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What Is The Grey Zone By Primo Levi Survival In Auschwitz Chapter Summary

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Primo Levi’s book, Survival in Auschwitz, examines the inhumane and brutal treatment of the prisoners in Auschwitz inflicted by the Schutzstaffel. Primo Levi was a twenty-four-year-old, chemist whose only crime was that he was Jewish. He, like so many other innocent Jews, was sent to die in Auschwitz. In the his book, Levi, examines the different characteristics and traits that he and the other survivors had that set them apart from the other prisoners and ultimately attributed to their survival. In the essay, “The Gray Zone” Levi focuses on the relationships in the lager, and the roles assigned to the prisoners by the Nazis. The grey zone refers to the ranking of the prisoners inside the lager. Levi analysis the conditions the prisoners were put it in, in order to completely lose their humanity and harm others to get ahead. The essay serves the purpose of analyzing the different lives the “privileged” and “nonprivileged” prisoners led in the camp. Only a very small percentage of the prisoners were “privileged” but after reading the book, it is clear that a lot of the prisoners who did survive were considered to be privileged. This is an important fact to consider how the men survived. Levi does not share these stories to …show more content…

The story of this prisoner is quite ironic. Elias was a strange man, a dwarf with an incredibly strong body. He had an amazing work ethic that even the nazis admired. While the other prisoners struggled to carry “ one bag of cement, Elias carried two, then three, then four.” (Levi 96) Elias, worked like no-body else in the lager. “His fame as an exceptional worker spread quite soon, and by the absurd law of the Lager, from then on he practically ceased to work” (Levi 97). Elias was a strange man, if not for the war, he would surely be confined in an asylum. Levi can not imagine Elias living in a free society. The only thing that kept Elias alive in the camps was his

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