Primo Michele Levi (Italian: [ˈpriːmo ˈlɛːvi]; 31 July 1919 – 11 April 1987) was an Italian Jewish chemist writer and Holocaust survivor. He was the author of several books novels collections of short stories essays and poems. His best-known works include If This Is a Man (1947) (U.S.: Survival in Auschwitz) his account of the year he spent as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland; and his unique work The Periodic Table (1975) linked to qualities of the elements which the Royal Institution of Great Britain named the best science book ever written.