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Ordinary Men Or Ordinary Germans

             Christopher Browning writes a detailed history of the soldiers of the German Reserve Police Battalion 101 and their role in the mass murder of Jews in Poland during the Second World War in his book, Ordinary Men. He argues that many factors contributed to these men participating in mass murder, however he concludes that obedience to authority and inclusion in the group were the two most important causes. While his argument is well written and is partially true, it is not convincing. Browning has been criticized by other historians who believe that his characterization of the men in Reserve Police Battalion 101 should not be "ordinary men," but rather "ordinary Germans." Browning fails to acknowledge that these men were a product of a unique society, ignoring the effect that perpetual anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda had on them. The historians" characterization of the men in Battalion 101 as "ordinary Germans" is key to understanding how these average men could be motivated to commit mass murder.
             Christopher Browning accounts for the actions of Reserve Police Battalion 101 in Poland and the role which individual soldiers played in the mass murder of Jews during the "Final Solution." As he notes in the beginning of the book, "the Holocaust took place because at the most basic level individual human beings killed other human beings in large numbers over an extended period of time. The grass-roots perpetrators became "professional killers.""(Browning xvii) Browning details the Reserve Police Battalion 101 from their organization in Hamburg through their introduction to mass murder, and finally to their development into the professional killers. The majority of the book tells the story of the middle-aged German soldiers based on their own testimony from legal proceedings well after World War II had ended. The most important chapter to this study is the final one in which Browning attempts to explain the motivation of ordinary citizens to become killers.


Essays Related to Ordinary Men Or Ordinary Germans

1. Ordinary Men

... reassigned to organize the male working Jews who were to be escorted to Lublin. One of the officers, Sergeant Steinmetz, warned his men that, "he didn't want to see any cowards." (Browning, 56) Even with this statement, 10 or 12 men stepped out of line and were told to await further instructions from the major. (Browning, 57) The orders that were given for ... officers wanted the killings to happen in unison, so that everyone shot their guns at the same time, but this did not happen because of resistance by a Jew or by a man missing the victim, or only wounding them instead of killing t...

  • Word Count: 2324
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Ordinary Men

... reassigned to organize the male working Jews who were to be escorted to Lublin. One of the officers, Sergeant Steinmetz, warned his men that, "he didn't want to see any cowards." (Browning, 56) Even with this statement, 10 or 12 men stepped out of line and were told to await further instructions from the major. (Browning, 57) The orders that were given for ... officers wanted the killings to happen in unison, so that everyone shot their guns at the same time, but this did not happen because of resistance by a Jew or by a man missing the victim, or only wounding them instead of killing t...

  • Word Count: 2170
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Odinary Men To Japaness Soldier

... This ranges from persecution, certain death, or to begin made to mobilize to help one country's war effort. In Brown's Ordinary men he shows in detail the sequence of events and individual reactions which may turn ordinary men into killers. To understand where the story of these so-called "ordinary men" there must be an in-depth ... to accumulate natural resources and also expand their empire. These are the same issues that fueled Hitler's invasion of other European nations. Just like the Germans mistreatment of the Jews, the Japanese treated the inhabitants of Manchuria with the same dis...

  • Word Count: 1746
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

4. the germans vs. the jews

... they pick the Jews? What made the average German man lift himself to a higher rank than the Jewish man and how could ordinary Germans co-operate with Hitler's genocide in such a mind-numbing manner? Quite honestly it all baffles me. The crimes are so inhumane that is hard ... was different. Previous anti-Semitism had been based upon religious convictions such as the axiom that Jews were responsible for killing Jesus Christ with schooled men such as Martin Luther leading the cause. It was then believed however that one could be "cured- and via baptism a Jew could enter ... to accept Hitler...

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5. Ordinary Men

... these atrocities in Poland during the war, from shooting innocent men, women, and children to clearing out the ghettos of all Jews and forcing them to board the trains to the concentration camps. I agree with the author about how a group of "Ordinary Men" could become mass murderers. The story goes on the give ... us insight into the answer by investigating the background of these men. What I have learned is that these men were mostly middle aged, working class men with little or no advanced schooling. They were old enough to have ... the whole of events that was taking place. I was par...

  • Word Count: 959
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6. Italy And The Holocaust

... as a weapon against British motives in the eastern Mediterranean. It seems clear, sifting through the evidence, that the Jews were no ordinary people for Mussolini - he could love or hate them, admire or slander them, but he never managed, as so many of his countrymen did, to take them for granted. After Mussolini s ... in North Africa, and soon took over Greece, where Italians had been bogged down for several months. Mussolini in turn sent 200,000 men to fight beside the Germans on the Russian front in June. Of these, 115,000 were killed, 60,000 were taken prisoner, and those who made th...

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  • Approx Pages: 19
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

7. Memiors of War

... support. 157 falls ill "leaves front line.. "Thus from August 10, 1914, to January 5, 1915, I led a life as different as possible from my ordinary existence: a life at once barbarous, violent, often colorful, also often of a dreary monotony combined with bits of comedy and moments of grim tragedy. In five months ... that by some fortunate reflex, death ceases to appear very terrible the moment it seems close: it is this, ultimately , that explains ourage. Most men dread going under fire, and especially returning to it. Once thre, thowever, they no longer tremble.""166 Above all they are...

  • Word Count: 3539
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8. Holocaust

... for more, but the tour had to continue. I moved on to the Holocaust tour. What I learned about the Holocaust was all new to me. The Germans felt that it was the Jews fault for them losing WWI. They were looking for a scapegoat to blame their troubles on. The Nazi's, created by Adolf Hitler ... , believed that fair-haired, blue-eyed men were superior to all others. Newspapers printed lies that the Jews were conspiring to overthrow any form of legitimate government. Adolf Hitler wrote a book titled ... weren't allowed to have sexual relations with those who weren't Jews. The Vatican even r...

  • Word Count: 2208
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Maus

... the Holocaust was carried out. Most textbooks do not describe how Germans became Nazi's. Browning collected research from testimonies of Nazis after the war. Ordinary Men principally follows the Police Battalion 101. This battalion is a good example of ordinary working class, family men of Germany chosen to carry out several essential duties in the ... distant the Jews were, in most cases, it was easier for the members to carry out their duties without feeling remorse or guilt. Spieglman's Maus book shows the other side of the Holocaust, the victims. Spieglman in contrast to Browning is ...

  • Word Count: 1449
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

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