How Everyday People Became Nazis
A Book Review of ‘Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland’
The book is mostly about the Reserve Police Battalion (RBP) 101, a Nazi Germany paramilitary formation, involved both in the killing and “resettlement” of Jews in occupied Poland. Like many other books, it tells the horrors of Nazi Germany but from a very different perspective.
The holocaust is more easily explained when it is done by police battalions that were highly Nazified age cohorts (because they were in the ideology) and a product of selective recruiting and intense training and indoctrination. Many of the police battalions had such characteristics, but this battalion did not. Therefore, the atrocities themselves cannot be blamed on such variables, even if they contribute. This is, in fact, what the title refers to, they were “ordinary” men, and it seems like they didn’t have any bias to predispose them to commit such atrocities.
What I found most baffling about the battalion is the polarity that it displays. When they had their first assignment, the very knowledge of what they had to do was disturbing to them. The commander himself had tears in his eyes as he told them the job they were about to perform. In fact, he even offered people who didn’t want to take part, didn’t have to. Yet, very little outright refused. They did not want to leave the “dirty” work to their colleagues.
After the first killing, many felt nauseous. Some started to miss targets intentionally. In further assignments, alcohol was an increasing coping mechanism. There was a heavy sense of shame and horror among the men. However, this didn’t apply to all men. And even more importantly, it did not necessarily last. As they had more and more assignments, and also as the way of killing changed (by for example, not having to face their victim face to face), the police officers became increasingly detached. There was a distance between “us” — the humans, and “them” — the Jews. At one point, it was purely routine work.
Within the battalion, several groups of men developed. A very tiny minority refused the job outright (fewer than 12 in 500), but others avoided it when possible, and others even volunteered. Sometimes there were so many volunteers that some had to be turned away. The book explores a lot of assignments the battalion was ordered to make, and the reactions of different policemen to what was happening.
Something that I wasn’t expecting was the book’s mention of social psychology experiments, mostly by Milgram. They are obviously inspired by the events of the 20th century, and there is an undeniable parallel, but nevertheless, I was happy to see that the book didn’t only stick with history but tried to make connections with psychological science for a most holistic and deeper understanding.
In the afterword, the author dives into Goldhagen’s criticisms of this book, written a few years after the publication of ordinary men. He argued that the holocaust was built upon the anti-semitic culture of Germany and viewed the thesis of Ordinary Men as fundamentally flawed. The author gives counterarguments to said criticism. Perhaps the best one is that there were countless cases of atrocities by the battalion, not only to Jews but also to Poles. There was no “cultural-cognitive” prerequisite to commit genocide that was essential for the holocaust. It would be good news if that were the case, but unfortunately, it runs much deeper than a specific population or culture. The ultimate thesis of the book is that the massacres were done out of obedience to authority and peer pressure.
Browning’s arguments and evidence were convincing and further elucidated the nature of the battalion’s actions and the holocaust in general. This part of the book wasn’t as narrative, and it felt like a discussion among historians, which started to get more academic than what I signed up for. But as it progressed as I started to enjoy it more, and it emphasized the need for interpretation of historical events and how hard and yet important such work is.
It asks crucial questions that are far from obvious. For example, to which degree was antisemitism fundamental to nazism, and to which degree antisemitism was already present in German culture but was only used by nazism in a quasi-determined fashion. In some form, it does seem to navigate between a dialogue of where the evil of the holocaust comes from: human nature or ideology. It is quite clear that both play an impact, but it’s hard to have a good map of where how much space they occupy without overshadowing the other, and to what degree one impacts and develops the other.
As obsessed as humanity rightfully was after the 20th-century atrocities and how it impacted psychology and philosophy, I couldn’t help but wonder that maybe that wasn’t enough; even more so when I saw so many parallels with current far-right politics. Not necessarily saying they are nazis just because they are on the right, but it’s impossible to neglect similarities, and likewise, it’s important to see key differences. Even with Nazi Germany, this was the case. Not all Nazis were antisemitic, and people who were antisemitic weren’t necessarily pro-genocide. There are many “layers” of ideology and political belief. On one hand, it’s wrong to assume it’s part of a single continuum of ideology, and on the other hand, it’s somewhat naive that they are all independent levels that are fixed and have nothing to do with each other.
I really enjoyed the book and highly recommend it. It is an important topic that one should often visit. Not only knowing what happened in a historical manner but fighting the topic within your own soul as if it was directly and personally connected to you, because it is.
It’s not light reading by any means, although it’s also it’s not the worst of its kind. In part because it has a historical narrative to it, and it’s not trying to shock you for its own sake. Regarding the afterword, I found it helpful but it was a bit overkill for laymen in my opinion, and certainly not as good as the first part.
If you don’t want to dedicate a lot of time to the book, skip both the preface and the afterword. This would make the book only 200 pages or so, and you get the most important insights of it. It’s also best to go for the paperback instead of the audiobook, which I used, given it has a fair bit of images that aren’t well organized in the accompanying PDF.
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