Editing Primo Levi (section)

=== Death ===
Levi died on 11 April 1987 after a fall from the interior landing of his third-story apartment in Turin to the ground floor below. The coroner ruled his death a suicide. Three of his biographers (Angier, Thomson and Anissimov) agreed, but other writers (including at least one who knew him personally) questioned that determination.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Intern|date=2012-07-09|title=Primo Levi's Last Moments|url=http://bostonreview.net/diego-gambetta-primo-levi-last-moments|access-date=2021-01-12|journal=Boston Review|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-11-11|title=Primo Levi's Work Outshines His Murky Death|url=https://momentmag.com/primo-levis-work-outshines-his-murky-death/|access-date=2021-01-12|website=Moment Magazine|language=en-US}}</ref>

In his later life, Levi indicated that he was suffering from depression. Factors in that likely included responsibility for his elderly mother and mother-in-law, with whom he was living, and lingering traumatic memories of his experiences.<ref>George Jochnowitz, [http://www.jochnowitz.net/Essays/Thomson.html "Review of ''Primo Levi: A Life'' by Ian Thomson"]. New York: Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company, 2003</ref> According to the chief rabbi of Rome [[Elio Toaff]], Levi telephoned him for the first time ten minutes before the incident. Levi said he found it impossible to look at his mother, who was ill with cancer, without recalling the faces of people stretched out on benches in Auschwitz.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Gambetta |first=Diego |date=1999-08-07 |title=Primo Levi's Plunge: A Case Against Suicide |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/07/arts/primo-levis-plunge-a-case-against-suicide.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230625210235/https://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/07/arts/primo-levis-plunge-a-case-against-suicide.html |archive-date=2023-06-25 |access-date=2025-02-24 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The Nobel laureate and fellow Holocaust survivor [[Elie Wiesel]] said, at the time, "Primo Levi died at Auschwitz forty years later."<ref>Elie Wiesel: "Con l'incubo che tutto sia accaduto invano." ''La Stampa,'' Turin, 14 April 1987, p. 3. [http://www.archiviolastampa.it/component/option,com_lastampa/task,search/mod,libera/action,viewer/Itemid,3/page,3/articleid,0972_01_1987_0087_0003_13356602/]</ref><ref name=":2" />

However, several of Levi's friends and associates have argued otherwise. The Oxford sociologist [[Diego Gambetta]] noted that Levi left no suicide note, nor any other indication that he was considering suicide. Documents and testimony suggested that he had plans for both the short- and longer-term at the time. In the days before his death, he had complained to his physician of dizziness due to an operation he had undergone some three weeks earlier. After visiting the apartment complex, Gambetta suggested that Levi lost his balance and fell accidentally.<ref name="gambetta">{{cite journal|last=Gambetta |first=Diego |title=Primo Levi's Last Moments |journal=Boston Review |date=9 July 2012 |url=http://bostonreview.net/diego-gambetta-primo-levi-last-moments |access-date=10 April 2020}}</ref> The Nobel laureate [[Rita Levi-Montalcini]], a close friend of Levi, agreed. "As a chemical engineer," she said, "he might have chosen a better way [of exiting the world] than jumping into a narrow stairwell with the risk of remaining paralyzed."<ref name="nadkarni">{{cite news|title=Forgive, but don't forget |last=Nadkarni |first=VC |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/vedanta/forgive-but-dont-forget/articleshow/7069034.cms |work=Economic Times |access-date=6 October 2014}}</ref>