Christopher Browning describes how the Reserve Police Battalion 101, like the rest of German society, was immersed in a deluge of racist and anti-Semitic propaganda. Browning describes how the Order Police provided indoctrination both in basic training and as an ongoing practice within each unit. Many of the members were not prepared for the killing of Jews. The author examines the reasons some of the police members did not shoot. The physiological effect of isolation, rejection, and ostracism is examined in the context of being assigned to a foreign land with a hostile population. The contradictions imposed by the demands of conscience on the one hand and the norms of the battalion on the other are discussed.

Ordinary Men provides a graphic portrayal of Police Battalion 101's involvement in the Holocaust. The major focus of the book focuses on reconstruction of the events this group of men participated in. According to Browning, the men of Police Battalion 101 were just that--ordinary. They were five hundred middle-aged, working-class men of German descent. A majority of these men were neither Nazi party members nor members of the S.S. They were also from Hamburg, which was a town that was one of the least occupied Nazi areas of Germany and, thus, were not as exposed to the Nazi regime. These men were not self-selected to be part of the order police, nor were they specially selected because of violent characteristics. These men were plucked from their normal lives, put into squads, and given the mission to kill Jews because they were the only people available for the task. Surprisingly, these ordinary men proved to be completely capable of killing tens of thousands of people. In fact, their capacity to murder was so great, they overwhelmingly surpassed the expectations of even the Nazi leaders.

This book was very informative and compelling as it showed a believable depiction of the atrocities of genocide throughout the Holocaust. The book revealed truths such as these policemen were given many opportunities to get out of killing Jews. However, many did not take the opportunity to walk away and instead committed themselves to becoming specialized experts in the "resettlement" of Jews. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the Holocaust and the reasons why many of these men became killers.

Walter S. Zapotoczny Jr.
Freelance Writer
Author of For the Fatherland

This work is primarily about the role of "ordinary" middle-aged German citizens in the murder of Jews. To his credit, and unlike most educational Holocaust materials, Browning does not limit himself to a purely Judeocentric approach to the Holocaust. For example, he also discusses the role of Battalion 101 in the murder of considerable numbers of Polish Christians.

Browning is also careful to screen-out attempts by the German killers to shift the blame for their criminal actions on the Poles: "...the greater the share of Polish guilt, the less remained on the German side." (p. 155). He is also irked by the newfound morality among the German defendants relative to wartime Polish conduct: "The same cannot be said for most others who accused the Poles of `betrayal', never mentioning that it was German policy to recruit such people and reward such behavior." (p. 156).

All in all, Browning departs from the usual simplistic anti-Polish bias of much popular-level Holocaust material. Charges are sometimes leveled about Poles killing Jews, and these accusations are made in a complete contextual vacuum of the actual events. In his FEAR, for example, Jan T. Gross has quoted Browning on Polish killings of fugitive Jews, while leaving out the reason for this conduct. Browning wrote: "Many other Poles volunteered information about Jews in the woods who had stolen food from nearby fields, farms, and villages in their desperate attempt to stay alive." (p. 126). However, Browning could have added that the German policies had reduced the food rations of Polish gentiles to near-starvation levels, so the Poles ALSO faced a "desperate attempt to stay alive." Not surprisingly, Poles saw robbery as a life-and-death matter, and the widely-disseminated German propaganda that portrayed fugitive Jews as bandits (who should be denounced or liquidated) found credibility among parts of the Polish peasantry.

Jan T. Gross, in the wake of the Jedwabne "revelation", has quoted Browning as evidence for the eagerness of Poles to kill Jews. It was the exact opposite. The Germans found so few Poles willing to kill Jews that they were forced to turn to other eastern European nationalities and to bring them on Polish soil. Browning wrote: "Unable to satisfy his manpower needs out of local resources, Globocnik prevailed upon Himmler to recruit non-Polish auxiliaries from the Soviet border regions. The key person on Globocnik's Operation Reinhard staff for this task was Karl Streibel. He and his men visited the POW camps and recruited Ukrainian, Latvian, and Lithuanian `volunteers' (Hilfswillige, or Hiwis)..." (p. 52). Also note that: "...large units of murderous auxiliaries--the notorious Hiwis--were not recruited from the Polish population..." (p. 158).

However, the acts of non-Germans in the Holocaust should not be exaggerated. The Holocaust was a uniquely German invention and project, and such things as locals' anti-Semitism and degree of collaboration played a small role in the degree of German success in exterminating the local Jewish population. See the Peczkis review of The Holocaust and the Crisis of Human Behavior.

Despite the wartime privations, many Poles did sacrificially assist the fugitive Jews. The men of Battalion 101 seldom mentioned the latter, but Browning corrects this bias (p. 155), and points out the systematic German murder of Poles who aided Jews. (pp. 156-157).

I read this book along with Klempner's The Heart Has Reasons: Holocaust Rescuers and Their Stories of Courage for an adult extension course and found them both to be excellent. Browning's book is truly chilling in large part because he is so levelheaded in presenting the facts. Rather than histrionics, he understates the case, simply recounting what happened when and inferring why. The big question the book poses--how could these ordinary men, these career military officers, many of whom also served in WWI, have turned into coldblooded killers ready to shoot innocent people in the back of the head and let them fall into graves they were forced to dig themselves. Browning doesn't presume to have all the answers but he presents a strong case for his interpretation. I was relieved to read Klempner's book afterwards (which, by the way, has a foreward by Browning) because Browning's book was pretty damn depressing. Reading about the righteous gentiles at least offered a glimmer that some people, at least, are good and are able to employ critical thinking against unjust authority.

Outstanding book recommended by one of my former professors at Purdue University. An in-depth study of what makes ordinary men, tailors, electricians, police men, and other join a reserve military in pre-war Germany and are called to active duty, then piece by piece transformed into cold blooded killers. They were normal men, husbands, fathers, brothers.

How do they celebrate their military service in their later years? How do they look at their awards with pride? This is a great book for the World War Two historian!

Insofar as Holocaust literature is concerned, Browning's account of the men ordered to round up and execute the Polish Jewry paints a more personal picture of the men of Police Battalion 101. In fairly explicit detail, Browning not only describes the killings, but the trauma endured by the men of the Reserve Battalion. Arguing against Daniel Goldhagen's thesis in Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust, Browning makes a solid and well-documented case against his fellow Holocaust scholar, showing that these men were palpably unwilling.

Originally, Browning set out on a path to uncover the mechanisms behind the logistics of the world's most technologically and bureaucratically administered genocide - a task taken up by another historian, Raul Hilberg. Instead, in the archives of the Central Agency for the State Administrations of Justice in Stuttgart, Browning found a "rich collection of testimonies [...] which had a 'feel' or candor and frankness" (Browning 1998: xvi-xvii) unlike that of other court records. What followed was a deviation from his original intention and the subsequent opening of a historical debate, which attracted large amounts of scholarly attention.

Dedicated to historian structuralist, Raul Hilberg, whose path-breaking work, The Destruction of the European Jews presents with clinical precision the changes in the laws and the administrative side of the Nazi regime, Browning's piece complements Hilberg's - almost seamlessly. Browning's portrayal slots in the human side of a handful of pawns that carried out the dirty work of National Socialism's bureaucratic apparatus, thus completing yet another small piece of the ostensibly never-ending Holocaust puzzle.

This is a no-nonsense book that presents in clear and concise language an account of how a group of older seasoned German soldiers, many of whom fought in WWI, became acclimated to the then-new Nazi regime and gradually adopted its aims and "ideals" as their own--including the "ideal" of purging the world of "impure races." Without grandstanding or any histrionic language, Browning follows these men as they begin to commit atrocities and become more and more jaded and numb so as to commit even greater atrocities. Soon they are shooting innocent Jews in the back of the head as they fall into graves that they themselves had to dig, and then these good German soldiers go home for the weekend to attend church and have pleasant times with their families. It's disturbing and thought-provoking, and something, of course, we all need to think about--lest we repeat the past in some nightmarish future.

To read about the flip side of the coin--people who risked their lives to rescue those innocent people the Germans were intent on killing because they were Jewish, I recommend The Heart Has Reasons: Holocaust Rescuers and Their Stories of Courage by Mark Klempner, which contains a short foreward by Browning.

~Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland~ is a fascinating, albeit morbid tome. Browning's book is an historical inquiry into the motivations of the perpetrators of the Holocaust of Jews in Poland during the Second World War. Browning concerned himself not only with factual recollection and the experiences of those who endured and perpetrated the Holocaust, but also undergoes an intensive examination of the historiographic methodologies surrounding the Holocaust.

Browning's focus was to ascertain how a group of ordinary middle-aged men from Hamburg, Germany, adapted themselves to the task of committing mass-murder. Not all of these men were even imbued with a pre-war Anti-Semitism. Browning essentially argued that the men of Police Batallion 101 committed murder out of a basic sense of obedience to state authority as well as peer pressure. It was not so much a pathological hatred of Jews or a wanton desire for bloodlust to commit such barbaric acts. Browning drew his investigation primarily from the accounts of 210 men subjected to Allied interrogations, as the Allies prepared for the Nuremberg war crimes trial. Browning called for the scholar to exercise detachment and objectivity, and not poison the historical inquiry with invective argumentation and rhetoric that demonizes the men responsible for such grave misdeeds. "The policemen in the battalion who carried out the massacres and deportations, like the much smaller number who refused or evaded, were human beings." Under certain circumstances, Browning, admits he could have been in the shoes of those soldiers, and compelled to act either as an evader or complicit executioner. This recognition does not attempt to give sanction or excuse such moral depravity or complicity however.

The Nazi establishment was mindful that many men were not predisposed to killing on an arbitrary whim. Man innately has strong moral qualms about killing more often than not. In one instance cited by Browning, men of the Reserve Batallion were given the option of opting out of their murderous assignment. After Trapp (the commander of the battalion) explained the brutal nature of the assignment, "he made his extraordinary offer: any of the older men who did not feel up to the task that lay before them could step out. Trapp paused, and after some moments one from Third Company, Otto-Julius Schimke, stepped forward." One soldier Hoffman insulted and berated Schimke, but Trapp intervened on his behalf and had taken Schmike (the man who stepped out) under his protection, some ten or twelve other men stepped forward as well. They turned in their rifles and were told to await a further assignment from the major." Shortly thereafter, orders were relayed down the chain of command, and the Reserve Battalion 101 had the ignominious task of rounding up Jews in a Polish village for deportation, crushing all resistance and escapees with shooting squads. Those too young, sick or frail to move were to be summarily executed as well. The irony is that some officers handing down orders did not have the stomach to be on the scene of the atrocities. In following their orders, some asked to be removed from duty after killing three, four, five or six people, as they gained moral scruples about committing such misdeeds. Others milled around on the sidelines in hopes of getting passed over when the shooting squads were assembled. They faced no significant punishment, maybe mild ostracism from an officer, when they refused and asked to be removed from killing duties. One policeman cynically reported, "Major Trapp was never there. Instead he remained in Józefów because he allegedly could not bear the sight. We men were upset about that and said we couldn't bear it either." Trapp was so upset that he was spotted `weeping on the path from the marketplace to the forest.' Trapp lamented that if "If this Jewish business is ever avenged on earth, then have mercy on us Germans." Here we see a grave reservation about the calamity, but a fundamental lack of moral wherewithal to stand in opposition to his orders.

Accounts based on the policemen's testimony are emphatic that no infants or small children were shot during this time, in spite of the orders. One soldier Hagen, Trapp's adjutant had the task of choosing life-and-death for Jews as he assembled the selection of "work Jews" to be detained and sent to concentration camps.

In his book Hitler's Willing Executioners, Daniel Goldhagen advanced an extraordinary accusation against the German people incidental to his Holocaust research. Goldhagen tacitly alluded to a prevalent, deep-rooted 'eternal Anti-Semitism,' and by implication it was not ignited by the Nazi Party, but merely aggravated and emphasized. This simplistic interpretation faces a number of problems on ethical, historical and moral grounds. For starters, the idea that Anti-Semitism is 'eternal' and so deeply etched into the psyche of Germans, or Europeans, or all Gentiles might as well beg the question: do Jews do something to provoke it? Consummate Anti-Semites have jumped with joy when those like Goldhagen posit such trifling notions as an 'eternal Anti-Semitism.'

Christopher Browning dedicated the afterward to his book to a lengthy response and rebuttal to the bitter critiques of Daniel Goldhagen directed at Ordinary Men. Goldhagen maintained that Anti-Semitism "more or less governed the ideational life of civil society" in Weimar Germany, and in the early periods of German history prior to the ascent of the Nazis. Hitler's ascendancy invigorated it, but "the centrality of anti-Semitism in the Party's worldview, program, and rhetoric... mirrored the sentiments of German culture." In contrast, Browning explained that Goldhagen sees the Nazi regime "merely as allowing or encouraging Germans to do what they wanted to do all along and not basically shaping German attitudes and behavior after 1933." But whimsically reeducation and bans on Anti-Semitism in the post-1945, post-war settlement, somehow Anti-Semitism disappears in the Goldhagen summation. On this point and others, Browning illustrated Goldhagen's inconsistency. Goldhagen's eternal Anti-Semitism notion underscored his Holocaust historiography, and Goldhagen carried a sensationalist tone. For Goldhagen, ordinary Germans, "equipped with little more than the cultural notions current in Germany" prior to the Nazi ascendancy to power "wanted to be genocidal executioners." It was deep rooted unconscious desire apparently. They "wanted to be genocidal executioners" of Jews. They "slaked their Jewish blood-lust" with "gusto"; they had "fun"; they killed "for pleasure."

Browning was more deferential to conventional explanations, though is not reductionist in surmising that they are the only explanations for the willingness of ordinary Germans to commit such extraordinary crimes. He cited a German propensity to follow orders, and attributes ascertained by behavioral psychologists (i.e., deference to authority, adaptation of roles given particular circumstances, peer pressure and the desire to conform to it, et al.) Goldhagen's efforts to attack these conventional explanations seem lampoonish. Goldhagen claimed Germans were only apt to be deferential to what they deem to be legitimate authority, (as if in following the orders of Nazi Germany, they did not recognize it as a legitimate authority. The argument falls apart on the face of its absurd counter-intuitive logic.) Browning persuasively countered, "It was precisely the Nazis' demolition of democracy and the restoration of an authoritarian political system, emphasizing communal obligations over individual rights, that gave them legitimacy and popularity among significant segments of the German population."

Browning added, "The social-psychological approach does not assume, as Goldhagen claims that the perpetrators' ideology, moral values, and conception of the victims do not matter. But the approach is certainly not congenial to the simplistic reduction of the perpetrators' ideology, moral values, and conception of the victim to a single factor such as Anti-Semitism." Browning granted that historical context is important in efforts of a state-regime to compel acts of obedience to commit 'crimes' more or less.

But fundamentally, Goldhagen failed to refute the more conventional explanations for the willingness of ordinary men to commit such extraordinary crime. The innate or eternal Anti-Semitism attributed to Germans isn't a sufficient explanation of their willingness to become barbarians. Browning concluded rather humbly that Goldhagen's explanations do not suffice. Browning surmised that more probable explanations are the reality of human depravity coupled with the de-legitimization of personal responsibility for individual actions that mass-regimes or statist systems can inculcate in their efforts to "induce `ordinary men' to become their `willing executioners.'" His explanations seem reasonable.

All things considered, Christopher Browning's book Ordinary Men is an insightful, albeit depressing take on Holocaust historiography. Hitler's supposed willing executioners come across as reluctant executioners at times. Daniel Goldhagen who is Jewish has an understandable moral ground for being offended at the brutality of the Nazi regime, and Browning does not shy from acknowledging its horrors, nor did he attempt to cover those atrocities up. In my humble opinion, Browning offered a better, more detached scholarly explanation of the motives of those henchmen who did Hitler's bidding in the Holocaust.

I came to this book through a graduate seminar on historiography. We were reading "microhistory," that is, the history of single people or events within a limited scope, and while I don't think Ordinary Men fully qualifies, it brought the Holocaust home in a way no other book has. Ordinary Men is an uncomfortable read--uncomfortable because of the grisly events it chronicles, for the terrible acts carried out by the men of Reserve Police Battalion 101, but most of all for how "close to home" the book makes those terrible events.

Browning begins his book on the morning of the battalion's first massacre. He then explains how the battalion, mostly made up of older or middle-aged tradesmen from Hamburg, came to be in the Lublin district of Poland and how they were given the terrible tasks that they carried out. The first massacre is terrible--despite Browning's dispassionate, non-exploitative style, I was still upset and disturbed by the continuous, day-long shooting of Jews in the woods.

Through the rest of the book, Browning details the various tasks--guard duty, "Jew hunts," and more than a few massacres--that the battalion undertook, and he also follows the growing callousness of the men to their work. Before the first massacre, the battalion commander had wept and told the men that whoever did not feel up to the task could bow out. Several did immediately, and more quit as the day wore on. But the more massacres in which the battalion took part, the fewer seemed to refuse duty and the more eagerly volunteers were to be found.

Browning concludes his book by attempting to answer the obvious question--why? Why did "ordinary men" voluntarily murder upwards of 30,000 fellow human beings, especially when to refuse carried no penalty? The answer, he shows, lies not only in indoctrination and institutionalized anti-semitism, though those were both forces to be reckoned with, but rather in group psychology, peer pressure, the desire to fit in, and deeply ingrained obedience to authority figures.

The great benefit of a book like this is that, while it rightly condemns the actions of the men who, no matter what pressures were on them, still decided to carry out their orders, it makes clear that this could happen to anyone. Despite their remove in time and space, the Nazis were little different from we "ordinary men" of the 21st century--all we lack is the pressure and the opportunity. If, like myself, you believe all mankind to be capable of any evil, this is old news but still disturbing. But for those who believe man to be inherently good, the implications of Browning's argument are perhaps the most unsettling part of the book.

Highly recommended.

I read this book about ten years ago for a class, and it's really stuck with me.

I give it 4 stars because I am not entirely sure if this is an apology or argument. I haven't decided yet.

However, the book is very interesting, and in many ways you find yourself cheering for the people who decided not to kill. I think the point of the text is to show that not all Nazi's were bloodthristy, but sadly were drawn into the massacre of Jews little by little. Now, it does sound somewhat like an apology to claim that many of the 101 were against the killings, but the continuous systematic killing caused them to just give in. However, I think the author has a point that all need to keep an open mind while reading this. Whereas some Nazi's were blantantly perverse and enjoyed ridding the world of undesirables, I trully feel and believe there were many who did not wish to commit such heinous acts. However, when one becomes accustomed to a particular environment....there may be a tendency to give in. For instance, look how many kids give into sex, gangs, drugs, theft, etc because their environment represents that lifestyle.

Now, i know there is the argument that well it does not matter if you killed willing or unwillingly....you still did. True, very true, but I think this book offers or at least forces people to view the atrocity from a different light. That is, the best people can turn bad in the worst conditions. As a PHD in history, my interest and focus is on politics and warfare. I focus on Early Modern English history, and at the moment I am looking into violence against the Irish. Now, some of the heinous crimes committed against the Irish or othe rCatholics who came to the Irish aid came from a lot of pressure from top down. That is not to say that none of the English troops were opposed to some of the antics, but that their leaders had a heavy influence on them. I just point this out, because when looking at heinous historical events, it is important to keep your mind open. That is why I think this text is important because it ceretainly portrays the German slighly differently than the bloodthristy devils that many previous works have referred to them as.


It is not the most exciting read, but a good one.


Last, I am not a German apologists. I try to look at historical events objectively. Furthermore, my wife's family is Jewish, I have no reason to deny the brutality that did occur.

Christopher Browning is a distinguished historian of the horror of the Nazi holacaust against the Jews during World War II, His book on Reserve Police Battalion 101 is a microcosmic examination of how ordinary men responded to the Hitler's regime's insane plan to kill all of the Jews in
Europe.
The book focuses on the Reserve Police Battalion 101 made up of lower middle class men from Hamburg. These men were typical Germans in their views toward Jewry and the Nazi propaganda drummed into their heads. Most of the soldiers were long married, had some level of education and managed to avoid frontline service. These men were not in the military elite and most prefered civilian life back home in Hamburg.
These approximately 500 soldiers particpated in several shooting of Jews in Polish villages; transportation of the Jews to death camps and Jew hunts in which the hapless Semites would be captured. They are responsible for the shooting of 6,500 Jews at Jozefow and Lomazy; 35,000
at Majdanek and Poniatowa and placing Jews on trains to Treblinka. In all they participated in the deaths of 83,000 Jewish men, women and children.
The vast majority of the German soldiers took part in the murders. Some were reluctant to engage in this murderous enterprise by they were in the minority. Among reasons given for the odious and criminal behavior of the men in Reserve Police Batallion 101 are according to Browning:
1. Peer pressure of their comrades in arms. These were men in hostile territory who did not want to be accused of letting their buddies down.
2. Obedience to orders from higher authorities.
3. Fears of their or their family's punishment if orders were not obeyed.
4. A belief that the Jews were not Aryan human beings and were responsible for the killing of German women and children.
Browning claims each person's motivations are a mystery to the rest of us and we can never say beyond extrapolation what led these men to commit such abhorrent deads of cruelty and murder.
Browning has included a long appendix in which he responds to the criticisms on his work made by Dr. Daniel Goldhagen. Goldhagen believes that Germany was pervaded by antisemetic culture making the entire nation into Hitler's willing executioners. Browning contrarily argues that antisemitism was not limited to Germany. Browning states that German authoritarianism, conformity with the social group and Nazi propaganda all played a role in turning regular individuals into mass killers. He is cautionary on the power for harm which can be inflicted by authoritarian states on their citizens.
Browning's book is a classic of holocaust literature and is essential in any study of the gruesome and heartbreaking study.

Another brick from the the Professors' classroom. I got to page 148, which was quite a feat, believe you me. But important it is. I don't deny that, and true too.

Here's a token of the Professor's clear narrative style: "The portrayal of German-Polish and German-Jewish relations in these testimonies is extraordinarily exculpatory; in contrast, the portrayal of Polish-Jewish relations is extraordinarily damning. If we begin by examining the first two relationships as described by the former policemen, we can better see the asymmetry and distortion involved in their account of the third." Of the third! The third what? Do you know what he's taking about anymore?

Please, give me a break, mister. I believe the Lord gives gifts and talents to every one of His creatures. You can pick to be a bullfighter, a fireman, or a professor. But pick right.

This book, which follows step by step the itinerary of a battalion of German security police in the East during WWII, is a scary confirmation of Hannah Arendt's theory on the "banality of evil" that emerged after Eichmann's trial in 1961. It shows how perfectly average people, representing a cross-section of a developped country's society, when placed in certain circumstances, are able to perform the most gruesome and crual acts of barbary in an efficient and non-committal way against innocent populations. It is a depressing book, all the more so as almost none of these perpetrators suffered any consequence after the war. They went on to live their banal and mediocre lives as ordinary people, until the 1960's when some of them were tried and suffered very light sentences.

Very well-done and insightful study on ordinary Germans in the Holocaust and Browning's overall thesis extends to "ordinary men" in many circumstances.

This book (as described by previous reviewers and the product description) details what the men in the Nazi Reserve Police Battalion 101 went through, specifically during the SS Invasion of Poland.

Browning describes in detail the process of dehumanizing the Jews, and writes at length on the style of execution that the Germans refined and perfected in Poland, prior to the widespread use of gas chambers: the person to be killed forced to lie down flat on their face, and then shot at a particular spot in their neck. The accounts of these executions is not just gratuitous violence -- graphic gore for the sake of shock or horror -- but rather, demonstrates that over time, the police officers involved in the executions worked to make the process of mass killing more humane (an idea that was at the root of the gas chambers, as ironic as that seems). It also serves to drive home the point that after so many hundreds of people were shot, the officers were able to completely dehumanize the people they were killing.

What is unique about this book is that it is not just another historical account; the author takes into consideration what the Nazis themselves had to go through, psychologically and emotionally, in order to carry out their orders. Many other historians have analyzed historical events during WWII while still demonizing the Nazi forces ~ but Browning shows us that the troops really were Ordinary Men, and these men suffered tremendous emotional tolls as a result.

And herein lies the Truth that makes this book so chilling: any one of us could have found ourselves in the very same position, carrying out the very same orders, as the German troops in WWII.

Browning describes the various social conditions and governmental policies that effected how the Nazis were able to so completely dehumanize their enemy and rationalize their own involvement -- in part, because the men were assuaged of their sense of responsibility for their actions, and also in part due to the tremendous number of times that the actions had to be carried out. Repetition bred a sense of normalcy.

In the Afterword, Browning addresses another author who has critiqued Browning's work -- Daniel Jonah Goldhagen -- whose work I feel compelled to mention since it directly relates to this book.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is studying modern history, sociology / psychology, or WWII, but keep in mind that it is extremely graphic and very, very hard to read -- not because of the language used, but because of the events that Browning so meticulously describes.

This book (as described by previous reviewers and the product description) details what the men in the Nazi Reserve Police Battalion 101 went through, specifically during the SS Invasion of Poland.

Browning describes in detail the process of dehumanizing the Jews, and writes at length on the style of execution that the Germans refined and perfected in Poland, prior to the widespread use of gas chambers: the person to be killed forced to lie down flat on their face, and then shot at a particular spot in their neck. The accounts of these executions is not just gratuitous violence -- graphic gore for the sake of shock or horror -- but rather, demonstrates that over time, the police officers involved in the executions worked to make the process of mass killing more humane (an idea that was at the root of the gas chambers, as ironic as that seems). It also serves to drive home the point that after so many hundreds of people were shot, the officers were able to completely dehumanize the people they were killing.

What is unique about this book is that it is not just another historical account; the author takes into consideration what the Nazis themselves had to go through, psychologically and emotionally, in order to carry out their orders. Many other historians have analyzed historical events during WWII while still demonizing the Nazi forces ~ but Browning shows us that the troops really were Ordinary Men, and these men suffered tremendous emotional tolls as a result.

And herein lies the Truth that makes this book so chilling: any one of us could have found ourselves in the very same position, carrying out the very same orders, as the German troops in WWII.

Browning describes the various social conditions and governmental policies that effected how the Nazis were able to so completely dehumanize their enemy and rationalize their own involvement -- in part, because the men were assuaged of their sense of responsibility for their actions, and also in part due to the tremendous number of times that the actions had to be carried out. Repetition bred a sense of normalcy.

In the Afterword, Browning addresses another author who has critiqued Browning's work -- Daniel Jonah Goldhagen -- whose work I feel compelled to mention since it directly relates to this book.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is studying modern history, sociology / psychology, or WWII, but keep in mind that it is extremely graphic and very, very hard to read -- not because of the language used, but because of the events that Browning so meticulously describes.

This book (as described by previous reviewers and the product description) details what the men in the Nazi Reserve Police Battalion 101 went through, specifically during the SS Invasion of Poland.

What is unique about this book is that it is not just another historical account; the author takes into consideration what the Nazis themselves had to go through, psychologically and emotionally, in order to carry out their orders. Many other historians have analyzed historical events during WWII while still demonizing the Nazi forces ~ but Browning shows us that the troops really were Ordinary Men, and these men suffered tremendous emotional tolls as a result.

And herein lies the Truth that makes this book so chilling: any one of us could have found ourselves in the very same position, carrying out the very same orders, as the German troops in WWII.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is studying modern history, sociology / psychology, or WWII, but keep in mind that it is extremely graphic and very, very hard to read -- not because of the language used, but because of the events that Browning so meticulously describes.

In one of the most shocking books that I have ever read, Christopher Browning follows the evolution of a german reserve police batallion during the second world war, battalion which is involved in making several districts in poland "judenfrei" - free of jewish people. The book follows the psychological evolution of the members of the battalion from "ordinary men" to ... masacre machines.

This book will leave you questioning whether or not you, too, would obey commands to murder your fellow man. The path that the men from police battalion 101 took from normal citizen to dehumanizing murderer is a shocking one -- the same man who lost his lunch at the thought of killing innocent Jews became the most eager to participate at the close of the book. Browning also broaches the subject of what happens when a battalion-member says 'no' to the killing -- veritably nothing (he is scoffed at for being weak, perhaps, or sent home in 'shame'). I also agree with Browning's approach to this subject, in that he did not teleologically examine the Holocaust and attempt to say that the Germans were heading in that direction for the past, say, 1,000 years. I have not read Hitler's Willing Executioners, but from a prior review it seems that Goldhagen adopts the teleological explanation, which does not place the proper emphasis on the uniqueness of Nazism and the time period in which it arose. In other words, lots of factors (political, economic, social) contributed to the Holocaust...it wasn't merely a Hitler+Germany summation. Therefore, I feel that the prior reviewer's criticisms in this area were unjustified. I would also like to reiterate a point that another reviewer made, in that Browning does an exceptional job portraying the men in the battalion as multi-dimensional and real, which makes the book even more disturbing. This book is powerful, well written, and thought provoking, guaranteed to spark intelligent conversation about the role that obedience to authority and "ordinary men" played in the Holocaust.

Marina Kushner
Author
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This complete study of an ordinary security unit which perpetrated a shocking attrocity give the reader dark insights into the minds of the murderers who perpetrated Hitler's nightmare upon Jews and others. No pack of nazi fanatics or even anti-semites. Not a group of habitual criminals like Dirlewanger's gang. Just oridnary men who one day murdered thousands of men women and children while sending others to the death camp of Treblinka.

Shocking. Depressing to read but necessary.

Most shocking to me was what these men testifed was the reaction of the Polish population. Many actually thanked them for doing it or baught drinks for them.

"Ordinary Men" chronicles the rise and fall of Reserve Police Battalion 101, one of several units that took part in the Final Solution to the Jewish Question while in Poland. During the course of their stay, they were responsible for the shooting of 38,000 Jews, while also deporting 45,200 to the Treblinka Concentration Camp. The book argues that the men of Reserve Police Battalion 101, and other units like it, were comprised of ordinary men. It begs the question: How did ordinary men become the cold-blooded killers of the Holocaust?
Author Christopher R. Browning does a tremendous job of covering the ground. He also presents a strong case that these people were indeed ordinary men, who came from ordinary backgrounds, only to end up being transformed into the murderers of thousands. However, the book also stresses that some of the men, including several officers, could not be considered "ordinary," as they were trained in Hitler's Nazi organizations from youth. Browning also does something nearly impossible: He humanizes these people without excusing their horrendous actions. Their defense that "they were just following orders" just doesn't fit the bill, as some refused to take part in the actions, and asked to be relieved. If a few men could get themselves relieved from doing the killings, why did so many more not? That is the main question the book gives.
"Ordinary Men" is an extraordinary book that chronicles just one unit that took part in the murder of innocent Jews, while also presenting a good case of how ordinary men can become killers. I highly recommend this book to all students of the Holocaust.
Grade: A+

"Ordinary Men" chronicles the rise and fall of Reserve Police Battalion 101, one of several units that took part in the Final Solution to the Jewish Question while in Poland. During the course of their stay, they were responsible for the shooting of 38,000 Jews, while also deporting 45,200 to the Treblinka Concentration Camp. The book argues that the men of Reserve Police Battalion 101, and other units like it, were comprised of ordinary men. It begs the question: How did ordinary men become the cold-blooded killers of the Holocaust?
Author Christopher R. Browning does a tremendous job of covering the ground. He also presents a strong case that these people were indeed ordinary men, who came from ordinary backgrounds, only to end up being transformed into the murderers of thousands. However, the book also stresses that some of the men, including several officers, could not be considered "ordinary," as they were trained in Hitler's Nazi organizations from youth. Browning also does something nearly impossible: He humanizes these people without excusing their horrendous actions. Their defense that "they were just following orders" just doesn't fit the bill, as some refused to take part in the actions, and asked to be relieved. If a few men could get themselves relieved from doing the killings, why did so many more not? That is the main question the book gives.
"Ordinary Men" is an extraordinary book that chronicles just one unit that took part in the murder of innocent Jews, while also presenting a good case of how ordinary men can become killers. I highly recommend this book to all students of the Holocaust.
Grade: A+

Rather than try offer a magazine style critique on the book, I'll simply recommend, fellow reader, that you get it. I'll assume that, like me, you are interested in learning about this aspect of WW2 history. I found it to be the best (non-contemporary) book I have read on the subject.

Rather than try offer a critique on the book, I'll simply reccomend you buy it and read it. It is the best (non contempory) book I have read on the Holocaust.

Browning's book is interesting and is truly a very important work that should be ready by everyone. In describing Battalion 101 he shows how ordinary men became killers. He also shows how men would shirk duty or attempt to avoid taking part in mass murders. All of this makes for a very interesting read. However, some of the interest is lost because parts of the book can be dry or stats heavy. Still, that should not dissuade anyone from reading this book.

Christopher Browning's _Ordinary Men_ deserves the acclaim it has generated during the years since its publication. It is a lucid, probing, and careful account of how a group of Order Police from Hamburg were transformed, in the course of only days, into committed perpetrators of genocide. Contrary to a common assumption, even within the field of Holocaust studies, Browning's book does _not_ provide an overall explanation of what motivated Holocaust perpetrators. Rather, the focus on Battalion 101 and its very particular history allows Browning to exclude or minimize a number of the factors most often cited in work on perpetrator motivation and, in essence, to see what is left. For Browning, what especially is left are certain forces toward group cohesion--what he puts under the rubric of "conformity"--that emerge as most central in his explanation (although not to the exclusion of other factors, particularly the brutalization of war itself, German military culture, careerism, racism, and more).

What remains unknown is the degree to which Browning's findings for Battalion 101 are generalizable. That is, this particular case has enabled him to hightlight an explanatory dimension that we might otherwise have overlooked. But whether what Browning calls "conformity" plays an overriding role in other contexts of Holocaust killing--or in mass murder more generally--requires far more study than this volume provides. To its enduring credit, it has inspired key work in that direction, some of which complements its own findings and some of which does not.

By the way, the Amazon review is incorrect in saying that this book is based on Browning's own interviews. It is entirely based on court records and desposition, not any interviews Browning conducted personally.

The recent version of this book has an Afterword by the author which is a specific rebuttal of Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners, which was based on much of the same research material used by Browning. I think Goldhagen's book is now generally accepted as sensationalist, highly selective and deeply flawed but Browning's criticism of Goldhagen's misinterpretation of the both the source material and Browning's work do a pretty thorough demolition of Goldhagen's thesis, if one were still needed.

This slim book is, in Browning's normal fashion, meticulously researched and lucidly, if somewhat drily, written and was/is a benchmark piece of work in understanding what enabled 'ordinary' Germans, in the context of their times, to carry out multiple acts of mass murder.

I would particularly agree with the comments of one reviewer that despite Browning's research and analysis, no one Great Answer emerges: the gap in our understanding is closed but not altogether eliminated. As more research of high quality emerges on the Nazi era, many issues have become more complex rather than less.

In terms of related reading which attempts to address similar issues I would also recommend David Cesarani's excellent recent biography of Adolf Eichmann and Richard Rhodes' somewhat patchy (by his high standards) study on the Einsatzgruppen, 'Masters of Death'. In terms on Browning's own work on the broader topic of the Final Solution, 'The Origins of the Final solution' is highly recommended.

This is definitely a book that will make you question your own ability to stand up for the right thing. We all agree that the Holocaust is one of the darkest points in recent history. What's amazing (and demonstrated in this book) is that it doesn't take a group of racist sociopaths to cause such a horrible catastrophe. Everyday people like you and me, under the right circumstances, can be influenced to murder innocent people.

This book has a lot of history. Not the history that you read in your high school history book, but history about specific groups in Germany during the second World War. It follows specific people and specific orders. Browning does an excellent job summarizing a lot of research (he went through old military records, court transcripts, news articles, personal interviews, etc.).

To be fair, you might also consider buying "Hitler's Willing Executioners" by Daniel Goldhagen. Both authors cover basically the same thing with two VERY different interpretations. In a nutshell, while Browning believes the German guards were (for the most part...with a few exceptions) average citizens who were following orders (and didn't hate Jews enough to do what they did), Goldhagen argues that the Holocaust was the result of a deep rooted racist attitude held by all Germans. I don't want to bias you with my opinion, and I truly believe that it would be good to read both books and form your own opinion. However, if you are trying to pick between the two, Browning's "Ordinary Men" makes a lot more sense, and is probably a more accurate description of what happened.

For you psychology majors out there, if you want real-life proof of the experiments by Philip Zimbardo (the prison study) and Stanley Milgram (administering lethal shocks because the orders of an authority figure), this book will make you a believer.

The power of "Ordinary Men" is its ability to convey the magnitude of the Holocaust by recounting the activities of a single battalion of German policemen stationed in eastern Poland in 1942-43. Browning keeps his focus on the atrocities committed by this 500-man battalion, without straying to discuss related parties or neighboring geographies. Far from creating a myopic study, this focus serves to underscore the breadth of the Nazis' extermination program during the Second World War. The key strengths of the book are Browning's careful research of German judicial archives from the 1960s, as well as his balanced interpretation of the battalion's crimes and of humanity's capacity for committing organized mass murder. The main shortcoming is that the author's analysis is saved almost entirely for the last chapter, rather than accompanying the relevant passages. This creates a dichotomy which is only a minor drawback to an otherwise extraordinary historical work.

Browning asserts an interesting thesis regarding the Einsatzgruppen; these were the death squads who adminstered conquered lands and carried out the final solution in places where they could or did not ship the jews to camps. He establishes the backround of a particular Police Battalion.

These individuals were not hardened Nazi's nor fanatical SS; nor were they even that keen on gunning down Jews. The argument that Browning makes is that anti-semitism was created in these individuals by killing jews. In order to cope with murdering, they became anti-semetic. When their commander announced their first action, he was in tears and offered an exception to whomever did not want to do this. Soldiers cried, looked the other way when some jews tried to escape, establishing a character that challenges our assumptions.

As time went on, the soldiers became used to this, and would have to joke around with each other while shooting jews. There were some instances of drunken debauchery that will break your heart as well: instances of cruelty that boggles the mind.

I picked thi up for a dollar at my local bookswap and found this to be a very interesting read.

One of the things that I remember about this particular dark period of history is what my father used to say about it. He felt, and stated, that the thing that was most upsetting was not what happened. But, that the people who did it, "were just like us."

This book shows us the monsters of the Holocaust were truly just like us. This is a book about being a team player. It is about consensus and doing just a little more for the unit. In other words, it is entirely applicable today.

The moral lesson of this book is clear. Today we are pressured to do things that we know are a little wrong in order to get along. Doing something that is a little wrong is only a matter of degree.

I work in an industry where one of the interview questions is, "are you willing to do things, required of you in this job, that may, or do, violate your own sense of ethics or morality." I work here; so you know how I answered.

This is a very disturbing book if you read it and in any way relate to the many police officers that it is about. These reserve police are a true cross section of society and reflect a culture and value system very similar to our own.

I thought this piece contains some material that should be seen by everyone, but then there was a lot of stuff that could have been left out. It was amazing to see how normal men turn into cold-hearted killing machines. Unfortunately, the book containted too many number and statistics which really took away from it. The book didn't do that well focusing on the main topic either, because it went off on many different tangents. I would recommend this book to be read though, because it is hard to believe that you or I could have a terrible amount of potential to murder people like the men in 101 did, and this book helps to shed light on the dark side of humanity.

I have a large collection of books on WWII and the Holocaust. When we talk about people it pays to remember the culture in which they were brought up and the beliefs they held. There were brutal ghettos in Germany (especially Frankfort) long before the war.

There were also people in all the countries of the Reich that helped Jews despite the danger that sometimes killed them as well. They helped physically, which is easier to document, but also (and probably more important) by "misinterpreting", losing and delaying orders. Slowing the process where they could. Many of them will never be known, but their influence could be profound. This DOES NOT EXCUSE THE FIRST GROUP. But just as the terrorists of today, upbringing and religion in combination once again create unspeakable horrors.

So, my friend in Ontario, it is not IF such things can happen. The have and are, all over the world. And it is many times harder to fight cowards in masks who hide in the dark and rejoice in the suicide bombing that will send the bomber to heaven. Look at the records of the Japanese suicide pilots and the damage they caused beyond any "normal" attack while they died for the Emporer. Strongly held belief creates people who act far beyond what we may TRULY understand.

Although our world has seen many events occur which defy explanation and simply boggle the mind, thus far none has matched the Holocaust in the intensity and sheer damage that it caused the world and more significantly the Jewish population of Europe. Yet, to this day who should be blamed for the Holocaust has still been an open question, yes it was Hitler's plan and original idea, but was he the only one behind it? All along it was the idea that the Jews had been the downfall of the German empire and something has to be done about them. A large factor in these ideas was the use of Einzatsgruppen and Police detachments behind the Army Front in clearing out and containing the Jewish populations in Ghettos or simply to eliminate them. Who these men were and what they represented is what Christopher R. Browning discusses in his book "Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland." We are shown what kind of men comprised this unit, Party members, members of the SS, which social class did they come from, working or privileged upper higher classes, and so on. The first killings are examined and how individuals reacted to them. None of the members of Police Battalion 101 had any idea that their first shooting of unarmed Jews was to take place, thus when asked by the commander of the Battalion those who wish to step out can, and they will be assigned other jobs, at first one man stepped out and was immediately berated by his commanding officer. After Trapp (the commander of the battalion) "had taken Schmike (the man who stepped out) under his protection, some ten or twelve other men stepped forward as well. They turned in their rifles and were told to await a further assignment from the major (pg. 57)." Later on even more men would step out or at least be asked to be excused after they had shot five or six people while others simply milled about at different junctures of the area trying to avoid being asked to be part of the shooting squads. No one was punished, which goes to show that the Germans did have a choice in taking part in the Holocaust or being left out. Another large part of the job that Police Battalion 101 did was to have Jews board trains which would take them to concentration or death camps, they would have tens of thousands sent to their death. Eventually as the battalion partook in a larger number of operations to round up and execute Jews they would grow more and more accustomed to it and at times would even joke about it. The last job that the Police Battalion had was to form hunting units to hunt down Jews who had run away and hid in the forests or elsewhere in the country side, these actions would have hundreds of casualties on the Jewish side while rarely would the Germans encounter opposition from Partisan type units. A helping hand was given to the Germans in their executions by groups like Ukrainians and Latvians, they would get thoroughly drunk and start to shoot carelessly and widely usually wounding the Jews and then shooting more and more victims on top of those wounded without administering any `mercy shots.' Although the Poles were not used in these kinds of units many did help the Germans by showing them where Jews were hiding out, the Germans would write how they often `betrayed' the Jews to them, whereas I doubt the Poles thought the same way about the Jews. While `betraying' might be used when talking of a friend or family member, the Poles saw Jews as neither. After we are taken through all the actions of Police Battalion 101 we are presented with the question of what could have made them do something like this? Although some would say it was the battlefield position they found themselves in, this is incorrect. Those who participated saw mostly no battlefield experience, they were mostly older men who would not see service in the German Wehrmacht and were used for rear area security. The book is an excellent introduction and analysis to help us understand why those in the Police Battalion took actions against the Jews, and at the same time see that those who did not want to or could not, for whatever reason, were not punished but adopted for other work.

When the Second World War ended in Europe in May of 1945, some six million Jews had been killed in what the Nazis termed the Final Solution. In its barbarity, the Final Solution is unprecedented in this the history of Western civilization. However, some 50 years after the war, the question still remains: what type of person could carry out this genocide? Christopher R. Browning delves into this aspect of the Holocaust in Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland.

Like many other such battalions, Police Battalion 101 was organized for the purpose of policing and pacifying territories captured by the advancing German during the early years of the war in the east. Their role in Hitler's quest for new Lebensraum for the German people was significant. They were, however, a non-combat unit. For this reason, the unit was mostly comprised of men in their forties and those unfit for combat duty.

Browning classifies the men of Police Battalion 101 as being ordinary: he points out that most were conscripted white-collar types from Hamburg and Luxembourg, who, unlike the SS and other German units, were not overtly indoctrinated with Nazi ideology. But, as the reader eventually discovers, regardless of individual variances in belief, the involvement of the majority of Police Battalion 101 in the Final Solution is undeniable.

By mid-1942, Police Battalion 101 was stationed in Lublin District in central Poland. Over the course of the next 12 months they would participate in a series of massacres, deportations, and a lengthy "Jew hunt." The profound psychological transformation that the men of the unit underwent while undertaking these operations is startling.

Some men initially refused to participate in the first killings, with dissension being the norm and, later, an accepted fact even among the officers of the unit. Yet in time most would become willing participants.

By November 1943, the once reluctant Police Battalion 101 would conduct, without hesitation or remorse, massacres at Majdanek and Pontiawa that, in total, took over 30,000 lives.

The majority of the details about the Battalion come from trials held in Germany in the 1960s. Many accounts and testimonies by former unit members were recorded at the time, but Browning admits that their information is limited. He reminds the reader that some 20 years after the fact the participants were in a situation where those testifying could downplay their role by intentionally being ambiguous or forgetful.

"Quite simply," states Browning in the preface to Ordinary Men, "some men deliberately lied, for they feared the judicial consequences of telling the truth as they remembered it. Not only repression and distortion but conscious mendacity shaped the accounts of the witnesses."

Taking this into consideration, Browning's ability to fashion a clear, accurate and consistent account of the horrific conduct of Police Battalion 101 is excellent. Deciphering the ambiguities and willful contradictions made by the testifiers, the author successfully presents the story critically and objectively. The end result is a work that is essential to understanding the perplexing conduct of those supposedly "ordinary men" who participated in the Final Solution.