Rating: 
Summary: Ordinary Men like me...
Review: Browning reconstructs how a German reserve police battalion composed of ``ordinary men,'' middle-aged, working class people, killed tens of thousands of Jews during WW II.
Rating: 
Summary: The dark side of humanity
Review: Browning's book came as a welcome relief after trudging through much of Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners. It is interesting that he and Goldhagen approached Battalion 101 from diametrically opposite directions. Browning does not try to assess blame, but rather focus on the circumstances which led to the notorious killing spree of this battalion in Poland. Well researched with some very interesting case studies, Browning illustrates how ordinary men can be made into seemingly ruthless killers. Stalin used many of the same tactics in the Soviet Union, pitting one ethnic group against another, knowing that there would be little identification between ethnic groups in times of war. Browning provides the background of the men that comprised the battalion and the early vascilation and indecision that took place before finally being used as an execution squad in the months leading up to the Final Solution. He takes the readers through the horrific scenes, showing just how easy it was to succumb to the dictates being handed down through a long chain of command. Browning sees it is a fault-line that runs through humanity and is not specific to any one racial or ethnic group, but is an outgrowth of the devastating conditions of war.
Rating:
Summary: The dark side of humanity
Review: Browning's book came as a welcome relief after trudging through much of Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners. It is interesting that he and Goldhagen approached Battalion 101 from diametrically opposite directions. Browning does not try to assess blame, but rather focus on the circumstances which led to the notorious killing spree of this battalion in Poland. Well researched with some very interesting case studies, Browning illustrates how ordinary men can be made into seemingly ruthless killers. Stalin used many of the same tactics in the Soviet Union, pitting one ethnic group against another, knowing that there would be little identification between ethnic groups in times of war. Browning provides the background of the men that comprised the battalion and the early vascilation and indecision that took place before finally being used as an execution squad in the months leading up to the Final Solution. He takes the readers through the horrific scenes, showing just how easy it was to succumb to the dictates being handed down through a long chain of command. Browning sees it is a fault-line that runs through humanity and is not specific to any one racial or ethnic group, but is an outgrowth of the devastating conditions of war.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible work
Review: Christopher Browning has written one of the most important, well researched and written books on the Holocaust and WW II. Browning has a unique gift in that he is an extremely accomplished academic historian that does exhaustive research but also has the gift of making it extremely readable. Browning richly documents the beginnings of the killings in Poland and every killing operation by Police Battalion 101 there after. He also doesn't get caught up in the "numbers" game, so often the sheer numbers of killings can overwhelm a reader and they lose their meaning and focus that each one of those deaths was a human life, with a family and friends. Browning exhaustively documents the numbers killed, but does it in such a way that I believe a reader doesn't "lose themselves" in the numbers. Finally, Browning definately accomplishes his goal of proving that each man of Police Battalion 101 was "just like us" and not some evil abberation of nature. He shows the feelings of the men about each killing operation they are involved in and how some of the men refused to participate, correctly believing the whole operation evil. Browning shows the lengths that many of the men, unwilling to back out, went to to be able to block out what they did, using alcohol as their primary means of escape. They knew what they were doing was evil, they just refused to stop. Even the photograps provided tell a story in themselves, in one of them several members of the battalion are facing the camera, one of them actually has a smile on his face as they're driving Jews off to be killed. For those interested in the beginnings of the "Final Solution" this book is a great place to start, not that overreaching, under documented, badly written unscholarly piece of trash written by Daniel Goldhagen. Additionally, Browning has a new afterward in his book as a response to Goldhagen, it's an education in itself.
Rating:
Summary: An astonishingly personal view of war criminals.
Review: Christopher Browning tackles the challenge of getting inside of the minds of the men who carried out the worst war crimes of the last century--maybe of all humanity. He paints an intimate picture of the 101st Reserve Police Battalion as they struggle to come to terms with the reality of the Final Solution as it happens. The study reveals that these men were not monsters, as we would like to believe them to be, but "ordinary men" who found themselves in an extraordinary situation. Browning's argument is largely based on recorded testimony from the Neuremberg Trials. Using this testimony he discovers that these men are not driven to kill with an animal rage born of unnatural hatred for Jews, but rather by the pressures of society. This is not to say that anti-semitism was not a factor, or that the crimes commited were somehow less heonous because they were not done out of irrational hate, just that these people were not extraordinary. This idea is frightening because it suggests that the Holocaust was not a product of mass insanity, it was a basic failure in human nature. Browning backs the theory with anectdotal information about the men of Reserve Police Battalion 101 on their mission of destruction, and a psychological study on the pressures to conform to peers and recognized authorities. Ordinary Men achieves its purpose with masterful skill. It is an historical work which transcends its field to provide insight not only into an historical debate, but simple human nature. One can not begin to understand the Holocust without first reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: Like The Rest Of Us
Review: Drawing extensively on primary source material, including transcripts of investigations and war crimes trials, Browning asks how "ordinary men" could have carried out the horrific acts that are described in his book in such detail. His answer is disturbing, because he avoids facile generalizations that would provide a comfortable psychological distance between "us" and "them." Browning convincingly shows that the men of Reserve Police Battalion 101 were in many ways like the rest of us, both strong and weak, evil but also at times conscience-stricken and conflicted, men caught up in the events swirling around them during the Nazi invasion of Poland, who were personally responsible for their part of that maelstrom. This brings us uncomfortably close to these ordinary men and those events, with its implication that the real danger is the one that lies within. Browning's book is troubling, very compelling, and an important contribution.
Rating:
Summary: Like The Rest Of Us
Review: Drawing extensively on primary source material, including transcripts of investigations and war crimes trials, Browning asks how "ordinary men" could have carried out the horrific acts that are described in his book in such detail. His answer is disturbing, because he avoids facile generalizations that would provide a comfortable psychological distance between "us" and "them." Browning convincingly shows that the men of Reserve Police Battalion 101 were in many ways like the rest of us, both strong and weak, evil but also at times conscience-stricken and conflicted, men caught up in the events swirling around them during the Nazi invasion of Poland, who were personally responsible for their part of that maelstrom. This brings us uncomfortably close to these ordinary men and those events, with its implication that the real danger is the one that lies within. Browning's book is troubling, very compelling, and an important contribution.
Rating:
Summary: The members weren't "ordinary people"
Review: I have a large collection of books on WWII and the Holocaust. When we talk about people it pays to remember the culture in which they were brought up and the beliefs they held. There were brutal ghettos in Germany (especially Frankfort) long before the war. There were also people in all the countries of the Reich that helped Jews despite the danger that sometimes killed them as well. They helped physically, which is easier to document, but also (and probably more important) by "misinterpreting", losing and delaying orders. Slowing the process where they could. Many of them will never be known, but their influence could be profound. This DOES NOT EXCUSE THE FIRST GROUP. But just as the terrorists of today, upbringing and religion in combination once again create unspeakable horrors. So, my friend in Ontario, it is not IF such things can happen. The have and are, all over the world. And it is many times harder to fight cowards in masks who hide in the dark and rejoice in the suicide bombing that will send the bomber to heaven. Look at the records of the Japanese suicide pilots and the damage they caused beyond any "normal" attack while they died for the Emporer. Strongly held belief creates people who act far beyond what we may TRULY understand.
Rating:
Summary: Very interesting
Review: I picked thi up for a dollar at my local bookswap and found this to be a very interesting read.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting and informative
Review: I read this book to get a glimpse into what would make ORDINARY individuals turn into effecient killing machines. I am brought up in a world where i look at crimes and say, "How can people do that?" So the point this book makes that anyone, including myself, is prone to this persuasion and moral altering is very powerful, and i found it interesting just how Himmler and his officials went about it.
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