Gray Zones and <span class='italic'>Sonderkommandos</span>: Power and Morality in Auschwitz–Birkenau and Other National Socialist Concentration Camps

doi:10.1017/9781108900447.016

13 - Gray Zones and Sonderkommandos: Power and Morality in Auschwitz–Birkenau and Other National Socialist Concentration Camps

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 May 2025

Imke Hansen

Edited by

Marion Kaplan and

Natalia Aleksiun

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Marion Kaplan: Affiliation:
New York University
Natalia Aleksiun: Affiliation:
University of Florida

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Summary

This chapter investigates what Primo Levi called the space “which separates the victims from the persecutors.” It uses historical examination, an anthropological approach to morality, and a historiographical review of writing to assess such “gray zones.” These can include stealing food, the role of Jewish physicians, the Sonderkommandos, or decisions made by prisoner functionaries.

Keywords

victims persecutors morality ethics SS green triangles red triangles Auschwitz physicians hospital Sonderkommando (special commando)Sonderbehandlung (special treatment)

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of the Holocaust , pp. 218 - 232

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108900447.016 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2025

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