Ordinary MenEssay Preview: Ordinary MenReport this essayThe arguments that Christopher Browning emphasizes in Ordinary Men are based on his beliefs about the Holocaust. His argument touches base on the idea that regular citizens of Germany could commit such horrible acts without being coerced into doing so. He examines the side of the Reserve Police Battalion 101 and tries to figure out just why these gentlemen participated in the mass shootings and deportations of the Holocaust. In fact should these “gentlemen” even be called gentlemen enlight of the acts they committed upon other men?
The men that Browning writes on were simply ordinary men from various places in Germany. They were mainly middle to lower class men which made of most of the population therefore proving that this was not a secretive issue. The group was made up of both citizens and career policemen. These men had been born into the early beginnings of Nazism but were probably not entrenched into the political ideology that so many of the Germans had been brainwashed into believing. Major Wilhelm Trapp, a career policeman and World War I veteran headed the battalion. Trapp joined the Nazi party in 1932, but never became an officer in the SS. His two captains, Hoffmann and Wohlauf, were both trained SS officers whom carried out the orders of Trapp or relayed them down to the lower command. The reserve lieutenants, all seven of them, were drafted into the Order Police because they were ordinary men. They were middle class, educated, and thriving in their regular lives. The thing was that hardly any of these men were in the SS. About five of these reserve lieutenants were in the Nazi party but none were members of the SS. Of the remaining officers twenty-two were Party members, but none were members of the SS. Some of the battalion were blue-collar workers also. Less than half were lower-class workers and the remaining two percent were middle-class but not greatly successful. “Most of these men were raw recruits with no previous experience in German occupied territory” (1). These men were not natural killers but normal everyday citizens such as my father or an uncle. Many of these men had lived some to most of their lives and were past their prime. This proved to be too much for them to be soldiers of the Nazi party but great candidates for working as police.
It is surprising and unbelievable how much this one battalion contributed to the final solution. These men took it upon themselves to carry out the vicious plans of a Germany looking to destroy and entire culture of people. Sure they had some moments where they might have paused and thought about what they were doing but these proved to be brief and ineffective. “Having explained what awaited his men, Trapp then made an extraordinary offer: if any of the older men among them did not feel up to the task that lay before him, he could step out”. (2) These men had just been ordered to kill all members of a town which was filled with mainly women and children. Trapp made this quaint offer that was denied by most. One must ask what type of man would step out after training for the police and then simply quit on that very thing that he had trained? Although the training had not been as extensive as soldiers endured it still created a sense of purpose between the men and it would also not have been a “manly” act. The 101st Battalion first order to do took place in Jozefow. This is where Trapp made the offer because the men were commanded to “shoot anyone trying to escape” and “those that were too sick or frail to walk to the marketplace, as well as infants and anyone offering resistance or attempting to hide, were to be shot on the spot”. (57) They proceeded to truck or march the Jews they found into the woods outside the village. “When the first truckload of thirty-five to forty Jews arrived, an equal number of policemen came forward and, face to face, were paired off with their victims.” (61) This was their first challenge so many of the men had trouble handling this situation because of their lack of experience. Most of them had to drink alcohol to calm their nerves and some even resorted to accepting Trapps offer and did not shoot. Trapp himself struggled with the order. “But he did not go to the forest itself or witness the executions; absence there was conspicuous.” (58) Tears even fell from his eyes as he told the men the orders. They had a special way of shooting the hostages called the “neck shot”. The men were told to place the end of their carbines on the cervical vertebrae at the base of the neck, but here too the shooting was done initially without fixed bayonets as a guide. The results of these were horrifying. The shooters were gruesomely besmirched with blood, brains, and bond splinters. It hung on their clothing.” (65) Their orders seemed rather strenuous at first but as time continued on the men seemed to take it as a daily part of their routine. “I made the effort, and it was possible for me, to shoot only children. It so happened that the mothers led the children by the hand. My neighbor then shot the mother and I shot the child that belonged to her, because I reasoned with myself that after all without its mother the child could not live any longer. It was supposed to be, so to speak, soothing my conscience to release children unable to live without their mothers.” (73) Browning then continues to explain what the statement meant. “The full weight of this statement, and the significance of the word choice of the former policeman, cannot be fully appreciated unless one knows that the German word for Ðrelease also means to Ðredeem or Ðsave when used in a religious sense. The one who Ðreleases is the ErlД¶ser Ð- the Savior or Redeemer!” (73) The police were now trying to deny the atrocities at which they were committing. To think of themselves like this made the men feel just a little better about doing these things.
When the commanders noticed the men were being affected by the shootings some changes were made. First, the 101st Battalion was assigned to clearing the ghettos and loading people on trains destined for the Treblinka death camp. The SS-trained soldiers were then given the hard work which helped remove the police mentally from the deaths, and made their work much more efficient. Their jobs were clearing the people off of the trains and checking the towns. “By mid-November 1942, following the massacres at Jozefow, Lomzay, Serokomla, Konskowola, and elsewhere, and the liquidation of the ghettos in Miedzyrzec, LukДÑ-w, Parczew, Radzyn, and Kock, the men of Reserve Battalion 101 had participated in the outright execution of at least 6,500 Polish Jews and the deportation of at least 42,000 more to
1) The SS-trained commandos and the military guards in Karmel, who had been at the camp during the summer of 1943, became nervous because the men had been killed. The commander ordered all orders to go out to the stations and clear every village. The soldiers were not under any illusions that they would be successful because there is no one to carry them out. They were still being trained and assigned to clear the ghettos. The SS-trained commandos in Karmel, who had been at the camp during the summer of 1943, became nervous because the men had been killed. The commander ordered all orders to go out to the stations and clear every village. The soldiers were not under any illusions that they would be successful because there is no one to carry them out. They were still being trained and assigned to clear the ghettos.
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In November 1942 three SS men were on duty in the Dnieper district, outside Karmel, at the height of the concentration camp’s destruction. The men were there not realizing that they were being used in a murder enterprise for the benefit of their fellow countrymen. The officers and men in Karmel were immediately assigned to the commandos who were also a quarter of a mile by railroad from the station and around the main road to the camp, which lay in direct line with the SS station-market. The officer overseeing them, who was only 26, was not even 17 hours into his new assignment. The three enlisted men were, however, sent before the end of November to a concentration camp of Brest: Dnieper; Dnieper to Lublin; and Lublin to Bialystrovsk. The officers were ordered to move on, where none of the men had ever worked before, and to get back in line by mid-December before the end of 1942. The officers arrived on December 8 at the Lublin station and the last two SS men were sent to Lublin. They were sent there again at the same place in October 1947, and then on September 5 at the train station. By that time, most of all the SS-trained commandos were preparing for deportations. Some of them already were in the camps. Many of the men now in the camp, who had served in the SS from August 1943 until July, were also in the camps. Even the commandos who had already been in the camps were now looking forward to deportations, only because that could remove the Jewish leadership from the camps. The commandos were also anticipating the arrival of a whole new generation of people as part of a mass deportation and concentration camp of the last resort in the world from the world Jews (Jews in Ghetto Dnieper). There is a very large Jewish majority here. This is not because they are in the country, but primarily because they are members of Jewish families. In the camps, the Jewish families have become the center of life in the Holocaust. Jews had already been sent
(2). During the last weeks of the war, the “Holocaust” was often blamed on Polish authorities rather than on Jewish people. The SS, on the other hand, had no problem with such criticism or was a supporter of Polish freedom. In December 1942, it was the first national liberation movement to officially begin a formal political process to achieve a political solution to the war and in August 1943, on behalf of the Polish People’s Commissariat for the Prevention of Holocaust, the Polish SS directed a delegation of its senior leaders to Białowska and Lublin to prepare a declaration. It would include the first such statement of its kind since 1948. The declaration called for further steps for the resolution of “the holocaust”. And just as a small group, organized in April 1943 on the basis of the “Holocaust Remembrance Fund”, was formed, the Białowska Party, which succeeded the National Executive Committee, a new political party of about 300 representatives, began to seek to make a declaration for a national election. On April 6. 1942, the Białowska Party received this declaration with the following signature in its own accord: “This is a new declaration for a national election, so that we may advance the cause of the free state.”[32] The declaration was signed by the Deputy President of the Białowska Party, Rizvanis, and all its members, and gave the authority to go to the Congress of the Polish Popular Front, or KPF.[33] The Reich People’s Commissariat was immediately appointed to this work, with the new Chair, of which the deputy President was a political leader. The party was renamed the Party for Peace and People’s War (PPPW). Its task was to implement the new rules of discipline and of peaceful protest. It was also to begin to apply the principle of “honour and distinction in the struggle for peace. We demand that the new law of Polish elections be followed up with a renewed program of discipline. In a previous order, Poland had taken part in its national elections when it was faced with serious difficulties. Yet no formal declaration was carried out. This was no different from in the case of the German elections in September or October 1918, when a separate policy of discipline was followed on a national basis. In the cases of other democratic states the rules of discipline were more frequently formulated in the interests of self-government. These rules of discipline were followed in the interests of international trade, but, during World War I the rules of discipline of those who fought did not exist. Poland was the first great democratic state to declare a national victory. Even in 1921, the Polish State Conference published the following statement and its proclamation: “We thank the People’s Assembly of Poland for the following declaration.”[34] The Reich People’s Commissariat for Peace and People’s War (PPRW), which was formed in April 1942 in Riga, led by the Deputy President of the PPPW, Vyacheslav Stilz
(2). During the last weeks of the war, the “Holocaust” was often blamed on Polish authorities rather than on Jewish people. The SS, on the other hand, had no problem with such criticism or was a supporter of Polish freedom. In December 1942, it was the first national liberation movement to officially begin a formal political process to achieve a political solution to the war and in August 1943, on behalf of the Polish People’s Commissariat for the Prevention of Holocaust, the Polish SS directed a delegation of its senior leaders to Białowska and Lublin to prepare a declaration. It would include the first such statement of its kind since 1948. The declaration called for further steps for the resolution of “the holocaust”. And just as a small group, organized in April 1943 on the basis of the “Holocaust Remembrance Fund”, was formed, the Białowska Party, which succeeded the National Executive Committee, a new political party of about 300 representatives, began to seek to make a declaration for a national election. On April 6. 1942, the Białowska Party received this declaration with the following signature in its own accord: “This is a new declaration for a national election, so that we may advance the cause of the free state.”[32] The declaration was signed by the Deputy President of the Białowska Party, Rizvanis, and all its members, and gave the authority to go to the Congress of the Polish Popular Front, or KPF.[33] The Reich People’s Commissariat was immediately appointed to this work, with the new Chair, of which the deputy President was a political leader. The party was renamed the Party for Peace and People’s War (PPPW). Its task was to implement the new rules of discipline and of peaceful protest. It was also to begin to apply the principle of “honour and distinction in the struggle for peace. We demand that the new law of Polish elections be followed up with a renewed program of discipline. In a previous order, Poland had taken part in its national elections when it was faced with serious difficulties. Yet no formal declaration was carried out. This was no different from in the case of the German elections in September or October 1918, when a separate policy of discipline was followed on a national basis. In the cases of other democratic states the rules of discipline were more frequently formulated in the interests of self-government. These rules of discipline were followed in the interests of international trade, but, during World War I the rules of discipline of those who fought did not exist. Poland was the first great democratic state to declare a national victory. Even in 1921, the Polish State Conference published the following statement and its proclamation: “We thank the People’s Assembly of Poland for the following declaration.”[34] The Reich People’s Commissariat for Peace and People’s War (PPRW), which was formed in April 1942 in Riga, led by the Deputy President of the PPPW, Vyacheslav Stilz
(2). During the last weeks of the war, the “Holocaust” was often blamed on Polish authorities rather than on Jewish people. The SS, on the other hand, had no problem with such criticism or was a supporter of Polish freedom. In December 1942, it was the first national liberation movement to officially begin a formal political process to achieve a political solution to the war and in August 1943, on behalf of the Polish People’s Commissariat for the Prevention of Holocaust, the Polish SS directed a delegation of its senior leaders to Białowska and Lublin to prepare a declaration. It would include the first such statement of its kind since 1948. The declaration called for further steps for the resolution of “the holocaust”. And just as a small group, organized in April 1943 on the basis of the “Holocaust Remembrance Fund”, was formed, the Białowska Party, which succeeded the National Executive Committee, a new political party of about 300 representatives, began to seek to make a declaration for a national election. On April 6. 1942, the Białowska Party received this declaration with the following signature in its own accord: “This is a new declaration for a national election, so that we may advance the cause of the free state.”[32] The declaration was signed by the Deputy President of the Białowska Party, Rizvanis, and all its members, and gave the authority to go to the Congress of the Polish Popular Front, or KPF.[33] The Reich People’s Commissariat was immediately appointed to this work, with the new Chair, of which the deputy President was a political leader. The party was renamed the Party for Peace and People’s War (PPPW). Its task was to implement the new rules of discipline and of peaceful protest. It was also to begin to apply the principle of “honour and distinction in the struggle for peace. We demand that the new law of Polish elections be followed up with a renewed program of discipline. In a previous order, Poland had taken part in its national elections when it was faced with serious difficulties. Yet no formal declaration was carried out. This was no different from in the case of the German elections in September or October 1918, when a separate policy of discipline was followed on a national basis. In the cases of other democratic states the rules of discipline were more frequently formulated in the interests of self-government. These rules of discipline were followed in the interests of international trade, but, during World War I the rules of discipline of those who fought did not exist. Poland was the first great democratic state to declare a national victory. Even in 1921, the Polish State Conference published the following statement and its proclamation: “We thank the People’s Assembly of Poland for the following declaration.”[34] The Reich People’s Commissariat for Peace and People’s War (PPRW), which was formed in April 1942 in Riga, led by the Deputy President of the PPPW, Vyacheslav Stilz