Police Battalion 101 Case Study

On July 13, 1942, Battalion 101 was given a mission to commit mass murder in the town of Jozefow. In this case, the men were given the option to opt out and save lives, but only a few did. Battalion 101 was a group of men that were sheriffs and city Police officers. They were a group of Nazis that were acting in conjunction with the SS.They invaded poland, and the Jews of Jozefow were murdered that day. The men that participated in this had families, morals and good minds. So, why would they do such a horrible thing? In the case study called Police Battalion 101, Historian Christopher Browning argues that human beings tend to follow peer pressure and apparent authority to carry out immoral acts. The historical pieces that we have examined in

People are too afraid of the consequences that will happen if they do not obey. While Browning described what was happening he mentioned that even though the men of reserve battalion were willing to shoot Jews they did not shoot infants despite orders. One officer warned them that in the future they would have to be more energetic. Meaning to not feel sympathy for the Jews and just kill them. After that warning, the men kept doing it. They were too afraid of the consequences of what would happen if they failed to obey orders. (Browning 315). The Stanford Prison Experiment was a study of the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. The experiment was supposed to last two weeks but ended up only lasting six days because of the way that people abused their power and did not do the morally right thing. In the Stanford prison experiment, the guards were too afraid to go against the guard that was taking charge because he put himself as this role of a higher authority. He took charge and all the other guards followed him even if what he was doing to the prisoners was wrong. The rest of guards stood by it and let it happen because they were afraid of what would happen to them if they did not. The power got to their heads and they mistreated the boys even when they knew it was the wrong thing to do. (Stanford Prison