Ordinary Men
One of the most devastating and frightening time-periods of our history was during the Second World War, when between five and six million Jewish civilians were killed throughout Europe in a mass genocide. A large portion of the Jews were killed by the Nazis under Hitler's regime. However, thousands more of them were also put to death by the German Reserve Police Battalion 101. The members of the reserve police were middle-aged men who were not forced to kill the many defenseless citizens who had died. They were given the option to step away, and refuse to engage in such brutal acts without being penalized. However, only a small fifteen to twenty percent of these men accepted the choice given to them, while a significant majority were soon going to be a large part of one of the most disturbing eras in history; the Holocaust. Since the end of this dreadful time-period, many questions have been raised concerning why most of the German men in the reserve police participated, when they were given the option not to. The ideas of obedience to authority and conformity were studied by the social scientist, Stanley Milgram. Toward the end of the Holocaust, Milgram became very interested in these two concepts and their relation to
Because of this, many of the men who were involved in the killings "were given no sentence" (145). When conducting series of tests with middle-aged men to observe their actions in relation to obedience to authority, "two thirds of Milgram's subjects were 'obedient' to the point of inflicting extreme pain" (Browning172). They had many flaws in them, however, and ended soon before many people who committed serious offenses were put on trial. Browning poses the question in his book Ordinary Men, whether or not the members in the reserve police were "subject to such a barrage of clever and insidious propaganda that they lost the capacity for independent thought and responsible action" (176). Through the 1500's and 1600's, the destruction of a large portion of the Native American population for the sake of gaining territory, was exercised by the Spanish, French, and later on by the British in North America (Perry272). If these events cannot be backed up by the psychological factors mentioned previously, then is there something in German history or culture, which led to this massacre? Although some people may believe otherwise, the answer is no. Advancements in industry and technology, a decline in religious values, and the propaganda by the governments of many nations have caused civilization to be far less than ideal. Where is the fault placed on this serious matter, and who should be directly blamed for these killings? Many people would like to place the blame on Adolph Hitler for the atrocities in the Holocaust. This suggests that conformity played a large role as well in the decisions that many of the men in the reserve police made during the Holocaust. What other ways can we as a human race try to prevent such inhumane actions that occurred during the Holocaust? One suggested answer is religious or ethical education taught to children at young ages. Hannah Arendt wrote the book Eichmann in Jerusalem, which relates to this very concept. These changes essentially began during WWI, with the usage of aircraft, submarine, and gas warfare. However, without any significant evidence to show some kind of correlation, it cannot be concluded that these factors were at large, the main cause of the men's actions. Unfortunately, this does not always happen to that extent. This idea of reasoning is believed by many people, since there is no easy answer as to why these men took such incredibly barbarous actions.
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