In Ordinary Men, Christopher Browning discusses Police Battalion 101 and the men involved within it. He shows that these men were "ordinaryÕ, just like you and I, not the scum of the earth. Browning writes about the feelings of these "ordinary" men during each killing operation they were involved in. Although some of the men in this particular battalion had little to no guilt about killing, others refused to participate in these mass killings altogether. Some members of the battalion also used alcohol to escape or block out the horrors of each event.
             In Ordinary Men, Browning argues that cowardice, ideological indoctrination, loyalty to the battalion, and reluctance to force others to tolerate more than their share of what each viewed as an excruciating duty, are to some extent contributing factors to the behavior of the men in Battalion 101. However, he makes the point that these contributing factors are not to be used as excuses to let them "off the hook," but rather help to better understand the positions and environment these men were living in.
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