The Truce

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.