The true story of Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, a Hungarian Jew chosen by Josef Mengele to be the head pathologist at Auschwitz. Nyiszli was one of Auschwitz's Sonderkommandos - Special Squads of Jewish prisoners placed by the Nazis in the excruciating moral dilemma of helping to exterminate fellow Jews in exchange for a few more months of life. Together, the Sonderkommandos struggled to organize the only armed revolt that would ever take place at Auschwitz. As the rebellion is about to commence, a group from the unit discovers a 14-year-old girl who has miraculously survived a gassing. A catalyst for their desperate attempt at personal redemption, the men become obsessed with saving this one child, even if doing so endangers the uprising which could save thousands. To what terrible lengths are we willing to go to save our own lives, and what in turn would we sacrifice to save the lives of others? Summary written by Sujit R. Varma {sujit_varma@hotmail.com} During the Jewish Holocaust of the Second World War, as part of the genocidal "Final Solution", several death camps are established in occupied Poland to recieve, process, and extreminate the Jews of Europe. To help run this massive machinery of death, the German S.S. establishes the Jewish Sonderkommandos: special groups of prisoners who will help run the gas chambers in exchange for special privileges, unheard of by Concentration Camp standards. "The Grey Zone" thus explores the life of 12th Auschwitz Sonderkommando, up to and including a major uprising in which the Sonderkommando destroyed two gas chambers after learning that they were to be killed and replaced by a new group of prisoners.

release year: 2001

star(s): David Arquette