Rating: 
Summary: Ordinary Men, But Not Ordinary Motivations
Review: The focus of Christopher Browning's Ordinary Men is how and why could the seemingly ordinary men of Police Battalion 101 shoot and deport Jews as they did, mostly in Poland's version of the Final Solution. He draws on the interrogations of over 100 members of Police Battalion 101 conducted during the 1960s. Lurking in the background is the commonly held misconception of the perpetrators of the Holocaust as anti-Semitic, Nazis, and sadistic. Browning suggests that what is striking about the men of Police Battalion 101 is their ordinariness. First of all, they were middle-aged (32-48), meaning that they had been exposed to alternative world views because they had been socialized before the Nazis came to power and they had families. Secondly, with the exception of the officers who were career policemen, they were working-class, one of the groups least inclined to support the Nazis. Only a quarter of the group were members of the Nazi party, most of whom were the officers, and only six had been members of the party before Hitler, most of whom had not gone on to much within the party ranks. Thirdly, they were from Hamburg, which was not known for its support of the Nazis. Fourthly, unlike S.S. men, they were not trained killers, but had been selected because they were too old for the army or because they had volunteered to avoid the draft. Seemingly then, their age, class, region, and reason for selection suggest ordinariness and no indication that these men would become mass murderers. Nevertheless, we learn that almost all of these men were involved in shootings and deportations to Treblinka. What is most shocking is that on several occasions commanding officers like Major Trapp offered them chances to withdraw themselves from the murder process. According to Browning, only 10-20% accepted such an offer. According to Browning, the only punishment these men faced was the ridicule of their colleagues. He suggests that the men of Police Battalion 101 knew that people were not punished and were reassured by occasional tearful breakdowns by commanding officers. Browning also suggests that these men had untold numbers of opportunities to remove themselves when not under watchful eyes, such as not pursuing their victims mercilessly when scavenging through a forest. Nevertheless, volunteers were always plentiful, even from musicians that accompanied the battalion. Browning suggests that anti-Semitism and indoctrination had little to do with why the men killed as they did. He goes on to suggest that the amount of indoctrination that the men received was really quite small. Browning also claims that the men of the battalion reported that they were repulsed by the gruesomeness of the killing process. Browning claims that their educational level prevents them from articulating that they were really morally repulsed. In other words, these men were not anti-Semitic, their indoctrination could not have made them so, and they had a lot of problems with what they were doing. So why did they do it? According to Browning, it was pressure to conform. Browning's case-study approach, i.e. focusing on a specific police battalion, is a refreshing change from the traditional focus on the camps. And some of the individual parts of the book are fascinating, including the Harvest Festival hunt, the person of Major Trapp, the father that turns in his daughter to save his own life, and the Polish husband that chooses to be shot with his Jewish wife. However, there are a number of problems with his work, including its central premise. In hindsight, we can see that perhaps these men faced nothing other than a good deal of verbal abuse from their colleagues if they did not partake in the murders. But, no matter how many people the men saw go unpunished or how many officers they saw in tears, they better than anybody, understood the illogical and unpredictable nature of the Third Reich. In other words, could they really have been confident enough of not been punished to cause them to withdraw in large numbers? Browning relies on the post-war testimony of men who have a pressing interest to downplay their willingness to participate in killing activities and their anti- Semitism. Also, a few hours a week of indoctrination is considerable. The level of indoctrination increases when one considers that just about everything during this time was steeped in anti-Semitic garb. The men may claim that anti-Semitism had very little to do with it and that indoctrination was not a factor, but how can they judge themselves reliably? Not to mention, their enthusiastic participation in search and destroy missions to ferret out hiding Jews and the level of volunteering which characterized this group suggests anything other than an unarticulated moral repulsion. What these men were expressing revulsion at was the blood and guts on their clothes, nothing more. One also has to ask why Browning is unwilling to believe these men when they say that they were repulsed by the gruesomeness and offer his own explanation of moral revulsion, when he is willing to believe them any other time. One also has to wonder how ordinary this group is when many of its leaders were career cops and members of the Nazi Party. The claim that the men did what they did because of the pressure of conformity is most unsatisfactory. I agree with Browning that it was not a matter of bureaucracy or routine, nor was it a matter of segmentation and depersonalization of the murder process through space. Clearly, the men with brains and guts splattered on them were waist high in the Final Solution. But are we supposed to accept that peer pressure caused men to butcher other men repeatedly, even as they walked with old women and young girls to graves time and time again to shoot them in the back of the head? There are many weaknesses with Daniel Goldhagen's book Hitler's Willing Executioners, but his treatment of this Battalion is far more satisfactory that Browning's. There is too much evidence suggesting that these men were enthusiastic murderers.
Rating: 
Summary: Illuminating dark events
Review: The power of "Ordinary Men" is its ability to convey the magnitude of the Holocaust by recounting the activities of a single battalion of German policemen stationed in eastern Poland in 1942-43. Browning keeps his focus on the atrocities committed by this 500-man battalion, without straying to discuss related parties or neighboring geographies. Far from creating a myopic study, this focus serves to underscore the breadth of the Nazis' extermination program during the Second World War. The key strengths of the book are Browning's careful research of German judicial archives from the 1960s, as well as his balanced interpretation of the battalion's crimes and of humanity's capacity for committing organized mass murder. The main shortcoming is that the author's analysis is saved almost entirely for the last chapter, rather than accompanying the relevant passages. This creates a dichotomy which is only a minor drawback to an otherwise extraordinary historical work.
Rating: 
Summary: A very carefully researched and written book
Review: The thesis is darkness lurks in the hearts of men. But I'm not sure it is that much. Remember the comment about the Nazis--the "banality of evil." Reserve Police Batallion 101 fits the definition. Evil isn't interesting. In that sense it isn't even evil. It is simply cruel, stupid, monstrous without insight or knowlege. As interesting and as evil as a meat grinder. But the Jews were the meat, and the men of the police batallion were the motor that ran the grinder.
Some of the reviews compare the German policemen to the Americans against the Japanese in WWII or in Viet Nam.
Big difference, I would say, between a caculated, deliberate plan to exterminate a race, men, women, children, virtually all non-combatants, and ferocity in war against an armed enemy
Rating:
Summary: A tremendous research effort
Review: This book is a rare combination of scholarly analysis and narrative style. It is equally good for the casual reader and serious student. The fact that Goldhagen lifted large portions of this book's narrative storyline should be an indication of how solid the research was. This information is a goldmine that Goldhagen stripmined for his own conclusions. Fortunately, Browning has a keen authorial voice and clearly draws his own conclusions on the culpability of Battalion 101. This is a rare, serious glimpse at the perpetrators of the Holocaust.
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Summary: Extremely important look at the Final Solution
Review: This book is just incredible; it is unfortunate the Christopher Browning even has to think twice about Daniel Goldhagen (the mere mention of whose name is giving unwarranted attention). This book has created one of the absolutely most important lenses through which to view the participation of "ordinary" Germans in the Final Solution. In the newest edition of the book, Goldhagen's conclusions are soundly dismissed (and it becomes obvious that Goldhagen is probably influenced by his own bias and bigotry towards the Germans). Browning is fair in his portrayal of Police Battalion 101, showing that some men had little to no compunctions about killing, while others refused to participate. There are definitely no excuses being made for these men, but at the same time one can see that they are being swept up by the events and atmosphere of the day. The prevalence of alcohol at many of the Battalion's actions indicates the pain the men were dealing with at the time. They were definitely not Goldhagen's "willing executioners." Browning does much to assuage the guilt of ordinary Germans by pointing out the participation in the killings by non-Germans (the Croats, Romanians, and "Hiwis," for example). The German people should not necesarily be held responsible, for 99% of the guilt must lie with the Nazi leadership. This is not to say that the nation should be completely forgivin, though. Anyone interested in Holocaust history or the "Goldhagen debate" must read this book!
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Summary: Why Poles Sometimes Killed Fugitive Jews: The Truth
Review: This book is primarily about the role of "ordinary" middle-aged German citizens in the murder of Jews. To his credit, and unlike most educational Holocaust materials, Browning does not limit himself to a purely Judeo-centric approach to the Holocaust. For example, he also discusses the role of Battalion 101 in the murder of considerable numbers of Polish Christians. Browning is also careful to screen-out attempts by the German killers to soft-pedal their own cruelties, and to shift the blame of their criminal actions on the Poles. Browning departs from the usual simplistic anti-Polish bias of most popular-level Holocaust material. Specifically, charges are sometimes levelled about Poles killing Jews, and these accusations are made in a complete contextual vacuum of actual wartime events. Browning cites evidence from the testimonies of the men in Battalion 101 that fugitive Jews often robbed (and, though not mentioned, also killed) Polish peasants. This, rather than the supposedly incurable Polish anti-Semitism, was what motivated some Polish peasants to turn fugitive Jews over to the Germans or to kill them on their own. It was protections. Browning appears to be the first non-Polish author who has pointed out this central fact in Polish-Jewish relations during the German occupation of Poland. However, Browning could have added that the brutalities of the German occupation reduced the food wages of Polish gentiles to low levels, and this is the main reason why more Poles did not want to share their food with fugitive Jews (thus encouraging Jews to resort to banditry). Nevertheless, many Poles did sacrificially (and at the risk of the death penalty in the hands of the Germans) assist the fugitive Jews. The men of Battalion 101 seldom mentioned the latter, but Browning corrects their bias, and points out the considerable Polish assistance to the Jews. I wish Holocaust education material followed Browning's lead of objectivity.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Good Book
Review: This book really makes one shiver. I have read a number of books on the holocaust and World War 2 and this book absolute is the rawest of the books covering the genocide. That is not to say the book had a blow by blow account of the methods of killing, but just the history of this group of solders and the off handed way the mass killing was described. The people doing this killing were just normal guys, not unlike friends, family or myself. That is what was so disturbing to me. It is much easier to think that the mass killing was done by some group of homicidal maniacs let out of the asylum and given guns that that is not the case. I do not think I can recommend this book enough; it really gives you a feel for the tremendous crime that took place. You will not be able to stop reading the book until you have completed it.
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Summary: A MUST-READ SO HISTORY WON'T REPEAT ITSELF
Review: This book reveals how a military idealogy can transform shopkeepers, bankers, and any other average citizen into a killing machine that destroys men, women and children on the sole basis of ethnic background. It tells the truth about Nazi controlled militia groups executing the Jewish peoples and how they tried to cope with the reality of what they had done. It is a must read so history will not repeat itself.
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Summary: The ease of going with the flow...
Review: This book sort of explains the question "how could normal people do such terrible things?" or "how could normal people act that way?" - When those normal people are put into a situation that is abnormal for them and where they are the superior force there is no telling how far people will drift from their previous normal behavior and thinking. This book is very interesting in that it shows that most people will conform to even disgusting behavior if they start to feel it is the norm through indoctination, reality, or peer pressure. - . An interesting study of how people can be modified in their thinking and behavior.
Rating:
Summary: It could happen to any one of us...
Review: This gripping work written by Christopher Browning should serve to educate all of us. It IS possible, under the right conditions that any one of us could contribute to the slaughter of men, women and children. Browning is an indefatigable researcher with great credibility in the field. 100% recommended.
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