forced labor

In the middle of The Gray Zone, Primo Levi addresses the worst crime committed by the Nazis. In death camps such as Auschwitz, prisoners were made to work in “special squad” where they sorted trains of incoming people. While this was advantageous since they were not being sent to the gas chambers, they were duped into committing horrible crimes to their fellow man often without knowing it. Often, these special “SS” squads were made to herd people into the showers and sort their clothing and shoes without ever knowing what was actually going to happen with them. Part of these squads were also used to staff the crematoria. They were told to remove items such as gold teeth and sort the valuables from luggage. While the very act of systematically killing other human beings may seem like the most heinous crime described by Levi, it remains second to the use of these special squads. Making a person terminate the lives of others in order to preserve their own lives is one of the worst crimes. Being forced to clean the ashes of friends, family, and acquaintances from ovens is something no person should never have to face. In the same strain, Levi mentions a supreme doctor who was made to work for Mengele. The act of forcing a person to kill others and help their enemies in order to preserve their own life qualifies as the most heinous crime of the Holocaust.