Where Was God In Auschwitz? - Ashley Scully

This blog reflects the article “Gray Zones: The Holocaust and the Failures of Ethics” by John K. Roth As I walked through Auschwitz II, it was apparent to me that ethics did not exist during the Holocaust. Nazis, Hitler, and bystanders did not have ethics. What happened to their ethics? Why was there an absence? As we study the Shoah closely, one realizes that it portrays the significance between right and wrong, the importance of ethical standards and conduct. Ethics serves as a structure for society; people know what they can and cannot do. But then again, one can argue that evil ideology can serve as a structure for society. Look at how organized and efficient the Nazis were under Hitler’s mission to destroy the Jewish population. The Nazi soldiers knew what they could and could not do. They could degrade Jewish prisoners but they could not help them. Given the unique case of Auschwitz and the evil ideology that served as a structure for Nazis, the Holocaust proves that ethics is vulnerable-it can be misused and easily forgotten as well. It casts a shadow over basic beliefs concerning right and wrong, human rights, and the hope that human beings will learn from the past. 

Gate of Auschwitz-Birkenau

Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi uses the term “gray zone” to refer to the “incredibly complicated internal structure” of Auschwitz which created “moral ambiguity and compromise in ways large and small.” He notes there were a number of “gray ambiguous persons, ready to compromise” because of the extreme pressure of Hitler and his ideology. It is clear that survival in Auschwitz for the Nazis meant tossing your ethics out the window. I learned in the past few days that SS men were conditioned to degrade Jewish prisoners and to show no remorse for what happened to Jewish prisoners because that was a sign of weakness; an SS men could get shot for helping a Jewish prisoner. Levi understands that everyone is a mixture of good and not so good. Therefore, there are “gray persons” that when found in a unique situation such as Auschwitz, the need to judge, especially when it is for survival (life vs. death), becomes confusing. The ethical standards that we know from the “good” part of the mixture is forgotten and compromised. I am not defending Nazis and I am not arguing that they were good people who found themselves in a complex situation and therefore we should excuse their actions. 

Group photo taken at Auschwitz-Birkenau by the blocks where Jewish prisoners slept

Levi uses an interesting quote when discussing his feelings towards the German people: “I am alive, and I would like to understand you in order to judge you.” The focus of this blog post is to understand how there were no ethics in Auschwitz; being that Nazis were the main perpetrators in the camps, I briefly focused on them to understand how they forgotten their ethics. For Levi, he judged that the Germans were not understandable because they had willingly abandoned civilization (a realm of shared rights and responsibilities, norms that govern society—ethical standards). I agree with his judgment. I still cannot understand how they abandoned their ethical standards because I have never found myself in that situation. But I cannot judge, just continue to study and aim to understand. Levi has the right to judge because he was a part of the situation and survived.

Standing on the remains of a gas chamber in Auschwitz-Birkenau