How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Dawn came on us like a betrayer; it seemed as though the new sun rose as an ally of our enemies to assist in our destruction. The different emotions that overcame us, of resignation, of futile rebellion, of religious abandon, of fear, of despair, now joined together after a sleepless night in a collective, uncontrolled panic. The time for meditation, the time for decision was over, and all reason dissolved into a tumult, across which flashed the happy memories of our homes, still so near in time and space, as painful as the thrusts of a sword.
Many things were then said and done among us; but of these it is better that there remain no memory. (1.14-15)
Normally, "dawn" is a symbol for new beginnings and hope. Here, Levi ominously describes it as a "betrayer." The prisoners are almost certainly going to their deaths, and the things they say and do before their departure are best left hidden—even though they are said and done in the light of a new day.
Quote #2
Thus, in an instant, our women, our parents, our children disappeared. We saw them for a short while as an obscure mass at the other end of the platform; then we saw nothing more. (1.32)
Imagine having your family suddenly taken from you in the blink of an eye, not knowing what was going to happen. That's precisely what Primo and his fellow prisoners experienced. They don't even get a clear look at them in this last moment; they are merely "an obscure mass," undifferentiated and anonymous.
Quote #3
Then for the first time we became aware that our language lacks words to express this offence, the demolition of a man. In a moment, with almost prophetic intuition, the reality was revealed to us: we had reached the bottom. It is not possible to sink lower than this; no human condition is more miserable than this, nor could it conceivably be so. Nothing belongs to us anymore; they have taken away our clothes, our shoes, even our hair; if we speak, they will not listen to us, and if they listen, they will not understand. They will even take away our name: and if we want to keep it, we will have to find in ourselves the strength to do so, to manage somehow so that behind the name something of us, of us as we were, still remains. (2.21)
This "demolition of man" that the Nazis are trying to accomplish is so horrible that the Italian (and probably all others) language cannot even begin to express the concept. Instead, a new language arising from the camps is needed to capture the horrors.