The Ordinary Man And F. Browning's Ordinary Men

After the demise of the Nazi Regime and decades of research and inquiry, sociologists and historians established a multitude of theories in an attempt to rationalize and indeed understand the events that transpired under the Third Reich. Their conclusions covered every aspect of life prior to and during Hitler’s reign, ranging from the hierarchical structure of the regime to the ideological radicalization of troops on the Eastern Front, but few were as poignant as Browning’s Ordinary Men. Browning’s preface spoke volumes about his intentions, as he stated that had he been in the policemen’s’ shoes “I could have been either a killer or an evader… [but] explaining is not excusing.” As the author followed the evolution of mass murder and deportation

As Martin Detmold recounts “Jews were shot in such a way that [enabled] newcomers to lie down on corpses piled… high” and that he frequently saw “after a burst had been fired the Jews were only wounded those still living were more or less buried alive.” An undeniable change occurred in these men, as they went from feeling ill and feigning to miss to avoid murdering Jews to becoming “inured to the mass killings”. The author spends his time divided between logistically observing the movements of and series of killings and deportations that the Reserve Battalion takes part in while incorporating testimonies of well over a hundred reservists to show us the horrors they witnessed and took part in. By writing in this two-fold manner, Browning limited the tendency to disassociate one’s self with the men who became “professional killers”. No longer were they blood-thirsty, sadist Aryans but rather men who willfully chose to take part in actions they understood to be wrong, for a multitude of reasons. For every reservist who “unzipped his fly and urinated on [Jewish leaders begging for army protection]” there were men who

A whole chapter is, rightfully so, dedicated to the origins of the Reserve Police force in Nazi Germany and later to the makeup of the battalion, but little is said about how these men reacted once the institution that upheld their actions and indeed called for them fell. As the author points out, “Reserve Police Battalion 101 was not sent… to murder Jews because it was composed of men specially selected… [but rather] because it was the only kind of unit available.” Later, a comparison was drawn between Zimbardo’s prison experiment’s guard makeup and that of Battalion 101, with a majority doing the perceived “required” job but not enthusiastically. Even so, many in the battalion “were known to be willing to kill” and volunteered, eager to get their “hands dirty” and turning murder into a competition of sorts, as illustrated by the reproaches between SS officers and the Hiwis whilst both stood in knee deep pools of blood and groundwater from dead and dying Jews. Browning led the audience to believe that the men who took part in a series of mass shootings, systematic killings, deportation to camps, and other acts of brutality were the men they would find running shops and businesses, but unfortunately he fails to explore their lives post World War II. Regardless of what he