History Film / TheGreyZone

* LaResistance: The Sonderkommandos are planning an uprising from within the Crematoria to destroy the largest furnaces and reduce the death camp's killing potential. Poles in the countryside smuggled the gunpowder needed be the rebels into the camp.

* EuphemismBuster: Muhsfeldt tells the ''Sonderkommando'' of Crematorium IV that the guards are planning on "moving" them soon to give them a "reprieve". Everyone involved knows what that really means. Rosenthal says that they would much rather continue their work. Muhsfeldt says it's not up to him--the decision has been already been made by the camp directorate.

* EuphemismBuster: Muhsfeldt tells the ''Sonderkommando'' of Crematorium IV that the guards are planning on "moving" them soon to give them a "reprieve". Everyone involved knows what that really means. Rosenthal says that they would much rather continue their work. Mushfeldt says it's not up to him--the decision has been already been made by the camp directorate.

* BerserkButton: Hoffman tries to get an expensive watch off a middle-aged Jewish man. The man refuses and struggles, perfectly aware that he's being sent to his death, but what really sets off Hoffman on his NoHoldsBarredBeatdown is when the unnamed man calls him a Nazi. Hoffman is a ''Sonderkommando'' who is [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse forced to work in the crematoria under threat of death]] and knows he is on [[YourDaysAreNumbered borrowed time]] anyway. It's inconceivable for the Nazis to include a Jew into their ranks.

* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Out of frustration, Hoffman beats a new arrival to death in front of the gas chambers to get his expensive watch. The beating is [[ViolenceIsDisturbing prolongued, realistically brutal, and graphic]]. Afterwards, a smug SS guard takes the watch and [[KickTheDog mockingly gives it to Hoffman]].

* HeroOfAnotherStory: The film follows the Hungarian Sonderkommando of Crematorium IV. The Polish inmates at Creematorium II are also a presence, and planning to escape after their sabotage, but remain almost entirely off-screen throughout the film.

* TranslationConvention: The characters are understood to be speaking either German or Hungarian, but all the dialogue is in English (although the Germans get thick accents). At one point Oberscharführer Muhsfeldt becomes angry that the prisoners start speaking Hungarian to each other to hide something from him while all the actors are in fact speaking the same language.

* HistoricalUglinessUpdate: Josef Mengele is portrayed as a balding middle-aged man. In real life, he was quite good-looking and he would've been in his early thirties at the time this movie takes place. His nickname "The Angel of Death" was a direct reference to [[FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon his inner morality clashing with his outward appearance]]. This makes it difficult even for history buffs to identify him, since he only appears in person once and isn't addressed by name (and no, Mengele wasn't the only MadDoctor in Auschwitz). He isn't identified until Muhsfeldt making a passing reference to Mengele much later.

* HistoricalUglinessUpdate: Josef Mengele is portrayed as a balding middle-aged man. In real life, he was quite good-looking and he would've been in his early thirties at the time this movie takes place. His nickname "The Angel of Death" was a direct reference to [[FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon his inner morality clashing with his outward appearance]].

* LesCollaborateurs: Subverted by the Sonderkommando.

* HeroicSuicide: A female prisoner runs into an electrified fence to keep the guards from shooting more of her friends unless she gives them the information they want. Her friend shoots herself after grabbing a guard's gun to the same thing after this.

* SuicideAttack: Many of the Sonderkommando blow themselves up detonating the explosive to destroy the crematorium, and they are fine with that. Most [[DeathSeeker wanted to die]] as a result of being broken by their work.

* HeroicSuicide: A female prisoner runs into an electrified fence to keep the guards from shooting more of her friends unless she gives them the information they want.

* IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure: The Nazis resort to interrogating a female prisoner who smuggled in powder for the upcoming uprising of the Sonderkommandos by lining up all the other prisoners and shooting the women one by one unless she talks. The SS interrogator threatens to clean the entire block out and move on to the next one until she cooperates, [[spoiler:but she kills herself by running into the electrified fence when they prepare to shoot a teenage girl.]]

* LaResistance: Poles in the countryside smuggled the gunpowder needed b the rebels into the camp.

* LaResistance: The Sonderkommandos are planning an uprising from within the Crematoria to destroy the largest furnaces and reduce the death camp's killing potential.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: 2 of the crematoria are destroyed in the uprising, but all the Sonderkommando and the girl they tried to save are executed.]]

* DarkerAndEdgier: ''The Grey Zone'' is Darker and Edgier... ''[[ExaggeratedTrope for a Holocaust film]]''. While films about the topic all depict the unimaginable human suffering of that period, most (such as ''Film/SchindlersList'', ''Film/ThePianist'', or ''Film/EscapeFromSobibor'') also try to portray a narrative of courage and hope amidst all that horror, with at least some characters managing to survive against all odds. This film takes place entirely in Auschwitz, focusing on the prisoners who were forced to assist the Nazis by disposing of the bodies, making the protagonists much more morally ambiguous than is typical. It ends with [[KillEmAll almost every character of note dying]], and most of their efforts throughout the film either resulting in a rather minor victory (half the crematoria remain after the uprising, and the death industry continues) or simply [[ShootTheShaggyDog rendered pointless]] (the little girl they tried to save, who's killed by Oberscharführer Muhsfeldt after a HopeSpot).

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:Only the Nazis and the Jewish Dr. Nyiszli survive the events of the uprising.]]

* INeedAFreakingDrink: Oberscharführer Muhsfeldt drinks excessively to deal with the horrors he oversees at Auschwitz. He denies it, claiming that he doesn't have any problems with killing the Jews and that all of his problems stem from his alcoholism, which he says is unrelated to his work.

* HistoricalBeautyUpdate: Inverted. Josef Mengele is portrayed as a balding middle-aged man. In real life, he was quite good-looking and he would've been in his early thirties at the time this movie takes place. His nickname "The Angel of Death" was a direct reference to [[FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon his inner morality clashing with his outward appearance]].

* {{Courier}}: Hesch, who relays messages about when to move between the Hungarians of Crematorium IV and the Poles of Crematorium II.