History of the Holocaust Involvement of prisoners in process of Life death in camps Extent to which Germans exploited labor and killing that requires the prisoners to help them Kapos prisoners of non Jewish ethnic group common criminals not German In exchange for food privilege were in charge of people for carrying out task quickly and effectively but they could be executed too Position of Routine power and a position of privilege which allows access to Black market goals Exploit position to their advantage Use power to get prisoners to do things for To survive prisoners create positions to ensure survival Example food sight worked bed smoothers Economy within camps form of resistance BUT makes the camp work smooth by making people work for one another Germans could kill prisoner for engaging in black market but allow it because they knew it contributed to the smooth working of camp Sohderkammando Always Jews used to sort property to take bodies to crematoriums Kept separate While alive given extra rations and got food from luggage Knew the most horrible details about the camps Germans knew if people like this were alive they would be witnesses Periodically shot replaced to stop this role these men play makes people speculate on the nature of Nazism Primo Levi The Grey Zone Moral corruption that the Nazis did Sonderkom impose worst tasks on others Made to make moral compromises Feeling of guilt of having survived the best all perished The worst survived Experiences in different kinds of camp Argument whether or not it was possible for prisoners to have a moral life or perspective Video Clip Richard Glazer guy transported to Treblinka forced to completely stripped naked he was about to be forced through a passageway tube into the gas chambers but an SS man who was in charge of putting together certain working groups takes Richard and is now a worker Next clip Chosen for work taken to area in part of camp where belongings of all people in camp are stacked there is a work crew of Jews that is given the task of sorting through this stuff and choosing valuables so this is Richards task and is what he s supposed to do At the end of the clip he asks this person what s going on he s been in Treblinka for 15 min he s trying to figure out what is going on the man tells him in Yiddish the people who stripped are all dead Totalitarianism and the Lager Totalitarianism is a political system where the state holds total authority over the society and seeks to control all aspects of public and private life wherever necessary Civil bonds that tie people together all this is destroyed through sheer fear terror threats etc The Nazi regime has established totalitarianism over society When Nazis came to power they got rid of other parties and unions which gave people a sense of belonging wanted to get rid of them so there is no possibility of resistance Created fear that isolated social bonds There were some instances of resistances some people who opposed certain things achieved in camps Whether or not totalitarianism was achieved in Germany it was definitely Camps create a situation where normal men do not know that everything is possible David Rousset felt these camps were an alternative universe set outside normal human society Masters of Lager master of camp had power of instant life and death They had the power to subject prisoners to utter humiliation at any time Primo Levi Survivor in Auschwitz Italian Jew transported in late 1943 he writes one of the more influential memoirs in Auschwitz he describes experience he has with work with guard etc He says there is no why here Very pessimistic Law of the Lager to he that has will be given from he that has not will be taken away Means prisoners who are desperate will be less like to break them down a prisoner who desperately wants better shoes Camps divided in two groups Providence has some kind of advantage Ground Those who did not have that little extra advantage they would become physically mentally emotionally broken Inmates worn down by hunger disease exhaustion dehumanization He will find no one to extend a helping hand on the contrary someone will knock him aside because it is in no ones interest that there will be one more mussel man dragging himself to work each day There is a kind of moral corruption Kapos the grey zone They are the typical product of the German Lager if one offers a position of privilege to a few individuals in a state of slavery exacting in exchange the betrayal of a natural solidarity with their comrades there will certainly be someone who will accept Camps dehumanize Is there still a possibility of moral interactions Simply by virtue of the fact that they survived they might have the greatest will to survive People survive because they are chosen to work Camps are places of killing and slave labor Work tempo and work environment Failure to meet quotas meant beatings quite often the case that people who were initially sent to Auschwitz were chosen to work so they would miss the initial selection for death Main points 1 People always wanted less physically demanding job 2 Role of the Kapos work experience shaped by Kapos Some of the Kapos were viscous and beat workers mercilessly for no reason some of them were corrupt if you gave them vodka they d treat you better some were considered decent Because these camps are complete organizations some jobs were created for running the camp tailors or craftsman jobs in camp kitchen or laundry Movie clip Man who gets to work in the kitchen He was honest about getting two packs of sugar this is opposite of moral corruption This guy thinks he s crazy for not keeping both packs of sugar but this gets his attention he wants to help him He helps him by sending him to talk to a man and he gets a note to work in the kitchen He meets this guy whom he had sort of known Berrick they get to talking and Berrick is a hat maker so he says you know if you can get me cloth I can make a hat and well split the proceeds with Salick benedict These men organize an arrangement in which they d sell something on the black market The black market is illegal and the Nazi s know it is one way to keep the inmates inline they were against it but still accepted it Terrence Des Pres makes the strongest argument that there is still some moral life The assumption that there was no moral or social order in the concentration camps is wrong through innumerable small acts of humanness most of them convert but