Ordinary Men Themes

At the center of Ordinary Men is the argument that human beings are responsible for their choices, no matter the circumstance. Historian Christopher Browning comes to this conclusion after examining the testimonies of a group of German soldiers who perpetrated some of the most barbaric violence in the Second World War: the men of Reserve Police Battalion 101. In telling their story, Browning shows how even the most ordinary of men can choose to become…

In Christopher Browning’s Ordinary Men, a battalion of middle-aged policemen are ordered to execute all the Jewish women and children living in the village of Józefów, Poland. The leader of the Reserve Police Battalion 101, Major Trapp, gives his men the chance to excuse themselves from participating, and quite a few men decide to abstain from the executions. Still, all told, about 80 percent of the men choose to follow orders from…

When Germany sparked the Second World War by invading neighboring countries, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s aims were ostensibly just to regain lost territory and secure additional lands. Soon, though, Hitler and his SS head Heinrich Himmler recognized another possibility for these invasions: they could fuel a race war meant to eliminate European Jews. Hitler insisted that the Germans were a “master race” that was superior to every other race, and that Jewish people posed…