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Chapter 13
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Ordinary Men, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Freedom of Choice
Peer Pressure, Conformity, and Acceptance
Normalization of Violence
Nationalism, War, and Ethnic Cleansing
Summary
Analysis
By mid-November 1942, after a string of mass executions and deportations, the men of Reserve Police Battalion 101 have killed at least 6,500 Jews and helped deport at least 42,000 to Treblinka. With the towns and ghettos clear of Jews already, the battalion’s next task is to hunt down all the Jews who are hiding in the area and make their region judenfrei. It is easier for the Jews in the battalion’s district to hide because, unlike in other districts, many of their ghettos are not walled in and the Jews are freer to move around. Although the battalion that was stationed in the area before Reserve Police Battalion 101 did occasionally execute Jews they found outside of approved zones, systematically hunting them down doesn’t really pick up steam until after the ghettos are cleared.
A major element of the Nazis’ Final Solution is their vision of a utopian world that is entirely free of Jews and where Germans reign supreme. To achieve this, they plan on killing every single Jew in a given area, sometimes replacing them with “pure” Germans who can have a lot of children to increase the populations of the “master race.” Consciously making a place judenfrei by systematically hunting down individual Jews is one of the advanced stages of the Final Solution—it means all sizable groups of Jews in that area have been killed, and all that is left are individuals who are hiding and trying to survive.
Themes
Parczew is the first ghetto in Reserve Police Battalion 101’s security zone to be completely cleared (it is not clear if the battalion cleared it or another unit), but even after that, Steinmetz continues finding Jews in the area. He imprisons them at first, but then Gnade orders him to kill them and any other Jew he finds. Steinmetz is essentially tasked with keeping his region judenfrei. This becomes an official order in numerous areas in October. The battalion creates special patrols to find any Jews (called “suspects”) who are hiding. They call this process the judenjagd, or “Jew hunt.” The judenjagd is not just one big event, but a prolonged and important phase of the Final Solution.
Participation in the “Jew hunt” requires the men to have a much different mindset than when they commit an isolated mass murder. Instead of simply rounding the Jews up, the men must purposely go looking for them, which frequently includes turning houses inside out and combing the surrounding countryside and farms, knowing that if they find any Jews they must be shot on sight, not brought back to the group to possibly be killed by someone else. Using the word “suspects” to describe the Jews they are looking for encourages the men to continue thinking of the Jews of an enemy because it implies that the Jews have committed a crime.
Themes
On two occasions (fall of 1942 and spring of 1943), the battalion launches two huge sweeps of the Parczew forest looking for both Jews and escaped Russian prisoners of war. According to one man from Third Company, during the first battalion-wide sweep they struggle to find any Jews in the woods until their second walkthrough, when they discover chimneys sticking up out of the ground. They realize that entire families of Jews are living in underground bunkers, and they are all shot on the spot. According to one policeman’s estimation, the body count for the first sweep is about 500.
By this point in 1942, the Jews are well aware that they are being systematically executed: deportations occur far more frequently, word travels about ghettos being cleared, and it is no secret that going to Treblinka means going to its gas chambers. Realizing that Hitler genuinely means to kill every Jew in Poland, the underground bunkers in the forest are many Jewish families’ last bid for survival. This once again forces the policemen to make the difficult decision whether to carry out their orders and shoot women and children or choose not to shoot but risk their reputation within the battalion. Because so many of the policemen are middle-aged family men, this decision is harder to make than a decision to shoot adult men.
Themes
In the spring, the judenjagd intensifies and becomes more dangerous. During the sweep, the men find a camp full of escaped Russians and Jews who are armed and ready to fight. The escapees and policemen exchange gunfire and ultimately all 100 to 120 Jews and Russians are killed. In addition, Lieutenant Hagen is accidentally killed by one of his own men. There is also some trouble with the Jews who work on nearby “agricultural estates.” When a unit of Steinmetz’s platoon kills all the Jewish workers on one estate, the owner is furious. The owner of another estate has a different problem—Jews in hiding sneak on and act like workers, so first Hoffmann and then his replacement Messmann periodically kill the excess Jews.
One of the things Jews were told when the Nazi occupation of Poland first began was that, if they could make themselves useful by working (digging trenches, tending farms, working in factories, and so on), then they’d be allowed to live. In all likelihood, the Nazis did mean it at the time because this would have been before the Final Solution. Now that the policemen are beginning to systematically murder all the Jews in the region including those who are working on the estates or in camps, however, it’s generally understood that the arrangement will only last until Polish or German workers can take their places. The presence of the armed Jews and Russian POWs is one indication that the Jews are becoming more desperate because they fully realize that the Nazis intend to wipe out their entire population.
Themes
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The battalion also sweeps the town for Jews, occasionally finding them in basements and getting them to give up the locations of other hideouts. On one occasion, a Jewish woman runs away from the battalion and the men track her down to her father’s house. They tell the man to choose between his own life and his daughter’s—he promptly turns over his daughter and she is shot on the spot. It’s often Polish informants who discover bunkers. The battalion then comes out, throws a grenade in the bunker, and shoots anyone who survives the blast. The “Jew hunts” become such a frequent event that, in their interrogations, most men can’t remember how many times they participated in them.
The story of the man who turns his own daughter over to the policemen knowing that they’ll kill her is a memorable one and can be interpreted in a couple of different ways. The man may genuinely want to save his own skin and doesn’t care if it costs his daughter her life, but it could also be that he is afraid of what will happen to her later if he doesn’t allow the men to kill her quickly. Either way, his choice likely encourages the German belief that Jews are inhuman. What kind of father, after all, chooses his own life at the expense of his child’s? Because the judenjagd becomes such a prevalent part of the battalion’s job, it also becomes another way for the men to bond. As has been seen in earlier actions, the men who shoot remain a tight-knit group while those who don’t are generally considered “cowards” and “weak.” There is a new kind of peer pressure at work during the hunts because if the people choose not to even go on them, they’ll not only be choosing not to serve with their comrades, but also choosing not to be with them on potentially dangerous missions (as seen in the skirmish that resulted in Hagen’s death).
Themes
In Browning’s estimation, the battalion’s involvement in the judenjagd is them coming full circle—their killings at Józefów were intensely personal, subsequent actions were (mostly) not as personal, and with the “Jew hunt” they once again come face to face with their victims and the killings are again personal. Additionally, each individual policeman has a lot of freedom of choice, and the choices they all make reveal the clear division between the “tough” and “weak” in the battalion. Since the initial massacre in Józefów, some men have become numb to the violence or are even enthusiastic about it, while others consciously try to limit their involvement with violence whenever it’s easy to do so, and a very small minority consistently abstain from violence entirely.
Another thing the judenjagd has in common with Józefów is that the men are destroying entire families. Part of what made Józefów so traumatic for so many was that they were killing mothers and their children (and, in some cases, the fathers; however, most of the men were sent away to work camps). This happens again with the judenjagd—entire families are obliterated in an instant. It is also important to remember that the minority of people who are consistently refraining from having anything to do with violent actions are doing so at a great personal cost. They are constantly reminded that they’re not quite part of their group, they don’t quite belong, and some of their comrades look down on them. Earlier, when one policeman said he chose to shoot at Józefów because he was a coward, what he meant was that he didn’t have the bravery to face the rest of the battalion’s judgment if he refused to kill. That means that the men choosing not to shoot even now are the truly brave ones.
Themes
The men’s behavior after shootings reveals a growing callousness. After the Józefów massacre, every man had been bitter and didn’t want to eat or talk about what had happened. Over time, however, they become less sensitive to the violence. One policeman remembers some of his comrades making jokes about eating the brains of slaughtered Jews after a shooting. Whenever there is a judenjagd or shooting task, many men are happy to volunteer; in fact, there are so many volunteers that sometimes men must be turned away. One thing most of the policemen agree on is that there is never trouble finding enough shooters when they are needed, and anyone who says they can’t keep shooting is allowed to stop.
This transformation from unwilling executioners into eager and enthusiastic killers who can joke about the people they murder takes place over just a few months. Surrounded by violence and encouraged to participate in it nearly every day during the judenjagd, it clearly didn’t take long for the men to not only get used to it but also to learn to enjoy it. Equally important is that they still have a choice about whether to participate—anyone can stop, nobody is forced to kill anyone. This is something of which Browning frequently reminds the reader throughout the book, which emphasizes that the freedom of choice and what the men do with that freedom is what Browning finds most compelling, and the most troubling.
Themes
The minority of men who don’t want to participate in any of the violence typically take one of several lines of action: they either never volunteer, keep their distance from the officers while they organize firing squads or patrols, and some are very open about their personal dislike of violence. Otto-Julius Schimke, the first man to step out at Józefów, reports in his interrogation that, because he asked not to shoot the first time, he was excluded from all other violent actions. Other men who voice their discomfort with the violence are also spared having to be part of it. Another policeman claims his personal dislike of violence is the reason he is excluded from violent actions because the commanders want “men” to participate in the actions and they no longer consider him a man.
Schimke (and presumably the handful of other men who chose to take up Trapp’s offer right away) is never asked to join a firing squad again. Having made his choice once, he is not asked to make the same choice over and over again. On one hand, this is a show of respect for his decision on his commander’s part, and it saves him from having to reiterate it and thus set himself apart from his comrades time and again. On the other hand, it might also be interpreted as him being rejected from the group, as reported by the other policeman who says his commanders reject him because he isn’t enough of a “man” to join them. In either case, Schimke and the others are still excluded and they’re still made to feel their “otherness” during these actions.
Themes
When distance and reputation aren’t enough to get the men out of violent actions, they have to blatantly refuse. Lieutenant Hoppner soon earns himself a reputation as a judenjagd enthusiast and tries to make all of his men shoot at some point in time. One of his men remembers Hoppner telling him he must shoot a Jew, but when the opportunity arises later, the man refuses. He credits Trapp with saving him from being punished. Some men only shoot when an officer is around and even let Jews go if they know they won’t get in trouble for it (like when they’re with trusted friends).
It is harder for the men to outright refuse to take part in the violence than it is to slyly evade it through distance or by making themselves look busy already. For commanders who perhaps don’t sympathize with their aversion to violence, refusal to carry out violent orders is simply an act of blatant disobedience and disrespect. Fortunately, as the policeman here states, the men know that even if their immediate commanders don’t like their choice, Trapp will protect them from being formally punished. This is something the men have known and relied on since the massacre in Józefów when about a dozen men found the strength to step forward when they saw Trapp protect Schimke from Hoffmann.
Themes
There are no reports detailing how many hundreds or thousands of Jews the battalion kills during the judenjagd but reports from other units provide a valuable clue. From May to October 1943, after the bulk of the Jews who have been hiding in the woods or elsewhere have been killed, a report for the Lublin district (which includes Reserve Police Battalion 101) says 1,695 Jews were killed. Another report for a gendarmerie unit in Warsaw reports 1,094 Jews are found and shot between March and September 1943. This supports Browning’s assertion that the judenjagd is an important part of the Final Solution. Because it goes on for so long, is so violent, and occurs so often, the judenjagd is also important in understanding the men’s mental state (namely, that many have become thoroughly habituated to violence)—for the battalion, the judenjagd is an existential condition, not an isolated event.
Reserve Police Battalion 101 kills hundreds of Jews in the judenjagd. This is a large number, but not as deadly as other massacres they have participated in. Unfortunately, this is because they are killing some of the last Jews left in the area. The reality of the Final Solution is that the Nazis are not just focused on the large numbers—how many tens of thousands of Jews they can kill in this or that action—but that they consider every individual Jew a problem that they must eliminate through murder. In the process, they decimate entire villages, ruin economies, and rip an entire country apart using perfectly ordinary men (who consistently choose to help the Nazis do this) like those from Reserve Police Battalion 101.
Themes
