Essay - Book Review Christopher R. Browning's Book Entitled Ordinary Men: Reserve...

Book Review

Christopher R. Browning's book entitled Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland provides an in-depth case study of one German police battalion that fought in Poland dur*****g World War II. Browning attempts to provide some insight into the apparently inexplicable question of how ***** ordinary Germans could kill innocent civilians and throw them into mass graves, as part of the actions that took place in Pol***** only months before concentration camps were erected within the nation.

*****'s approach as a historian is refreshing, because he does not attempt to demonize ***** killers, or suggest a deterministic view ***** 20th century Germ*****n hist*****y. Instead, ***** ***** c*****e studies of the different men who made up this specific battalion. He shows that *****se men were ***** lacking in morals and ethics, rather they were subject to a system of indoctrination that eradicated their better moral selves. The ***** is filled with chilling stories, such as how one member of the battalion would kill the parents of the children he murdered first, so ***** felt better engaging in *****fanticide, because he re*****oned would be cruel to leave ***** child an orphan.

***** stresses how these Germans were instilled ***** a sense of o*****dience ***** their country, *****nd taught that refusing to take part in the ***** executions showed a lack of manl*****ess and love of their country. Many of the men became physically sick during ***** mass killings of Jews, Poles, and other undesirables they participated in while making their way across Eastern Europe. Some men, very few, did refuse, begging that they were too weak to continue. Interestingly, no repercussions ***** taken against these individuals.

Browning provides important insight into he creation of a mass totalitarian psychology that enabled t***** final solution to take place. He combines h*****torical records of inter*****s with the men ***** impressive historical data regarding ***** ***** that were assembled by the meticulous record-keepers of the Third Reich to give sociological as well as his*****rical ***** into the men's crimes. He humanizes the men, which ultimately makes their actions all the more frightening. It was *****t that these men had no sense of human suffering—rather they were encouraged to actively repress these feelings ***** the regime.

Works Cited

*****, Chris*****pher. Ordinary Men: Reserve Police ***** 101 and the Final Solution in Pol*****. New York: HarperPerennial, 1993.

Book Review

Phillip Hallie's book Lest Innocent Blood be Shed tells the story ***** Jewish survival in Vichy France, the section of ***** ***** ***** occupied by the Nazis. This part of France was subject to the laws that ***** attempted to oppress, and finally to annihilate the ***** people. Persons such as Anne Frank have made tales of ***** individual survival during ***** period quite famous. But Hallie's book portrays an entire French village called Le Chambon that decided to risk its collective life ***** harboring not one, but large communities ***** ***** within ***** fold.

Hallie provides important insight that refutes the idea