Ordinary Men

A detailed Summary of Ordinary Men


HIST 2306 E Book Abstract: ORDINARY MEN by Christopher Browning

Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning accounts for the actions of the German Order Police ( more specifically the actions of Reserve Police Battalion 101in 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 be drafted into the regular forces: army, navy, air force. Browning himself is uncertain of the accuracy of information that he provides because he based his study on personal testimony recorded in postwar legal investigations. This also offers a biographical profile of a German unit that consisted of approximately 500 men who in the sixteen months starting in July of 1942 participated in the slaughter of more than 80,000 jews. Between August of 1942 and May of 1943 the accounts of the number of jews deported from their homes was estimated at a minimum of 45,200 men women and children as well as an estimated minimum of 38,000 jews shot and killed betwee!

Browning's book is very well written and researched to an exhaustive point. His intent seems to be a focus on the activities of German Police Battali


Walter Reich's review in the New York Times Book Review of April 12th 1992, touches more on the aspect of the state of mind of these men who had been given the task of executing the Jewish community in Poland; " We know a lot about how the Germans

In his review, Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, New Repub 207:49 July 13 1992, refers to the fact that Brownings book does reduce " the German's singular and deeply rooted, racist anti-semitism to little more than one manifestation of a common social psychological phenomenon..." Although Browning does state that the social and peer pressures eased the German's transformation into being mass murderers. Even if theses pressures are powerful, it doesn't account for the actions of all the Germans in every aspect of the war. The soldiers and reservists couldn't have been all that opposed to the killings when given the option to remove themselves from the killings and they didn't. To take things to another extreme they actually volunteered for killing missions which goes to show to what point they believed in the justification of murdering the Jews without exception and without any compassion as if they enjoyed watching them suffer.

to do it." Browning is able to tell us in his book about the lives of these Germans and how th

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Approximate Word count = 859
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels

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