Extremely Upsetting

Levi’s describes the “most demonic crime” to be the transfer of guilt from those in power to their victims. The SS was capable of imposing the guilt they felt for their crimes against humanity onto the prisoners of war, and especially the Jews, by forcing them to participate in the dirty work of the Lagers. Known as “crematorium ravens,” these victims ran the gas chambers; they were to kill and dispose of their fellow victims. By transferring these jobs to the victims, the SS did not have to take as much of a part in the murdering of thousands upon thousands of people, thus feeling less guilty about their role in mass extermination. Not only did this process absolve them from guilt, but it proved their power over the victims that much more. “We, the master race, are your destroyers, but you are no better than we are; if we so wish, and we do so wish, we can destroy not only your bodies but also your souls, just as we have destroyed ours” (53-54). By far that is perhaps one of the most disturbing statements I have ever read. The purposeful and forced degradation of a person’s soul is the “most demonic crime.” The fact that the SS knew the crimes they were committing were despicable and still decided to drag more people down with them is horrible. It is the most extreme corruption of power. And what is more disgusting is that the SS basically embraced those prisoner and Jews who were forced to murder their own kind. Once they had become as “inhuman” as the SS, they were equals, as exemplified by the soccer match described by Levi. One’s debasement of another’s soul, just to justify his lack of one, is deplorable, in that he is removing one’s choice to protect the soul that most find to be sacred. Even if one does not believe in a heaven, how can he live with himself on earth when he is force to commit acts of terror on his own kind?