Christopher Browning's Ordinary Men
In the excerpt from Christopher Browning’s “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 1010 in Poland”, Browning told us of the elite killing squad of less than 500 men, that killed around 83,000 Jews. (215) Not just men, ordinary men, like the ones you see every day. Most of the men were involved in white collar jobs, just trying to support their family when they were chosen for the group. What caused these men to commit outrageous acts against humanity? Can anyone be brainwashed to execute deeds like these men? If you grew up your entire life being told a certain group of people were evil and bad, and you had the opportunity to help your country and kill these people, would you, could you? These were the questions Browning was trying to uncover.
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All he had to build off were his interrogations with a little over 100 men out of the 500 in the Battalion. (214) I think that this discredits his assumptions slightly, but Browning still makes a great argument. To find what the intentions were of the Battalion, you cannot simply ask one man from the group, because everyone is different and has contrasting views. While these men grew up in a time of racism and anti-Semitic propaganda, if one man answers that he was raised with a hatred of Jews, and he went out eager to kill, it is wrong to assume that every member of the Battalion had the same outlook. Browning noted that around 10 percent of the Battalion refused to shoot, for logical reasoning, and many shot due to other psychological reasons. (215) For the men that did do the shooting, it was not easy at first, but they became desensitized seeing the horrors every day. The killing became a routine activity for them, as bad as that sounds, it became increasingly easier. (215) For many of the group, the orders from their superiors were what made them pull the trigger. They did not want to be viewed as a coward, they wanted to move up in their ranks and fight for their country. It was easier for these men to shoot than to turn their backs on their leaders and comrades. If you were to step out of your ranks, the men would face
All he had to build off were his interrogations with a little over 100 men out of the 500 in the Battalion. (214) I think that this discredits his assumptions slightly, but Browning still makes a great argument. To find what the intentions were of the Battalion, you cannot simply ask one man from the group, because everyone is different and has contrasting views. While these men grew up in a time of racism and anti-Semitic propaganda, if one man answers that he was raised with a hatred of Jews, and he went out eager to kill, it is wrong to assume that every member of the Battalion had the same outlook. Browning noted that around 10 percent of the Battalion refused to shoot, for logical reasoning, and many shot due to other psychological reasons. (215) For the men that did do the shooting, it was not easy at first, but they became desensitized seeing the horrors every day. The killing became a routine activity for them, as bad as that sounds, it became increasingly easier. (215) For many of the group, the orders from their superiors were what made them pull the trigger. They did not want to be viewed as a coward, they wanted to move up in their ranks and fight for their country. It was easier for these men to shoot than to turn their backs on their leaders and comrades. If you were to step out of your ranks, the men would face