These men were practically the definition of normal; they aren’t thought of as particularly “young” or “old”; their social standing is pretty unremarkable. Yet, only a minority chose to evade, with a majority choosing to conform. What details in the text help you understand how Major Wilhelm Trapp felt about the killings? By midday, the men were being offered bottles of vodka to “refresh” them.

After all, who wouldn’t? What other factors may have influenced their participation? Goldhagen believes that antisemitism, rather than conformity, is a more convincing explanation for why so many men participated in the massacre at Jozefow. Nine were attached to the Wehrmacht security divisions. One said that he had not wanted to be considered a coward by his comrades. These “Jew hunts,” and eventually the “harvest festival” massacre in 1943, (the single largest German killing operation against the Jews in the entire war) serve as a bloody climax for Reserve Battalion 101’s participation in the Nazi Holocaust.

Some historians point out that members of the battalion could have exposed themselves to more severe criminal charges in the German legal system at the time of the trials by mentioning antisemitism as part of their motivation in the killings. From there, the battalion was put to the task of rounding up the local Jewish population, separate those men of working age from the rest, and shooting the remainder. Reserve Police Battalion 101 was made up of the German equivalent of city policemen and county sheriffs. After several attempts to subvert the Treaty of Versailles, the election of the Nazi party into power, and the incorporation of police paramilitary units into the regular army, the Order Police gradually came into being. conditions, could happen anytime or anywhere? Browning also addresses the impact of National Socialism on the police’s attitudes towards their victims. After having endowed the reader with a level of understanding as to the origin of the Order Police, and their role in genocide up to that point, we finally come to the issue at hand: Reserve Police Battalion 101. With choking voice and tears in his eyes, he visibly fought to control himself as he informed his men that they had received orders to perform a very unpleasant task.
How did Wilhelm Trapp, the commander of Reserve Police Battalion 101, react when he received orders to kill the Jewish residents in the village of Jozefow? The first chapter describes the moment in which the commander of 101, Major Wilhelm Trapp, briefs his men on what they’ve been ordered to do: round up Jews in the village of  Józefów, separate those who were of working age (who were to be sent to concentration camps) from women, children, and the elderly, and shoot the women, children, and the elderly. Word Count: 918

Browning begins his book by giving statistics on the particular importance of Poland to the Nazi Holocaust. These would not seem to have been a very promising group from which to recruit mass murderers on behalf on the Nazi vision of a racial utopia free of Jews” (Browning, 48). Trapp’s driver remembers him saying later, “If this Jewish business is ever avenged on earth, then have mercy on us Germans.”1, Browning notes, “While the men of Reserve Police Battalion 101 were apparently willing to shoot those Jews too weak or sick to move, they still shied for the most part from shooting infants, despite their orders. What various types of mass killing did they engage in? They epitomize the image of “the every man.” If these people are capable of committing mass murder, then we all are. Two battalions were assigned to support the Einsatzgruppen, the mobile death squads of the SS, and the Organisation Todt, the military construction group. Unquestionably, both personal characteristics and societal factors influence the the majority of choices of individuals, If one were to take anything from Christopher Browning’s Ordinary Men it is that even the most ordinary, normal men have the capacity to kill. Despite the unusual nature of these events, how can they help us understand the larger history of the Holocaust?

The battalion was divided into three companies each of approximately 140 men when at full strength.

It was here that Browning first encountered the indictment of Reserve Police Battalion 101. Chapter 5 summarizes the activities of Reserve Battalion 101 in the May 1940 “resettlement” effort in Poland, in which Jews were displaced from territories taken by Nazi Germany in an effort to achieve “racial purity” in the region. After the day’s massacre, the men returned to their barracks and drank heavily, in what would seem to be a vain attempt to repress the memories of the killing in which they participated. Genocide becomes a personal sin that we are all capable of, and this is a reality that needs to be accepted before further genocides can be prevented. The author goes to describe the beginnings of the genocide in the city of Bialystok and other nearby towns as they escalated from beatings and humiliations (including one disturbing account of an Order Police commander urinating on a Jewish leader who was begging for mercy for him and his people) to dragging large numbers of Jews into the woods and shooting them. Browning also touches on the issues of “dehumanizing the enemy,” “routinizing the task,” and other psychological functions which facilitated  the state of mind needed for the carrying out of genocide. He had not given it a thought at the time.3, [It is] doubtful that they were immune to “the influence of the times,” . About 22,000 people escaped evacuations by fleeing”(Browning, 39).

There were also those who, after participating in the first waves of shootings, could not participate in further killings.

After describing the grim task that lay before them, and referring to talking points meant to reassure that it was “okay” to kill these innocent men, women, and children, Trapp gives the offer “if any of the older men among them did not feel up to the task that lay before him, he could step out” (Browning, 2). mid-20th century, European civilization produced states, Most of the killing during this period of mass murder took place in Poland. After this particularly disturbing chapter on the Józefów massacre, Browning analyzes the circumstances of the minority of Battalion 101 members who refused to participate in the killings. Home › Media & Culture › Books › Review of “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland”, By The Red Phoenix on November 19, 2010 • ( 1 ), A Glimpse at the Perpetrators of Genocide. The police units participated in the annexation of Austria and the occupation of Czechoslovakia. The author goes to describe the beginnings of the genocide in the city of Bialystok and other nearby towns as they escalated from beatings and humiliations (including one disturbing account of an Order Police commander urinating on a Jewish leader who was begging for mercy for him and his people) to dragging large numbers of Jews into the woods and shooting them. Battalion 101 together with other Order Police, For example, when one of the men declined to take part in what would be later known as the Jozefow Massacre, his captain was not pleased. But rather than address this issue in the first few pages, Browning begins the next chapter. Christopher Browning’s book. Many believe that one’s morals and ethics are solely responsible for the decisions they make, major or minor. Read the book but couldn't answer Most simply denied that they had any choice. In addition to carrying out shootings, the Order Police also played a role in facilitating the deportation of Jews from eastern and western Europe to the concentration camps. [3] After hostilities had ceased, the battalions−such as Reserve Police Battalion 101−took up the role of security forces, patrolling the perimeters of the Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland (the internal ghetto security issues were managed by the SS, SD, and the Criminal Police, in conjunction with the Jewish ghetto administration). Browning continues: Was the incident at Jozefow typical? Here we are given some insight into the human psyche, as it pertained to these perpetrators of genocide. The first person accounts that Browning presents do nothing to spare the reader of the gore involved. to the incessant proclamation of German superiority and incitement of contempt and hatred for the Jewish enemy. Never Before had I seen the monstrous deeds of the Holocaust so starkly juxtaposed with the human face of the killers” (Browning, xvi). This short chapter leaves the reader on something of a cliffhanger, in that we are not told if anyone decided to take Trapp up on his offer and abstain from taking part in genocide. There were also those who, after participating in the first waves of shootings, could not participate in further killings. When he was assigning the first firing squad Trapp gave the elder gentlemen the option to back out of firing duties. on June 1, 2014. At this point in the book, Browning brings us back to the cliffhanger moment he ended the first chapter. If the men of Reserve Police Battalion 101 cold become killers under such circumstances, what group of men cannot?” (Browning, 189). But in the end the most important fact is not that the experience of Reserve Police Battalion 101 was untypical, but rather that Trapp’s extraordinary offer did not matter. began to berate the man.

As the killing continued, some officers reassigned anyone who asked, while others pressed their men to continue despite reservations.

According to Browning, how could these average, middle-aged men commit mass murder? Chapter two describes in detail the origins of the Order Police (of which Reserve Police Battalion 101 is a part) as an attempt for post WWI Germany to create an army of police with military training and equipment. We have what we like to call the freedom of decision-making, but often it simply seems like a facade. One claimed to be an active Communist Party member, and hence was politically motivated not to take part in the killings. Browning then describes the particular effect this indictment had on him. [4], Twenty-three Orpo battalions were slated to take part in the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa.

Two companies were commanded by police captains, the third by the senior reserve lieutenant in the battalion. “Pale and nervous, with choking voice and tears in his eyes, Trapp visibly fought to control himself as he spoke (Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland, Christopher Browning).” This shows how shaken up Trapp was at his orders. The arguments of Christopher Browning and Daniel John Goldhagen contrast greatly based on the underlining meaning of the Holocaust to ordinary Germans.
In Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment he selected twelve men to be prisoners and twelve men to be prison guard.

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