Christopher Browning

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.

was the goal. In many cases, this was achieved. Germany hoped to create lands free of Jews; judenfrei. German blood was perceived as pure, creating the need to cleanse the nation of the unkempt, parasitic Jews (Browning 44, 152). Ordinary Men by the historian and author, Christopher Browning, follows the men of the German Reserve Police Battalion 101 as they work towards this goal of extermination The story leads readers through these men’s first experiences “clearing” the area of the Jewish population

The purpose of history is to understand the past so that we can take wisdom from those experiences and improve the present and the future. The events that occurred during the Final Solution are so horrendous that often it is viewed as so repugnant that we label the people involved as purely evil, they are dehumanized. This is dangerous, as it doesn’t allow us to obtain wisdom, perspective, and empathy for those involved. Ordinary Men allows an opportunity to see these events from the eyes of the

work which explores this question is ‘Ordinary Men’ by Christopher Browning, in which he investigates particularly the Reserve Police Battalion, which was active from 6th May 1940. This was a Nazi German paramilitary formation of Ordnungspolizei (Order Police), who were commanded by, and were serving under the control of the SS by law. Of these men, several were from Hamburg and many were ‘Reserve’ policemen as they were too old to join the army. The others were from a wide range of occupational

Ordinary Men Essay “How did a battalion of middle-aged reserve policemen find themselves facing the task of shooting some 1,500 Jews in the Polish village of Josefow in the summer of 1942” (Browning, 3)? This question is asked in the beginning of Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 written by Christopher Browning, a historian and famous author. This compelling book tells the real story of the German Order Police throughout the two world wars, specifically World War Two. However, he mainly focuses

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Christopher Browning is a historian on the holocaust and Nazi Germany. He is the Frank Porter Graham distinguished professor of history at the university of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. THE SUMMARY: Ordinary men take place during the summer of 1942 in the polish village of Jozefow. The book tells us the story of normal working family men of the Reserve Police Battalion 101 who were commission into carrying out horrific crimes and mass killings on Polish Jews. The main characters

As with all historical analysis, it’s important to preserve the agency of those who were involved. In Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning, the argument is posed that due to the complexities of choice in the Nazi regime, the men involved in the mass murder of the Jewish population did so due to a perceived inability to liberate oneself. While the circumstances surrounding the men of Reserve Police Battalion 101 were often constrictive, these men actively served the Nazi regime and lead to the murder

1 This summary paper on Christopher Browning's Ordinary Men will provide a summary and an overview of the main ideas of the text while attempting to focus on Browning's overall central argument which revolves around these seemingly “normal” and “ordinary men” and how they were transformed into murderers due to various elements. The summary paper will also be dedicated to the overall significance of the book and its significance in relation to the history of the Holocaust as a whole. Browning's

In the novel Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning there contains a thesis in which the novel is centered around. This thesis is the theory that these ordinary people could commit these atrocities in the Holocaust because of the pressure from their peers and country that were participating in these appalling acts of violence and massacres of innocent people. The basis of this novel relies on the need to show that these men were not necessarily physically forced to commit these heinous acts, but that

Christopher Browning and Philip Hallie are the authors of Ordinary Men and Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed respectively. Two extremely interesting books about the World War II and the different behaviors and reactions of the society during that rough time. On his writing, Browning shows how “ordinary” men can change their beliefs and their common sense because of the influence of others. In this book, soldiers of the WWII were influenced by the government of Hitler. Browning called it "atrocity by policy”