Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland

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A fascinating book on the role of ordinary policemen in the holocaust. Based on testimony given in the 1960s the author draws out the way in which these men approached and dealt with the systematic murder of Jews in Poland.

Ordinary Men Quotes by Christopher R. Browning - Goodreads Ordinary Men Quotes by Christopher R. Browning - Goodreads

Lccn 91050471 Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.17 Openlibrary OL1566486M Openlibrary_edition Here we come full circle to the mutually intensifying effects of war and racism noted by John Dower, in conjunction with the insidious effects of constant propaganda and indoctrination. Pervasive racism and the resulting exclusion of the Jewish victims from any common ground with the perpetrators made it all the easier for the majority of the policemen to conform to the norms of their immediate community (the battalion) and their society at large (Nazi Germany). Here the years of anti-Semitic propaganda (and prior to the Nazi dictatorship, decades of shrill German nationalism) dovetailed with the polarizing effects of war. The dichotomy of racially superior Germans and racially inferior Jews, central to Nazi ideology, could easily merge with the image of a beleaguered Germany surrounded by warring enemies.”What, then, is one to conclude? Most of all, one comes away from the story of Reserve Police Battalion 101 with great unease. This story of ordinary men is not the story of all men. The reserve policemen faced choices, and most of them committed terrible deeds. But those who killed cannot be absolved by the notion that anyone in the same situation would have done as they did. For even among them, some refused to kill and others stopped killing. Human responsibility is ultimately an individual matter.”

Ordinary Men as Holocaust Perpetrators - Department of Ordinary Men as Holocaust Perpetrators - Department of

At the same time, however, the collective behavior of Reserve Police Battalion 101 has deeply disturbing implications. There are many societies afflicted by traditions of racism and caught in the siege mentality of war or threat of war. Everywhere society conditions people to respect and defer to authority, and indeed could scarcely function otherwise. Everywhere people seek career advancement. In every modern society, the complexity of life and the resulting bureaucratization and specialization attenuate the sense of personal responsibility of those implementing official policy. Within virtually every social collective, the peer group exerts tremendous pressures on behavior and sets moral norms. If the men of Reserve Battalion 101 could become killers under such circumstances, what group of men cannot?” The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939– March 1942 (with contributions by Jürgen Matthäus). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-803-25979-4 OCLC 52838928

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Browning places so much weight on peer pressure as the main motivation for these gruesome mass murders. He fails to understand how much anti-Jewish propaganda dehumanized and demonized, Jews. Browning claims that these men were not deeply anti-Semitic, simply because they themselves claim this while they were under criminal investigation. Yet, these same policemen lived in Nazi Germany under Hitler, Himmler, and Goebbel. A. Dirk Moses (2004), Genocide and Settler Society: Frontier Violence and Stolen Indigenous Children..., Berghahn Books (Google Print), p.260. ISBN 1571814108