The fact that Goldhagen lifted large portions of this book's narrative storyline should be an indication of how solid the research was. This information is a goldmine that Goldhagen stripmined for his own conclusions.
Fortunately, Browning has a keen authorial voice and clearly draws his own conclusions on the culpability of Battalion 101. This is a rare, serious glimpse at the perpetrators of the Holocaust.Like The Rest Of Us Drawing extensively on primary source material, including transcripts of investigations and war crimes trials, Browning asks how "ordinary men" could have carried out the horrific acts that are described in his book in such detail. His answer is disturbing, because he avoids facile generalizations that would provide a comfortable psychological distance between "us" and "them." Browning convincingly shows that the men of Reserve Police Battalion 101 were in many ways like the rest of us, both strong and weak, evil but also at times conscience-stricken and conflicted, men caught up in the events swirling around them during the Nazi invasion of Poland, who were personally responsible for their part of that maelstrom. This brings us uncomfortably close to these ordinary men and those events, with its implication that the real danger is the one that lies within. Browning's book is troubling, very compelling, and an important contribution.
"Ordinary Men" is a bit out of the norm. It is a micro-history of the Final Solution. The author, Christopher Browning, found a Nazi police battalion, stationed in Poland, that was in charge of many of the roundups and executions of Polish Jews. Browning is very careful from the beginning to remind the reader that he intends to understand the "ordinary" men that made-up this battalion, however to understand them does not mean he intends to apologize in any way for their actions. This type of history has been criticized in the past, but for this book the author completes his goal.
This book is necessary, because to understand how a group of men could become cold-blooded murderers. This topic of "ethnic cleansing" is still very alive and well and real today. Hopefully if one can understand how men can be indoctrininated and dehumanized enough that it is acceptible to commit these atrocities and exucutions, then hopefully the practice can be recognized early enough to prevent another despot from committing another Holocaust.
This book is brief enough to be read very quickly. However I recommend taking your time. The author is very meticulous in his use of primary resources. The main reason he chose this particular battalion was simply that there was so many various sources--from letters and reports to court documents. He finally makes use of several psychologist's views and experiments that seem to prove how this type of indoctrinating can take place. He is able to make his point and give his supporting facts concisely and influentially.
The author understands that it is impossible to understand completely the behavior of any human being--in fact he writes that any author who attempts to do so is "indulging in a certain arrogance." In not apologizing for the actions of these men, but still attempting to understand the many of them, he expresses that human responsibility is "ultimately an individual matter." Even under the pressures of career advancement and peer pressure. But he does note in his final line: "if the men of Battalion 101 could become killers under such cicumstances, what group of men cannot?" Indeed.
Browning is fair in his portrayal of Police Battalion 101, showing that some men had little to no compunctions about killing, while others refused to participate. There are definitely no excuses being made for these men, but at the same time one can see that they are being swept up by the events and atmosphere of the day. The prevalence of alcohol at many of the Battalion's actions indicates the pain the men were dealing with at the time. They were definitely not Goldhagen's "willing executioners." Browning does much to assuage the guilt of ordinary Germans by pointing out the participation in the killings by non-Germans (the Croats, Romanians, and "Hiwis," for example). The German people should not necesarily be held responsible, for 99% of the guilt must lie with the Nazi leadership. This is not to say that the nation should be completely forgivin, though.
Anyone interested in Holocaust history or the "Goldhagen debate" must read this book!