Ordinary Men Reserve Police Battalion

Ordinary Men

Reserve Police Battalion 101

In Ordinary Men, Christopher R. Browning tells the story of a non-descript German military unit during World War II called the Reserve Police Battalion 101. Through direct interviews with 125 of the Battalion's men conducted in the 1960's, Browning reveals the full scope of the unit's participation in the Final Solution in Poland. More important for Browning than the external world of these soldiers was their inner world. What made them agree to become mass murderers for the State?

Browning's description of the Battalion's inner workings reveals the seeming humanity and normalcy of the unit, which provokes further disbelief and curiosity. How could such men commit such atrocities? Browning's answer to this question is not easy in coming and may not be very satisfying for many people. Browning claims that there was nothing particularly exceptional, at least not in the context of Nazi Germany, about the battalion's men or their situations which would explain their wartime actions or absolve them of culpability. (Browning, 166) Instead, Browning concludes that, in terms of culpability, the soldiers occupied an elastic gray zone where their human decency was constantly tested and sometimes extinguished by the savagery of their mission. (Browning, 188-192)

Roadmap

Browning actually attempts to explain the behavior of the Battalion through a two-part inquiry. The first inquiry examines the Nazi Leadership's decision to pick such an unqualified group of executioners to the Battalion. The second inquiry examines the unbelievability became such enthusiastic killers. His answer to the first inquiry, which some may find anti-climactic, provides valuable insight into the thought process of Nazi leadership. Also, it enhances the sense of shock, making the second inquiry all the more pressing.

The Selection of the Group

Browning notes that the most amazing thing about the battalion is that it was composed of mostly middle-aged, fairly mild men, not reckless, impressionable youth. (Browning 163-164) Browning explains this curiosity by analyzing the recruitment rolls in light of the progress of the War. (Browning 165) He concludes that these stable, middle-aged family men were selected because of some insidious Nazi psychological strategy, but because they were some of the last able-bodied men available in Germany at the time. (Browning, 165)

Browning emphasizes the distinctiveness of the Battalion by constantly evaluating them against the traditional archetype of the Nazi killing machine. By doing so, Browning contrasts the genuinely disturbing Nazi soldier with the tentative Reserve soldiers. By including in his book the rather mundane experiences of the Reserve Police Battalion soldiers themselves, Browning further establishes them as "ordinary men," upsetting traditional notions of what a mass murderer should look like.

Situational and Individual Factors

The revelation that the Battalion soldiers were rather mild people provokes a feeling of puzzlement, almost to the point where one man's guess is as good as the next. Perhaps such an improbable phenomenon deserves an equally improbable explanation. As Browning demonstrates, it is certainly an historical question which lends itself to the imagination.

Considering the dysfunctional condition of Nazi Germany during this period, it is very tempting to imagine that it was actually the circumstances, not the individual, which compelled these soldiers to do what they did. After all, World War II saw mankind descend into an unprecedented level of brutality and cruelty. However, for Browning, situational or environmental explanations did not fit because the men of the Reserve Battalion were not under extreme duress. (Browning 165)

Browning repeatedly emphasizes the stubborn refusal of some individuals in the Battalion to arbitrarily murder defenseless prisoners. (Browning 168-169) He points to Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiments where some subjects proved so amenable to authority that they were willing to repeatedly shock and possibly kill other people if an authoritative figure ordered them to do so, while refusing if a less authoritative figure gave the same orders. (Browning, 167) Browning suggests that there is an element of calculation and free will here that goes against the notion of the soldier as the mindless vessel of Nazi terrorism.

Browning believed that situational factors be assessed in tandem with psychological factors. (Browning, 186) Though Browning is dismissive of the notion of purely situational factors, he seems to appreciate the significance of situational factors in the gradual transformation of the individual. Whereas the purely situational explanation characterizes these Nazi soldiers as shallow brutes, incapable of the recognizing the larger consequences of their actions, Browning characterizes these soldiers as thoughtful, mature individuals, who are decent because they intend to be and cruel because they intend to be.

Of all of the literature and research involving the Holocaust and the men who executed it, Browning chooses an interesting idea to settle on: Primo Levi's "Gray Zone." (Browning, 186) Levi coined the term to describe the innumerable shades of culpability present in the space between the victim and the perpetrator. (Browning, 187) for example, even Holocaust victims could incur culpability as evidenced by the participation of some Jews in the execution of their fellow prisoners, some doing so merely to prolong their lives. (Browning, 187) Browning includes the "Gray Zone" because it allows him to identify the tiny variations in culpability which become so significant with a topic such as the Holocaust.

Browning's Synthesis

In his critical evaluation, Browning presents strong arguments and evidence from a variety of scholars. He does not need to conduct his own experiments or craft his own theory on human frailty. Instead, he relies on a tremendous fluency with the existing theories and studies of Nazi brutality. Because of his fluency with prior scholarship and his unique expertise on this subject, Browning is able to extract the elements of these theories which speak most to the dilemma of the Reservist Battalion. The result is a nuanced, yet complete synthesis of prior scholarship in the context of the Reserve Battalion 101: