” (359) and then they never see one another again.
The train passes through Zhmerinka and other towns. At the Soviet border, there is an inspection. On the other side of the border, the people aboard the train notice that some among them have fled. Now that they are in Romania, many of the Rumanian-Italians decide to stay. Among them are many Italian men who married Romanian women; now the wives are insisting on staying in their homeland.
In Iasi, Levi goes with Leonardo and Mr. Unverdorben into the town. There, they meet a small Jewish community who share with them whatever they can. They have little, but the gesture is “principally symbolic” (362).
Chapter 16 Summary: “From Iasi to the Line”
The train continues to travel south for several days. They pass through villages and industrial sites. Since they have left Russia, Levi and his associates have little money. They depend on the Russians to feed them whenever possible. Rations, in this fashion, are chaotically unpredictable. As well as the varying contents, the portion size of the rations ranges from large to miniscule. They pass through Romania into Hungary. Many quarrels break out. In particular, the Italians pick on an unfortunate man who is nicknamed “the Carabiniere.” The quiet, hapless youngster struggles to assert himself against this bullying.
At the Hungarian border, the train stops in a tiny town. Feeling a need to spend whatever money they have, the people aboard the train decimate the local economy by buying up everything and spending far more than the local inhabitants. At this stage, frustrated by the lack of progress, Cesare decides to return to Italy by himself. He eventually flies back to Italy, Levi says, but Levi will leave the story up to Cesare to tell of his own volition. Without Cesare, the journey becomes even duller. Levi barters away what little he has for food. The passengers are joined by numerous stowaways who, for varying reasons, wish to go to Italy.
They pass through Vienna, noting the damage done to the city by the bombs. Levi feels “no joy” (373) in seeing Vienna destroyed in this fashion. As the train resumes the journey to Italy, they pass an African American soldier. The American cheers at the passengers, congratulating them that they are heading home. As they pass over into American care, they learn about the final days of the war from a different perspective. They learn about the dropping of the atomic bomb. The Italians are inspected, bathed, deloused, and reclothed by the Americans.
Chapter 17 Summary: “The Awakening”
From Austria, the Italians travel via Munich. They pass many Germans, the apparent architects of their suffering, but they do not know what they want to say. They expect the need to say something or for the Germans to say something to them. On Levi’s arm, the tattooed numbers from Auschwitz feel as though they are burning. The Germans, many injured or suffering, avoid people’s eyes.
As the train makes its final advances into Italy, Levi thinks about the journey he took from Italy to the camps. Of the 650 who departed on that day, three are returning. He feels the poison of Auschwitz flowing through his veins, mixing with his blood. As they travel between Italian cities, their numbers diminish as each person returns to their home.
Levi reaches Turin on October 19th. He finds his family all still alive, and tells them his horrific story. He feels as though he is living “a dream within a dream” (379). He is haunted by his past and his experiences, often waking up with the reality of Auschwitz fresh in his mind.
Chapters 13-17 Analysis
Levi continues to draw comparisons between the Soviet and Nazi soldiers who administer the camps in which he has been placed. The Soviet troops are men with guns and uniforms who issue orders, but their intent and manner is completely different to that of the Nazis. Whereas the Nazis of Auschwitz sought to exterminate Jewish people like Levi, the Soviets have no such goal. They have been fighting the Nazis for years and— as part of the battles on the Eastern Front of World War II—have lost millions of their fellow soldiers. The Soviet troops are, in effect, on the same side as Levi and the other former prisoners, but the prisoners take a while to adjust to this difference in power dynamics between the genocidal Nazis and the indifferent Soviets.
As he spends more time in Soviet-run camps, however, Levi becomes acquainted with the subtleties of the Russian military. He likens this to learning a language, reflecting the text’s thematic preoccupation with The Challenges of Language. Levi may not speak Russian, but he comes to grasp the significance of certain phrases. The suggestion that something will happen soon or imminently, for example, is far vaguer than it might seem. The Italians, hearing news of their imminent departure, are surprised when nothing happens. The Soviet troops are not. They understand the absurdity of the Soviet bureaucracy, in which a giant administrative machine in the midst of a war cannot maintain an internal consistent logic. Levi is astounded by this confusion and irrationality at first but, like learning a language, he begins to understand the broad meaning of words and phrases, gaining some substantive understanding of what is happening to him.
Cesare is an example of a person who cannot tolerate the Russian system. Halfway through the train journey, as they are heading north (away from Italy), he decides to abandon the train and make his own way home. Cesare's decision is reflective of The Impacts of Trauma. In the concentration camps, he was denied agency. He was not allowed to be Cesare, an identity that he rekindled in the post-camp movement between towns and villages. Through his schemes and scams, he was able to feel as though he was reclaiming his identity, his agency, and his sense of self. Aboard the train, he is at the mercy of the Soviet bureaucracy. He cannot tolerate this loss of agency, fearing the same diminishment of identity that occurred in Auschwitz. In a physical and symbolic way, he rejects administrative domination and takes back control of his life and his journey. He reaches home and, understanding Cesare's unspoken desire for agency, Levi declines to share his story.
After a long, arduous journey, Levi returns to Italy. As the train moves through Italy, they shed passengers. The people who have defined Levi's story until this point ebb away, each returning to their own hometown. They have their own stories and their own resolutions and must embark on their own quests for a catharsis that Levi cannot provide. The passages describing Levi's return home are brief. He reunites with his family and tells them about his journey. This is not the Italy he left behind, however, and not one he seeks to include in this book. This new Italy is a separate chapter of his life, one which is deliberately distinct from his time in the camp and his journey home.
Notably, however, the specter of Auschwitz never leaves Levi. He describes how the camp continues to haunt his dreams, denying him the ability to ever truly return home because he carries with him the traumatic memories of the past. These traumatic memories appear in his dreams. The final word of the book is, notably, "a foreign word" (380), one meaning “get up.” The word is shot through with traumatic memories of brutality, infecting Levi's home with the pain of the past. In the beginning of the book, Levi described his physical departure from Auschwitz. At the end of the book, he illustrates how, in a psychological sense, he can never truly leave.
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