Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland

Browning uses incredible documentation from postwar German interogations of men of this unit involved in wartime attrocities. He had access to more than 400 testimonies of the over 500 men that made up this unit during the war. As such he is able to analyse the actions and thinking in greater detail than most other German units.

He describes the insidious use of even these units as first guards on trains to transport Jews to extermination camps, their eventual use in rounding up Jews in the Polish Ghettos, and their use as actual shootes in the extermination of whole villages.

That this unit of 500 men --- made up of police reservists, not trained in combat, and seeminly tangential to entire holocaust programme --- could be directly responsible for the shooting deaths of 38,000 people and the transportion of 100,000s of thousands of others to their deaths, makes depressing reading indeed.

Unfortunately, although Browning documents the horror of this representative small unit, he does not really answer his question of how a father with loving kids in Germany, with no combat experience could one day, be ordered to a village in Poland and in the small hours of the morning kill women and children just because they are Jewish.

Browning may be begging the question when he says "ordinary men" --- one thing that may have made them far from ordinary was the corroding and infective influence of racialist Nazi claptrap that came to be accepted truth in German society in the years leading up to the war. Browning's book does not go into this question, and it is not covered by the interogators, nor certainly not volunteered by those who were interogated. It is however the central question of how an ordinary husband could walk up to children, women and old men and shoot them on the spot with little remorse or, at best, a casuistic reasoning. It is the central question that needs answering: how much can racialist ideology, condoned and encouraged by society, lead to turning ordinary men into extraordinary monsters. That is the horror of this book and one that one should be encouraged to find out the answer to.

* Note this is not a light read. It will turn your stomach at times and wrench your heart.


The dark side of humanity   November 18, 2003
James Ferguson (Vilnius, Lithuania)
45 out of 51 found this review helpful

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.


HOW DO ORDINARY MEN BECOME COLD-BLOODED KILLERS?   May 29, 2006
Steven Hancock (Winston Salem, NC United States)
34 out of 36 found this review helpful

"Ordinary Men" chronicles the rise and fall of Reserve Police Battalion 101, one of several units that took part in the Final Solution to the Jewish Question while in Poland. During the course of their stay, they were responsible for the shooting of 38,000 Jews, while also deporting 45,200 to the Treblinka Concentration Camp. The book argues that the men of Reserve Police Battalion 101, and other units like it, were comprised of ordinary men. It begs the question: How did ordinary men become the cold-blooded killers of the Holocaust?
Author Christopher R. Browning does a tremendous job of covering the ground. He also presents a strong case that these people were indeed ordinary men, who came from ordinary backgrounds, only to end up being transformed into the murderers of thousands. However, the book also stresses that some of the men, including several officers, could not be considered "ordinary," as they were trained in Hitler's Nazi organizations from youth. Browning also does something nearly impossible: He humanizes these people without excusing their horrendous actions. Their defense that "they were just following orders" just doesn't fit the bill, as some refused to take part in the actions, and asked to be relieved. If a few men could get themselves relieved from doing the killings, why did so many more not? That is the main question the book gives.
"Ordinary Men" is an extraordinary book that chronicles just one unit that took part in the murder of innocent Jews, while also presenting a good case of how ordinary men can become killers. I highly recommend this book to all students of the Holocaust.
Grade: A+


Extremely important look at the Final Solution   May 22, 2000
Patrick J Kinne (Minnesota,USA)
29 out of 42 found this review helpful

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!


Why Poles Sometimes Killed Fugitive Jews: The Truth   November 9, 2001
29 out of 56 found this review helpful

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.