Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning
I. Ordinary Men is the disconcerting examination of how a typical unit of middle-aged reserve policemen became active participants in the slaughter of tens of thousands of Polish Jews.
Reserve Police Battalion 101 was made up of approximately 500 men most from working and lower-middle-class neighborhoods in Hamburg Germany. They were police reservists, not trained in combat, some of whom worked with and had been friendly with Jews before the war.
Major Wilhelm Trapp, a WWI veteran and career police officer headed the battalion. On July 13, 1942 the 101st Police Battalion arrived in Jozefow where Major Trapp informed his men they had received orders to perform a "very unpleasant task". They were to round up all the Jews, separate the males of working age (to be taken to a work camp), and the remaining women, children and elderly were to be shot immediately. Pappa Trapp (as he was called by his men) then offered the battalion an unbelievable proposition; any of the older men who did not want to participate in the assignment, could excuse themselves without consequence. Very few refused. This was to be the beginning of one of the most brutal, steadfast, ruthless campaigns in Poland.
Following the massacre of over 1,500 Jews in Jozefow, the 101st Police Battalion participated in the cleansing of the ghettos, the deportation of 42,000 victims to the gas chambers of Treblinka, the "Jew Hunt" and the gunning down of over 38,000 Jews
during the Harvest Festival in the Lublin district. At the conclusion of their rampage, the body count was at least 83,000 Jews. ...
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...e in jeopardy.
I chose Ordinary Men because I wanted to come to some understanding as to how people can commit mass murder without a second thought. One of the most disturbing facts regarding the men is that they were given a choice to extricate themselves from the very beginning and so few chose to do so. I found myself trying to find valid reasons as to why they did what they did, but could not. I think it is only human to want to find a rationale for such contemptible, uncivilized actions. Browning, Christopher. Ordinary Men; Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. 1st edition. New York: Harper Perennial, 1993.
Jan T. Gross introduces a topic that concentrates on the violent acts of the Catholic Polish to the Jewish population of Poland during World War II. Researched documentation uncovered by Gross is spread throughout the whole book which is used to support the main purpose of this novel. The principal argument of Neighbors is about the murdering of Jews located in a small town, called Jedwabne, in eastern Poland. During this time, Poland was under German occupation. With an understanding of the that are occurring during this era, readers would assume that the Nazis committed these atrocious murders. Unfortunately, that is not the case in this book. The local
Band of Brothers is a fascinating book that captures moments lived by soldiers during World War II. It specifically relates to the History of a small unit of paratroopers known as Easy Company, 506 Regiment, 101st Airborne. It is a story that follows the company from its inception to the capture of Hitler’s nest. It begins with the training of these soldiers at Camp Toccoa, Georgia. The 140 members of easy company who were young men from different social levels were physically and mentally trained. This particular company had an extremely harsh training, but many believe it is because of this training that they were considered as one of the best rifle companies in the army.
During World War II, many German soldiers killed thousands of innocent lives, especially Jewish. However, not all lives lost during World War II, and the Holocaust be accounted for by German soldiers, and the mobile killing task force, Einsatzgruppen, but citizens themselves. In the book, Neighbors by Jan Gross, studies a Polish town called Jedwabne during World War II. The book provides evidence on a mass killing on July 10, 1941, by Polish citizens. The Polish citizens murdered roughly 350 victims, Jewish, in Jedwabne. This evidence brought to light by the author shows not all Germans were accountable for all the mass murders during the time period.
The arguments of Christopher Browning and Daniel John Goldhagen contrast greatly based on the underlining meaning of the Holocaust to ordinary Germans. Why did ordinary citizens participate in the process of mass murder? Christopher Browning examines the history of a battalion of the Order Police who participated in mass shootings and deportations. He debunks the idea that these ordinary men were simply coerced to kill but stops short of Goldhagen's simplistic thesis. Browning uncovers the fact that Major Trapp offered at one time to excuse anyone from the task of killing who was "not up to it." Despite this offer, most of the men chose to kill anyway. Browning's traces how these murderers gradually became less "squeamish" about the killing process and delves into explanations of how and why people could behave in such a manner.
There are also a few dates where a huge amount of Jews died. This is important to the topic because it shows the devastation killing squads can cause. During the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the killing squads followed the German Army. Their orders were to destroy all Jews, Communist, and Gypsies. “By the end of 1942, over a million Soviet Jews died” (USHMM). This is a very large amount of people to die in only half a year. During the summer of 1942, 137,346 Jews are killed according to S.S Karl Jaegers report. Almost all Jews in small towns in Lithuania are killed. 35,000 survivors are put into forced labor (USHMM). There was no good outcome for the Jews. It was either die or be put into labor. The facts and figures show the massive number of killed Jews. The killings would even be bigger if the time span was to increase.
The thesis of Christopher Browning’s Ordinary Men is that men anywhere can become killers/mass murderers in an extreme circumstance(s) as Reserve Police Battalion 101 did. But it is also about the fact that we all have a choice, responsibility as humans as to how we act, our decisions.
The interviews of survivors, saboteurs, and spies. Deborah Hopkinson, the author of this book, reconstructs the story and lets us, the readers, realize again, how severe the situation was in Denmark, when the Nazi's invaded their neighbor country. However, before, the Nazis thought that it was going to be a pushover, they were partially right. As the Nazis invaded Denmark, the danish government pretty much cleared the passage for them. But not all Danes were trying to accept the country's surrender. People like Niels Skov, Jorgen Kieler and his sister Elsebet, and his friend Klaus Rønholt, and Tommy Sneum were acting across the country, trying to let those Gerry's suffer.
Kristallnacht, a wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms, took place on November 9 and 10, 1938 and is often referred to as the "Night of Broken Glass." Organized by Goebbels and Heydrich, head of the Security Service, the campaign of violence resulted in the destruction of many synagogues and thousands of Jewish businesses. Nazis in Germany torched synagogues, vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses, killed close to 100 Jews, and sent more than 30,000 to Nazi concentration camps. Starting on November 9 and continuing into the next day, Nazi mobs vandalized and even burned down hundreds of synagogues throughout Germany and damaged, if not completely destroyed, thousands of Jewish homes, schools, businesses, hospitals and cemeteries.
“A workman was murdered in the streets last night for refusing to strike.” This article reveals riots breaking out in Warsaw between the Gendarmes and some locals. Warsaw is in frantic mode and blood has been shed between the crowd and troops. Furthermore, bombs are being thrown, people are shot, and the workmen of Warsaw are angry. This article also explains how imperialism was used and how it effected the lives of those living in the area. The article, “Warsaw Mob Fired,” showcases how imperialism affects the locals of Warsaw by narrating the events that take place when the Gendarmes invade their town.
“September 1939, the German forces defeated the Polish Army in two weeks. Jews were ordered to register all family members and relocated to major cities. More than 10,000 Jews from the countryside arrive in Krakow daily” [1]. Oskar Schindler, a German member of the Nazi Party, arrives to the to the city as well to make his fortune from the war, he staffs his factory with Jewish workers for basic reasons, but when the Nazi Party begins to exterminate Jews in the Krakow area, Schindler organizes his workers his workers to be protected to keeps his factory operational, in doing so he begins to realize he is also saving innocent lives.
How do we reconcile personal freedom with the need to abide by the interests of society? Should we celebrate individuality or the sacrifice thereof? Or rather, should the individual be subjected to the masses, or should the masses be subjected to the individual? (Allen 144). A myriad of writers have attempted to answer these questions to different ends. In A Clockwork Orange and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Burgess and Kesey reach similar conclusions by employing insane characters to discuss the negative influences society has on the individual; in both stories, characters must endure the mind-altering treatments of morally ambiguous scientists in order to better “fit” into society. The authors both romanticize misfits who remain untarnished by their corrupt peers. Ralph Ellison echoes these sentiments in his The Invisible Man, in which he advocates for individual freedom and personal responsibility instead of the submission to authority. His perspective is best illustrated through an analysis of existentialist philosophy as it relates absurdism in his novel. The narrator in the Invisible Man grapples with finding his place in society until he learns to accept the intrinsic absurdities of life and learns to embrace the freedom that accompanies that realization.
...them to forced- labor camps at Poniatowa, Trawniki and the Lublin/Majdanek concentration camps. At least 7,000 Jews died fighting or hiding in the ghetto, while the SS and police sent the other 7,000 to the Treblinka killing center.
In The Stranger, author Albert Camus involves the sun throughout the novel in order to display mans vulnerability. He presents the sun as a powerful, unfortunate influence on main character, Meursault and describes him as a simple minded, easily influenced, mellow individual. The Main influence in Meursaults’ life is the sun. Meursault is bothered by it however he does not make much of an attempt to stop or ignore it. He simply permits the suns heat, accepting it and affirms his personality. Becoming vulnerable is basic however with a more vigorous charisma, persuasion can be avoided. However an able source such as the sun, Camus establishes is a little more difficult to avoid.
John Green’s wonderful yet tragic best-selling novel The Fault in Our Stars tells a heart-wrenching story of two teenage cancer patients who fall in love. Augustus Waters and Hazel Lancaster live in the ordinary city of Indianapolis, where they both attend a support group for cancer patients. Falling in love at first sight, the two are inseparable until Augustus’s cancer comes out of remission, turning Hazel’s world upside. This is one of the best young-adult fiction novels of the year because it keeps readers on the edge of their seat, uses themes to teach real life lessons, and uses a realistic point of view instead of the cliché happy ending of most books.
The Assault touches on many different aspects of a very traumatic night during the second world war, in which all but one member of the Steenwijk family were murdered by the German Field Police. Anton Steenwijk was the only survivor from that fateful night in 1945; he was a mere twelve years old at the time. His age and his innocence