greeks

In Primo Levis retelling of his experiences at Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp, he describes both the horrors and the hopes that the Jews experienced. During Levi’s time at Auschwitz, he recalls the Nazis telling them they would keep their shoes and clothing. It gave the prisoners hope that they would come out alive. However, as soon as the Nazis gave the Jews Hope, they would take it away from them, by sweeping the shoes away and taking all there clothing.

The Nazis obviously had a strategy to make the Jews seem there was some hope, even of there wasn’t. They had to give the Jews hope; otherwise they wouldn’t work and would die sooner. The Nazis made it seem that if one worked hard, then they would be rewarded.

This is where the Greeks come in. I believe that the Greeks were a ploy by the Nazis, to show Jews that the idea of “work pays off” was true. These Greek were the “few survivors” who had earned the right to live. They ran the Market in the Concentration camps. They created the illegal system of trading for clothing and food. The Nazis saw this market as a way to manipulate their ploy further. They knew what the Greeks and Jews were doing. Yet they chose not to punish people for it, except on the rare occasion, to show that they were the dominating power still. All of these things were ways to keep the Jews alive just a little while longer so that the Nazis had them to work on hard labor and to belittle their existence as well.