ipl-logo

The Holocaust Exposed In Christopher Browning's Ordinary Men

1115 Words5 Pages

In Ordinary Men, the author, Christopher Browning describes the way the men of Reserve Police Battalion 101 transformed from normal family-oriented middle class working citizens, to becoming murderers involved in the historic genocide of the Jews during the Holocaust in World War II. The Holocaust was a very brutal and emotional time for everyone, including those who were taking part in the slaughter of the innocent victims. The men who were assigned to the Reserve Police Battalion were from the working class, from Hamburg Germany, and lived ordinary lives prior to joining Battalion 101. Factors that contributed to these men turning into perpetrators and participating in the massacres included their tendency and desire to obey the orders …show more content…

It was a greater challenge for the older men to follow through with the killings than for the younger policemen. They had more life experience and families, which made it extremely difficult for them to execute the women and children. Because of this, Browning mentions that “Kammer relieved not only these two men but a number of other older men as well.” (Browning, p.62). The sympathy of Kammer and Trapp demonstrated some of their humane treatment of their own officers, during the horrific genocide that was ordered. These men were not punished or harmed for their inability to execute the killings. In fact, once they transferred out, they were not burdened with the lifetime guilt of killing thousands of innocent people, as were their younger comrades. In Ordinary Men, Browning provides an excellent analysis of showing how a working man from the middle class, can be transformed into a mass murderer through peer pressure and the desire to follow orders of their superiors. The Holocaust was one of the most devastating and brutal massacres in modern history, executed by people who previously lived normal lives. By dehumanizing the situation, the members of Reserve Police Battalion 101 were able to justify the orders to murder the Jews, and then later suffer the lifetime terrible feelings of guilt for their

Show More
Related

Summary Of Hope's Reprise By David Newman

1618 Words | 7 Pages

So, as the Jews were rounded up and dragged out of their homes during the start of World War II, they were played by deception that the men were being taken to fight in the war, while women and children would be ‘taken care of’. This explains why they were cooperative and seemed to flock like sheep to a slaughter house. However, Jewish people learned early on that these promises were nothing more than boldfaced lies, and when it became obvious that the Nazi government had the intention to kill all Jews, the Jews staged various kinds of

Read More

Brief Summary Of Ordinary Men By Christopher R. Browning

1635 Words | 7 Pages

Ordinary Men Summary When most people think and learn about the holocaust they are only taught from the Jewish peoples point of view. They learn about the mass murder committed by Hitler and the Nazis. A group that is usually overlooked is the German people that were forced to take part of Hitler’s “ethnic cleansing.” The book Ordinary Men by Christopher R. Browning goes into detail about the men that were forced into killing innocent people and coerced Jewish people into concentration camps. In this insightful book Browning reveals the background, emotions, and thoughts of a group of men called the Reserve Police Battalion 101.

Read More

Comparing Night And Prisoner B-3087

679 Words | 3 Pages

Many lives were lost during the German’s attempt to wipe out all Jews, and those who lived lost a part of their life during this time. The young boys lost their childhood and ‘innocences’. They witness more death and suffering than anywhere in the country. Today, there is still death and violence against others.

Read More

Summary Of Ordinary Men By Christopher R. Browning

1183 Words | 5 Pages

Christopher R. Browning’s Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and The Final Solution in Poland is seen as one of the most influential book in Holocaust studies. The book traces the Reserve Police Battalion (hereafter RPB-101), a single German unit, throughout their military duty. These soldiers were instructed to kill innocent Jewish men, woman and children in Poland. Most of the men in the RPB-101 were originally deemed not suitable of conscription. When massacres in history occur, it is in the nature of human beings to think of the culprits as being different from normal people; savages or villains that kill for pleasure or have no remorse.

Read More

Why Did Ordinary People Across Europe Contribute To The Persecution Of Jews

1204 Words | 5 Pages

They state, “In Germany, many individuals who were not zealous Nazis nonetheless participated in varying degrees in the persecution and murder of Jews and other victims” (“How and Why Did Ordinary People Across Europe Contribute to the Persecution of their Jewish Neighbors?” 1). However, in the passage about SS officers and soldiers, the author explains that “SS men…established killing centers equipped with gas chambers to facilitate assembly line mass murder” (“Perpetrators” 5). Therefore, SS officers developed the places where Jews were killed and without them, the Holocaust would not have been so severe. Thus, SS officers were more responsible for the Holocaust than non-Jewish Europeans. Moreover, according to “How and Why Did Ordinary People Across Europe Contribute to the Persecution of their Jewish Neighbors?”, “They [German citizens] were aware of the risk that outspoken dissidents faced in a police state, where opponents of the regime could be arbitrarily arrested and imprisoned in concentration camps without trial” (12).

Read More

Elie Wiesel's Actions In Night

1915 Words | 8 Pages

In the world today, there are good kind hearted people, and there are also individuals who have immoral ulterior motives. But, to truly gain an insightful view of the person is to regard their actions under extreme conditions and pressure. While Elie Wiesel suffers during the Holocaust in his memoir Night, he witnesses the actions—whether good or bad, of the people he meets, and their motives that were never forgotten, as displayed in the novel. Since the Holocaust was an extreme event that caused pressure to make the right decisions, and suffer by the hands of the Nazis, or to act with neglect to the victims and be ridden with guilt, it can be said many Holocaust victims suffered, and some of the bystanders noticed and took action. One such

Read More

Inhumanity In Night By Elie Wiesel

936 Words | 4 Pages

Elie Wiesel’s true story Night, is an intriguing story about the Holocaust. The guards and even veteran prisoners are cruel to others. The punishments, even for tiny faults, are unthinkably horrid. Man does not care how old or weak someone is; this makes the children and teens change and act inhumane towards other prisoners, even towards their own family. It clearly, and painfully, explains man’s inhumanity to man.

Read More

Master Race Holocaust

1831 Words | 8 Pages

In retaliation to Jews for killing a German policeman in self defense on July 31, 1940 the nazis carried out a public mass execution(“Holocaust”). This day was later named “Bloody Wednesday”. They were tortured by anxiety, were insecure of the present, torn between hope and despair, and felt helpless. There were many people who were persecuted during the Holocaust that weren’t Jewish: spouses of Jews, Roma Gypsies, resisters, priests and pastor, Jehovah Witnesses, political enemies, homosexuals, the disabled, and African-German descent. Spouses of Jews had to choose between getting a divorce or being sent to concentration camps along with their Jewish Spouse.

Read More

Night By Elie Wiesel Identity Analysis

1527 Words | 7 Pages

Their fingers on the triggers, they did not deprive themselves of the pleasure. If one of us stopped for a second, a quick shot eliminated the filthy dog.” (Wiesel 85). This quote justifies the heartless actions of the SS men. While testing the emaciated prisoner’s endurance, without hesitation, the SS men proceeded to executing any Jewish hostage who dares to refuse

Read More

Night Dehumanization Essay

380 Words | 2 Pages

When Madame exclaims that there’s a fire, Madame is not validated or heard. Rather, Madame is told to "shut up" and then forcibly beaten into silence. Once again, dehumanization is evident in how victims of evil treat one another. Throughout the camps, examples of children abandoning parents, people betraying one another, and internal aloneness dominating human actions until survival is all that remains are examples of dehumanization. These examples show that the Holocaust happened because individuals dehumanized one another.

Read More

Holocaust Informative Essay

1386 Words | 6 Pages

How does this relate to the Holocaust where almost 8 million Jewish people died? In this essay, you will be informed about the main leader of the Nazis, why saying that Hitler only captured Jews is historically inaccurate, concentration camp treatment, and five atrocious experiments done by the Nazi soldiers to innocent prisoners. Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler was born in Austria on April 20, 1889. He’d always been a churlish student who was always the leader of

Read More

Holocaust Bystanders Essay

1272 Words | 6 Pages

Introduction: During the Holocaust, many people suffered from the despicable actions of others. These actions were influenced by hatred, intolerance, and anti-semitic views of people. The result of such actions were the deaths of millions during the Holocaust, a devastating genocide aimed to eliminate Jews. In this tragic event, people, both initiators and bystanders, played major roles that allowed the Holocaust to continue. Bystanders during this dreadful disaster did not stand up against the Nazis and their collaborators.

Read More

Dehumanization Quotes In Night

714 Words | 3 Pages

In Night one of the ways that the Jews were dehumanized was by abuse. There were beatings, “I never felt anything except the lashes of the whip... Only the first really hurt.” (Wiesel, 57) “They were forced to dig huge trenches. When they had finished their work, the men from the Gestapo began theirs.

Read More

Life During The Holocaust Essay

684 Words | 3 Pages

Expository Report “We must do something, we can’t let them kill us like that, like cattle in the slaughterhouse, we must revolt”. These are the words from many men surrounding Elie Wiesel as he entered Auschwitz, calling out for rebellious toward the Germans harsh conditions. Of course they had no idea what they were getting themselves into, many thought that there was nothing wrong until boarding the cattle train that would send them off to their final resting place. Life during the holocaust was torturous to say the least, so much so that some 6,000,000 lives were taken during this time in Jewish descent alone. People of the Jewish descent did not have it easy; they either were forced out of their homes into concentration camps, or they would hide out only to be found and killed of they remained in their settlements.

Read More

Brutality In Elie Wiesel's Night

645 Words | 3 Pages

It’s difficult to imagine the way humans brutally humiliate other humans based on their faith, looks, or mentality but somehow it happens. On the novel “Night” by Elie Wiesel, he gives the reader a tour of World War Two through his own eyes , from the start of the ghettos all the way through the liberation of the prisoners of the concentration camps. This book has several themes that develop throughout its pages. There are three themes that outstand from all the rest, these themes are brutality, humiliation, and faith. They’re the three that give sense to the reading.

Read More

More about The Holocaust Exposed In Christopher Browning's Ordinary Men

Related Topics

Open Document