Analysis Of Christopher Browning's Ordinary Men

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Thinking about history and Genocides, we want to imagine the enemies as being somehow different from us. Take watching a film, for instance, you’re watching an action film with a villain or killer. We consider them to be different from us we are scared of them, we look at the differently than a “normal” human. We tend to think of the enemies in history to be the same as the villain or killer in a movie. We perceive this because we don’t want to assume that any normal human being is capable of committing a Genocide. As a society, we believe we are different from the chaos in the world. Christopher Browning’s book, Ordinary Men: Reserved Police Battalion 101 and the final solution in Poland, portrayed the story from the opposite viewpoint. Everyday …show more content…

The beginning of the book starts off by explaining the importance of Poland and how it reflects back to the Holocaust. Browning states the harsh trust right from the beginning. “The male Jews of working age were to be separated and taken to work at a camp. The remaining – the women, children, and elders were to be shot on the spot” (Browning 2). However still, stays focused on the fact that these men aren 't used to this kind of manner. Moving into chapter 5 Browning includes the pictures to show the process the Police Battalion 101 and the Jews had to go through. Police Battalion 101 was also involved in something called the “Jew Hunt”. This is a process in which the officers go and get the Jews who have either Evacuated, deported or ran a hide. The Officers would go in small groups and try to find the Jews. They usually are ordered to kill the Jews they find. Browning summed up the end of the book in chapter 13 “Ordinary Men”. By trying to answer questions such as “why did most men in Police Battalion 101 become killers” (Browning, 159) He finishes up the chapter with explaining the after effect on the officers. This was a very difficult and upsetting time for the Police Battalion 101 team. Browning ends this book with something he calls “Afterword” this is a time where Browning incorporates other books with the same viewpoint as the book Ordinary Men. He explains his opinion throughout this section. Browning ends the book on a single chart, the “Number of Jews Deported to Treblinka by Police Battalion 101” (Browning, 226). To me, this is a powerful message that many readers

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