Ordinary men Flashcards
what is ordinary men about?
Most of the men in Reserve Police Battalion 101 were middle-aged family men whose moral compasses were formed before rise of Nazi culture, and many of them hadn’t chosen to join the battalion but were drafted into it, meaning that they didn’t sign up to be a part of the war. Browning turns to the question of why so many of these seemingly ordinary men became mass murderers during the war, especially since they were given the freedom to choose not to kill. Ultimately, there is no single answer to this question. It was a combination of factors, including prevalent racism combined with ongoing war, the tendency to respect authority, the men’s belief in German superiority due to widespread Nazi propaganda, and, as the men themselves admit, the desire to conform to the group. This, however, has some dark implications. Many of these factors are present in most people’s everyday lives, which leads to one important question: if the men in RPB 101 were transformed into killers under such common circumstances, are there many people who wouldn’t?
