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.

A 90%/scale reproduction of the Auschwitz/Birkenau death camp was constructed near Sofia, Bulgaria, for the shooting of this film. The actual plans for the original Auschwitz camp were used to build the set.

SS-Oberscharfuhrer Eric Muhsfeldt:
I never fully despised the Jews until I experienced how easily they could be persuaded to do the work here. To do it so well. And to their own people! They'll be dead by week's end, every soul. And we'll replace them with others no different. Do you know how easy that will be?

Factual errors: In the first set of end credits listing the stars, Brian F. O'Byrne's last name is spelled "O'Bryne"; it is spelled correctly in the second set, listing the entire cast.

(1880)
Composed by Johann Strauß (as Johann Strauss)
Orchestrated and arranged by Jeff Danna and Andrew Lockington
Performed and conducted by members of the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra