Ordinary Men Book Review Essay - 976 Words

Ordinary Men Christopher Browning describes how the Reserve Police Battalion 101, like the rest of German society, was immersed in a flood of racist and anti-Semitic propaganda. Browning describes how the Order Police provided indoctrination both in basic training and as an ongoing practice within each unit. Many of the members were not prepared for the killing of Jews. The author examines the reasons some of the police members did not shoot. The physiological effect of isolation, rejection, and ostracism is examined in the context of being assigned to a foreign land with a hostile population. The contradictions imposed by the demands of conscience on the one hand and the norms of the battalion on the other are discussed. Ordinary Men†¦show more content†¦In fact, their capacity to murder was so great; they overwhelmingly surpassed the expectations of even the Nazi leaders. The members of the Reserve Police Battalion 101 were influenced and conditioned in a general way and filled in particular with a sense of their own superiority and racial relationship. The aspect of Jewish inferiority, peer pressure and sense of duty therefore turned many of the police battalion into murderers. Browning suggests that given the same or similar circumstances, a similar number of ordinary men would experience the same results. The main sources for this book consist of archival documents and court records of the Holocaust. The specific testimony, court records, investigation records, and prosecution documents of members of the Reserve Police Battalion 101 members are used as sources. In this book, Christopher Browning shows in minute detail the sequence of events and individual reactions that turn ordinary men into killers. His arguments make sense. He makes no unwarranted assumptions. The cause and effect statements made and arguments presented are logical and well developed. Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning accounts for the actions of the German Order Police (more specifically the actions of Reserve Police Battalion 101 in Poland) and the role they played in the Second World War during the Jewish Holocaust. Police Battalion 101 was composed of veterans from World War One and men too old to beShow MoreRelatedNo Ordinary Time By Doris Kearns Goodwin1688 Words   |  7 Pagesand Eleanor Rooseveltâ€℠¢s struggle for equal rights. The book finishes with the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s death in 1945 and the end of World War II. Analysis of the biography shows a theme of how far the Roosevelts would go to get what they wanted, going so far as Franklin threatening to reject his nomination if his choice of vice president was not chosen and Eleanor traveling the country to speak her message of equality. 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