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Chapter 14
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
On October 28, 1942, the SS and Police Leader for the General Government decides that only eight Jewish ghettos can remain in operation. Four of these are in Reserve Police Battalion 101’s security zone: Łukow, Parczew, Konskowola, and Międzyrzec. Many Jews flee these ghettos out of fear of being shot or deported in October and November, but they return for shelter during the winter months, even though the danger of being shot is ever present. After four months of calm, Second Company and a unit from Trawniki descend upon Międzyrzec and deport somewhere between 700 and 5,000 Jews (reports vary) in one action, around 1,000 in another, and the Security Police shoot the rest in one final action. After this, Międzyrzec is proclaimed judenfrei. In May, 3,000 to 4,000 Jews are deported to Treblinka from Łuków.
The systematic deportation and murder of every individual Jew in the ghettos is another sign that the Final Solution in this area is about to reach its climax. No longer content with just regular deportations to death camps, the Nazis increase the killing in one area at a time, rapidly moving through the Lublin district with the goal of making it entirely judenfrei in a very short amount of time. Reserve Police Battalion 101, then, is now an important part of the Final Solution. This is ironic because so few of the men actually belong to the Nazi Party and because quite a few of them joined the Order Police because they didn’t want to participate in violent military action, but now they are participating in one of the most deadly genocides in modern history.
Themes
By this time, many of the men who were part of Reserve Police Battalion 101 when it arrived in Poland in July 1942 had been shuffled around. Men born before 1898 are sent back to Germany, some men are taken out of each unit to create a new special unit under Lieutenant Brand, some of the younger noncommissioned officers are reassigned to the Waffen-SS, and Lieutenant Gnade takes Steinmetz with him to Lublin to form a special guard company. Some reinforcements are brought in, but the battalion is not as large as it once was. Only a portion of the policemen who had been at Józefów are still part of the battalion in November 1943 when it is called to participate in the Erntefest (“harvest festival”), the largest German killing operation against the Jews in World War II, during which approximately 42,000 Jews are killed.
Erntefest is supposed to be the final action in the Lublin district to make it judenfrei. Although Browning says the number of Jews killed during the operation is 42,000, some estimates vary between 39,000 and 43,000. These numbers are hard to pinpoint because there’s simply no way to adequately keep paperwork on every individual person that’s killed. There’s always the chance that someone escapes, people are counted twice, or that someone in charge simply didn’t count at all. However, as Browning has mentioned before, these numbers are generally conservative estimates. In other words, there’s a good chance that more people died than what the paperwork shows.
Themes
Erntefest is the climax of Himmler’s mission to obliterate the Polish Jewry. After the ghetto deportations in May 1943, the only Jews in the Lublin district are spread out in Globocnik’s labor camps, (about 45,000 workers). It is soon apparent to Himmler that these Jews must be killed in order to make the area truly judenfrei. More importantly, Jewish resistance is on the rise in some of the camps as Jews begin to realize that making themselves useful workers won’t save them from the gas chamber. Because of this, Himmler knows that he can’t kill the Jews slowly, one camp at a time—they must all be killed in a single operation or else they’ll fight back. Planning and preparation for the event begins months in advance, including making the Jews dig large trenches that will become their graves.
Browning mentions that the Jews are beginning to fight back, and this is why Globocnik and Himmler decide to carry out such a big action all at once instead of gradually killing the Jews one camp at a time. The fact that the Jews are beginning to revolt is more evidence that they themselves realize what is about to happen—they know that the Nazis are truly planning to kill all of them, no matter how useful they make themselves as workers. Furthermore, it is no secret at this point that the war is not going as smoothly for the Germans as it was in the early years. There is a renewed sense of urgency to carry out the Final Solution as well as to eliminate anyone who might be able to testify to the crimes the Nazis themselves know they’ve committed.
Themes
On November 2, the night before the killings begin, Globocnik’s recent successor as SS and Police Leader of the district meets with the commanders of the units that will help with the Erntefest, including Reserve Police Battalion 101. The men from the battalion take part in nearly every part of the operation. Some march Jews from small work camps to the larger Majdanek concentration camp and others position themselves on the road into the camp to prevent escapes. They watch as 16,500 to 18,000 Jews file past while music blares from the speakers. Even with the music, everyone can clearly hear the gunfire as Jews are murdered. One witness remembers watching the Jews being forced to undress, run into the graves, lie on top of the previous victims, and then wait to be shot by executioners from above.
Participation in Erntefest creates a new kind of pressure for the men of Reserve Police Battalion 101, especially those who have thus far tried to distance themselves from every kind of violence. They are not acting as a lone group or with the help of Hiwis, whose opinions they didn’t necessarily respect; instead, they are working with over 1,000 other people, all of whom are watching and are on edge, which might actually create the feeling that they don’t have a choice. Although there is a good chance that some men from Reserve Police Battalion 101 take part in the shooting, it seems like, at least officially, they are only on a sort of guard duty to stop people from running away. Still, they know what is happening and don’t seem to feel any remorse or horror over what’s happening just a few yards away.
Themes
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Meanwhile, similar executions are being carried out in a Trawniki work camp (about 6,000 to 10,000 victims) and a few smaller camps. Nearby, 17,000 Jews are still alive at Paniatowa and smaller camps that will be spared because the Jews work on aircraft parts. Poniatowa is scheduled to be hit the next day, and Reserve Police Battalion 101 evidently participates in this action as well. In the minds of the men from Reserve Police Battalion 101, the two days of killing at the two camps merge together and are somewhat confused. As at Majdanek, the Jews undress and then march naked into the graves while music plays over the speakers. One witness remembers that some of the Jews did not die immediately but lay in the grave cursing the men while others were shot on top of them.
The men know that after these actions, the district will likely be formally declared judenfrei, which could help explain why the men are botching so many executions. There is added pressure to get the job done quickly (even if it’s not done well and it causes unnecessary suffering) so they can help fulfill the ultimate goal of making the General Government totally judenfrei. Witnesses note that not all of the Jews who are shot actually die right away—they lie in the grave, cursing the Nazis. This means the men are apparently firing indiscriminately, without worrying about making sure their victims die right away (as at Józefów) and with complete indifference to their immense suffering.
Themes
Although the men are used to killing, they are not accustomed to the process of disposing of so many bodies. According to one of Gnade’s men, the stench of burning bodies in Majdanek permeates Lublin for days. The men of Third Company, on the other hand, view the body disposal for themselves: half-decomposed bodies are disinterred, placed on an iron grill, and burned.
In previous killings, the bodies of the policemen’s victims were either left out in the open or buried in a shallow mass grave until another group of workers could burn them. Burning the corpses serves more than one purpose. It is a fast and efficient means of body disposal, but it also means there is no mass gravesite for people to mourn. No pilgrimages will be made to these spots because there is nothing there; or so, at least, is the logic.
Themes
After Erntefest, the district of Lublin is essentially judenfrei and Reserve Police Battalion 101’s participation in the Final Solution ends. Using conservative estimates of about 6,500 Jews shot at mass executions like Józefów, 1,000 Jews shot during the “Jew hunts,” and a minimum of 35,000 Jews shot at Majdanek and Poniatowa, Browning concludes that the battalion has participated in the murder of 38,000 Jews. Additionally, the men have helped to deport around 45,000 Jews to Treblinka. With fewer than 500 men, the battalion effectively causes the deaths of 83,000 Jews.
As Browning says, the men of Reserve Police Battalion 101 cause—either directly through shooting or indirectly through deporting them to extermination camps—the deaths of 83,000 people. Divided evenly, that would mean each individual policeman has caused the deaths of 166 Jews in just over one year. This is deeply disturbing because these men are not soldiers. They’re policemen, and a policeman’s primary job is to protect other people, not kill them. Still, many of the men become enthusiastic about killing and others choose to participate in mass murders just to fit in with the majority of the battalion, testifying to how transformative war can be.
Themes
