the people in the “grey zone,” it is important to realize the impossible circumstances surrounding these groups of people at the time, making it extraordinarily challenging to judge, blame, or hold responsible many of the members who fall on this spectrum; most people don’t fully know how they will act in a time of crisis until that crisis has fallen upon them. Although this is true, there is also a certain level of responsibility that each person has to humankind, and should be sanctioned if that minimum level is not met, taking into account the specific circumstances. There have been many articles and papers written regarding groups of people in this middle spectrum, and makes attempts at defining them as guilty or innocent with respect
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The first group of people that he places in the gray zone is the prisoners who have managed to obtain a slight bit of rank. These are the prisoners that have been given a duty- kettle washers, lice checkers, and the like- that was rarely violent, yet a coveted position because it came with very slight, yet still present, benefits, such as an extra half-liter of soup. While this doesn’t seem like much, every little bit helps that person survive to the next day, which was largely the goal within the camp walls. Levi, if forced to judge, argues that he doesn’t blame the people in this category at all, because their “concurrence in the guilt was minimal and the coercion was of the highest degree” (44). Levi goes on to say that the judgment gets murkier as we head into the chiefs of the labor squad (kapo), the barrack chiefs, the clerks, and the prisoners turned administrative. Because these positions often had the opportunity to see more and more fully understand the lengths to which these camps were going, it is easier to try to place blame on the people who went along, and helped the regime after seeing this level. Again, however, it is important to remember that some inmates who thought that survival possibilities would even slightly increase by taking on these roles, it is very difficult to blame them for taking it. Although Levi seems to judge Chaim Rumkowski pretty harshly in this chapter for his aggressive acquisition for power, on a larger scale, Levi seems to remove himself from a place of judgment with the idea that people were doing what they needed to in order to
The first group of people that he places in the gray zone is the prisoners who have managed to obtain a slight bit of rank. These are the prisoners that have been given a duty- kettle washers, lice checkers, and the like- that was rarely violent, yet a coveted position because it came with very slight, yet still present, benefits, such as an extra half-liter of soup. While this doesn’t seem like much, every little bit helps that person survive to the next day, which was largely the goal within the camp walls. Levi, if forced to judge, argues that he doesn’t blame the people in this category at all, because their “concurrence in the guilt was minimal and the coercion was of the highest degree” (44). Levi goes on to say that the judgment gets murkier as we head into the chiefs of the labor squad (kapo), the barrack chiefs, the clerks, and the prisoners turned administrative. Because these positions often had the opportunity to see more and more fully understand the lengths to which these camps were going, it is easier to try to place blame on the people who went along, and helped the regime after seeing this level. Again, however, it is important to remember that some inmates who thought that survival possibilities would even slightly increase by taking on these roles, it is very difficult to blame them for taking it. Although Levi seems to judge Chaim Rumkowski pretty harshly in this chapter for his aggressive acquisition for power, on a larger scale, Levi seems to remove himself from a place of judgment with the idea that people were doing what they needed to in order to