ORDINARY MEN reserve police battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland by Christopher R. Browning

This study of a killing unit comprised of older reservists not particularly Nazified, tells the story of certain actions and hunts against Jews during WWII.  A few years later, another study about the same unit came out with a much harsher conclusion: "Hitler's willing Executioners".

Mr. Browning's study is a careful study that concludes that ordinary people can commit terrible atrocities.  He coins a term 'multi-causal' to mean that there were many factors that contributed to making Police Battalion 101 murderous people.  He does not share Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's conclusion that Germany's deep seated Antisemitism morphed into a unique 'eliminationist' Antisemitism that created an accompanying alacrity to the killing of the Jews.

There are testimonies to the effect that many of the men were revulsed by killing innocent unarmed men women and children on the one hand and others that enthusiastically not only carried out the murder but rather trained others to point the bayonet to the back of the neck and fire as to be the most efficient method of killing.  Many deliberately misfired or aimed high because they just couldn't bring themselves to brutally murder.  What is clear, however, are those that protested killing only did so out weakness or squeamishness and not out of moral concerns.  Those that carried out the orders were considered 'tough' and those that did not were considered 'weak'.  Only one person, seems to have stepped away from the killings out of morality and surprisingly suffered no consequences for his protest.

Mr. Browning concludes that many factors contributed to create the monster: Antisemitism, conformity, obedience to authority, autocratic rule, fear of punishment.  He cites Stanley Milgram's famous experiments in the 1960's that seem to prove average people will easily inflict pain on other never taking responsibility, but rather, deferring to authority pressed for 'why did you do it?'  He has since rejected Mr. Goldhagen's conclusion that something distinct to Germans and German culture made them enthusiastic Jew Killers.  Mr. Browning has some compelling arguments against Mr. Goldhagen.  For example, there were culturally non Germans in the group.  He also cites Poles and Lithuanians as enthusiastic killers.  He demonstrates that Germans did not have a monopoly on deep seated Jew Hatred.  The dispute, I believe can be summed up about 'alacrity'.  Goldhagen concludes the Germans killed with unique alacrity and Browning concludes that 'alacrity' was not clearly present in the majority of cases as much as conformity and obedience to do one's duty.

This is an excellent study that employs the tools of the prudent historian.