The SS would never have played against other prisoners, as they considered themselves far superior to the average inmate. The individual was whittled away and soon the part of every man that was a human was taken away as well. when writing The Drowned and the Saved, he was moved to admit that "this man's solitary death, this man's death which had been reserved for him, will bring him glory, not infamy." He describes situations in which inmates chose to sacrifice themselves to save others, as well as small acts of kindness that kept others going even when it would have been easier to be selfish. This Levi attributes to shame and feelings of guilt. On the few occasions when he mentions women (pp. Once again, the Nazis most demonic crime was to coerce victims into the role of perpetrator, to force Jews to participate in the humiliation and murder of their fellow Jews. Survivors such as Primo Levi did engage in self-blame for the tragic choices they had to make or even when they had not transgressed any moral code or principles. Levi does not spare himself: "This very book is drenched in memory . Once the victims were dead, Sonderkommando members removed and collected all items considered to be of value (including clothing, hair, and gold teeth). In 1946, Gandhi said in an interview that if he had been a Jew under the Nazis he would have committed public suicide rather than allow himself to be re-located into a ghetto.4 From this perspective, there is no question that the members of the Sonderkommandos would be condemned as collaborators and murderers. SS ritual dehumanizes newcomers and veterans treat them as competitors. Some historians believe that Levi committed suicide, overwhelmed by a penetrating sense of guilt at having survived an experience that killed so many. Themes Style Quotes Topics for Discussion. Victims would do better psychologically to hate their oppressors and leave the understanding to non-victims: One almost regrets Levi's commitment to his project of understanding the enemy (for his sake, not for ours: as readers we are only enriched by his accomplishment). Throughout the book, Levi returns to the motif of the Gray Zone, which was occupied by those prisoners who worked for the Nazis and assisted them in keeping the other prisoners in line. Indeed, as we know, many did make such choices. These events were beyond the control of the Jewish prisoners and, probably, unknown to most of them. Neither forced religious conversion nor phony confession would have saved them. . Survivors simplify the past for others to understandstark we/they, friend/enemy, good/evil divisionsbut history is complex. Print Word PDF. The Drowned and the Saved - Chapter 7, Stereotypes Summary & Analysis I would argue that, despite his enormous admiration for Levi, Todorov misreads him completely. One may absolve those who are heavily coerced and minimally guilty: functionaries who suffer with the masses but get an extra (read more from the Chapter 2, The Gray Zone Summary), Get The Drowned and the Saved from Amazon.com. The Drowned and the Saved - Preface Summary & Analysis. This Study Guide consists of approximately 34 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Drowned and the Saved. The Drowned and the Saved | Books and Culture The Drowned and the Saved - Primo Levi - Google Books By the end of his life survivor Primo Levi had become increasingly convinced that the lessons of the Holocaust were destined to be lost as. While a Kantian might condemn both his motives and his means, consequentialists are primarily interested in results, and the results in this case were more positive than they otherwise would have been. While Levi does not say that Muhsfeldt's moment of hesitation is enough to purge him of his guilt (he still deserved to be executed as a murderer), Levi does say that it is enough, however, to place him, too, although at its extreme boundary, within the gray band, that zone of ambiguity which radiates out from regimes based on terror and obsequiousness.25 I agree with Lang's conclusion that Levi decides on balance that Muhsfeldt does not belong there and concurs in the verdict of the Polish court which in 1947 condemned him to death for the atrocities he had taken part in.26 Levi believes that this was right. He goes on to say: It is not difficult to judge Muhsfeldt, and I do not believe that the tribunal which punished him had any doubts.27, No tribunal could have absolved him, nor, certainly, can we absolve him on the moral plane. The photo was taken surreptitiously from Crematorium V. USHMM, courtesy Pastwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau w Owicimiu. The Drowned and the Saved - Primo Levi - Google Books Save for his favorites, he had concern only for that remnant of the group likely to survive the ordeal of the war. He acknowledges that, using consequentialist tactics of sacrificing the weak and powerless (e.g., children) in order to save the maximum number, Rumkowski did in fact save more lives than he would have if he had instead followed the path of Czerniakw. It was their job to herd selected Jews to the gas chambers by lying to them, telling them that they were going to take showers. This memoir goes far beyond a recapitulation of the concentration camp experience. I do not believe so. Given his belief that humanity's moral nature is immutable, and that many people chose to display ordinary virtue and act intersubjectively even in the camps, he can have little use for Levi's notion of the gray zone. Morality was transformed. Jonathan Petropoulos and John K. Roth, Prologue: The Gray Zones of the Holocaust, in Petropoulos and Roth, Gray Zones, xviii. Yes, they lived under a totalitarian government that violated their rights and restricted their choices. It is an exploration of complex human responses to unimaginable trauma. dition the "gray zone." A zone where there exist gray, ambiguous persons who, "contaminated by their oppressors, unconsciously strove to identify . As Berel Lang clearly states, the concept of The Gray Zone applies to morally charged conduct in a middle ground between good and evil, right and wrong, where neither side of these pairs covers the situation and where imposing one side or the other becomes itself for Levi a moral wrong.56 Levi speaks above all of the situation of Holocaust victims, whose choices were fundamentally choiceless. The drowned, meanwhile, are those who do not organize, who pass their time thinking of home or complaining, and who quickly perish. Ethical Grey Zones - A Companion to the Holocaust - Wiley Online Library He compares this episode to the story told by the character Grushenka in The Brothers Karamazov. . In 'The Grey Zone', the second chapter and the longest essay in the book, Levi acknowledges the human need to divide the social field into 'us' and 'them . He had no concern for the individual. Again, some might argue that we should not allow Primo Levi to own the term gray zone. This expansion is neither hairsplitting nor evasive, although those charges have been raised against it. Non-victims such as Muhsfeldt had moral responsibility and deserved to be prosecuted for their actions. Chapter 7, "Stereotypes," addresses those who question why many concentration camp inmates or ghetto inhabitants did not attempt to escape or rebel, and why many German Jews remained in Germany during Hitler's ascendance. Chapter 9, The Drowned and the Saved Summary The first-person narrator becomes a "we" as Levi steps into the classic researcher role, observing from a vantage point in the future looking back at the past. "Letters from Germans" summarizes his correspondence with Germans who read his earlier books. Levi emphasizes that the tendency to think in binary terms--good/evil, right/wrong--overlooks important characteristics of human behavior, and dangerously oversimplifies: " . Bulgarian-born philosopher Tzvetan Todorov has written extensively about moral issues relating to the Holocaust, perhaps most famously in his book Facing the Extreme: Moral Life in the Concentration Camps. He is the author of Woody Allen's Angst: Philosophical Commentaries on His Serious Films (2013); Eighteen Woody Allen Films Analyzed: Anguish, God and Existentialism (2002); and Rights, Morality, and Faith in the Light of the Holocaust (2005). Most survivors come from the tiny privileged minority who get more food. He survived the experience, probably in part because he was a trained chemist and as such, useful to the Nazis. While it is certainly possible to disagree with Melson's use of the concept of the gray zone, it is worth considering. Yet, as we have seen with Todorov, it has become common to expand Levi's gray zone to include non-victims. This would have created little risk for their friends, the Zamojskis; as members of a once-noble family, they would have no trouble getting replacement papers. Abstract. This Study Guide consists of approximately 34pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - Preferably the worst survived, the selfish, the violent, the insensitive, the collaborators of the gray zone, the spies.44, Todorov disagrees. This choice could lead to a secular salvation.15. Does Levi really mean to suggest in this haunting passage that we all exist in the gray zone nowthat none of us deserves to be judged morally because our current situation is indistinguishable from that of the Jewish victims in the ghettos and death camps? . In his landmark book The Drowned and the Saved (first published in 1986), Primo Levi introduced the notion of a moral "gray zone." The author of this essay re-examines Levi's use of the term. Levi details how prisoners learned new ways of communication, especially between those who did not share a common language. For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription. Is Browning's discussion an appropriate use of Levi's gray zone? Indeed, for Kant, even to consider the results of one's actions is inappropriate. Levi uses the example of a soccer game played between the SS and the members of the Sonderkommandos. In his book The Question of German Guilt, first published in German in 1947 and in English-language translation in 1948, Karl Jaspers suggests a framework for evaluating German responsibility. The intersubjective act, on the other hand, establishes a relationship between two or more individuals. One can give these two categories different names. My act will prove to everyone what is the right thing to do.12 Here he acted in accordance with the deontological approach, refusing to collaborate with evil no matter what the consequences. Browning examines the strategies used by Jewish prisoners to survive; he finds, not surprisingly, that those willing to exploit the corruption of the German guards and managers had the best chance. The Drowned and the Saved Irony These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. This condition did not apply to perpetrators or bystanders. Perhaps the most difficult and controversial use of the notion of the gray zone appears in Levi's discussion of SS-Oberscharfhrer Eric Muhsfeldt. Under Bentham's Utilitarian Principle, one should act to bring the greatest amount of pleasure to the greatest number of people while inflicting the least amount of harm to the least number of people.