Ordinary Men By Christopher R. Browning: Book Review

The policemen of Reserve Battalion 101 did meet their end and consequences. After Hitler committed suicide and the Allied officially ended the war in Europe, many of the policemen returned to their prewar occupations. Some of them, such as Hoffman and Wohlauf, remained in the police career while others were able to find postwar jobs. But, none of them were able to live freely as they were before World War II. Being on of the battalion that killed many Jews, they got interrogated and tried. Some policemen and Major Trapp all charged against their crime of killing seventy-eight Poles during their killing period and sentenced to death and executed while some got thrown into jail from three or more years (144). Around late 1962 and early 1967, most of the former members of the battalion got interrogated as well. Consequently, most of them ended up in jail for more than five years while only a few lucky ones did not go to
Browning was a counter-intuitive book about the Holocaust and the belief behind the SS and policemen who willingly committed to the killing of more than thousands of Jews. He argued that these policemen were not specially selected killers; they were all ordinary men with common jobs such as teachers and truck drivers just like everybody else. Yet, under false circumstances like peer pressure and the brutal war environment that roused their sleeper personality, these men were able to hold up their bayonets and shot at others living human being. Not only did Browning showed the readers about the truth, though disturbing, behind the Holocaust, he had also sent the readers a message about human’s natural sinful nature. After reading the book, everyone must understand that anyone can be a killer because of human’s natural tendency to go against God’s rule, and everyone need strengthen their moral courage in order to prevent any further bad consequences like the Holocaust during World War II in