Ordinary Men ( Christopher Browning ) free essay sample

Reviews book recounting massacre of Jews by German Reserve Police Battalion in Poland in 1943. Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland is a book that tells the story of the members of German Reserve Police Battalion 101. This battalion, consisting of approximately 500 men, massacred and deported more than 80,000 Jews in and around the Lublin district of Poland. Their participation in the massacres began in July 1942 and ended in November 1943. The book raises several issues surrounding the choice to kill defenseless people: how ordinary German men became mass murderers; how not all of the massacres were committed by members of the SS; and how men voluntary chose to continue their participation in the killing assignments despite opportunities to stop. All the men in Battalion 101 had the option to exempt themselves from the killings on numerous occasions. Ultimately, Browning writes, the Holocaust took place..