Browning ordinary men - Essay Example

Browning ordinary men Ordinary men by Christopher Browning explores in depth the atrocities perpetrated by Germany soldiers against the innocent Jews. By then the soldiers are essential in carrying out vices against the Jews such as mass murder and violation of Jews’ basic human rights (Browning 3). The holocaust refers to persecution and murder of innocent by the brutal Nazi regime. In order to bring clear understanding of the evils committed in Germany holocaust, Christopher refers to the subjects that committed the mass murder as ordinary men.

For the existence of conceptual and situational difference among the soldiers and the Germans, the former played a significant part in the execution of Jews. According to the morals of the society, execution of mass murder by soldiers is an inhumane act that erodes morals accorded to life and its significance. The reason of committing the mass murder by the help of the soldiers is Germany was to uphold Germany’s superiority against other races (Browning 16). The soldiers that carried out this particular mass murder also demonstrated lack of humanity to the innocent Jews.

Thousands of the recruited police and soldiers armed with ammunition surrounded the unarmed Jews with the intention only to kill them hardheartedly (Browning 6). In addition, the armed soldiers and police officers shoot the unarmed Jews with intent to kill in ravines, ditches and forests. Hence, soldiers as the perpetrators of the mass murder depicts how one during their time would turn to be influential such that he could dictate the existence of other especially the Jews who were the victims of the day.

Consequently, this power and influential status of the soldiers prompted them to commit atrocities. One of the significant aspects that transformed soldiers to merciless killers was their respective psychological transformations dictated by circumstances, which they were in during then. Respective psychological transformations experienced by soldiers compelled them to unleash torture as well as exterminate innocent and helpless Jews (Browning 171). Transformation in this case implies abrupt change due to circumstance from being or behaving like an ordinary man to individuals who are merciless and ready to participate in committing serious historical crimes against humanity, which is by killing the defenceless through shooting as they did to Jews.

The perpetrators of the German holocaust showed a sense of loyalty and obedience to their government. Each perpetrator was a subject to the ruling government under the Nazi regime. As a result, they had to express their trust and obedience to the authority (Browning 173). Conversely, the Nazi had an objective of revolutionizing humanity so that their race could keep on holding to the highest position in the hierarchy of races. Therefore, the Nazi opted to eliminate the anti-Semitism by use of loyal and obedient perpetrators (Browning xiv).

The soldiers’ act of killing the Jews was a sign of loyalty to the government to clean their society by clearing those whom the Nazi claimed to be evil. Some factors that compelled perpetrators of mass murder to commit the killings were majorly social aspects. Peer pressure as an essential social aspect was a major motivation among the perpetrators to commit these atrocities (Browning 172). For instance, the perpetrators killed to avoid considered as being weak before others, which was by the way of shooting.

This is because shooting was an act done by other colleagues comprising varied troops in the entire army. Hence, those who showed hesitance could not have any alternative but to do so. Some also faced bullying from the other soldiers because they did not actively participate in killing. This was the reason that forced perpetrators to commit massacre against Jews for the protection of their status and their career in military. Misleading situational and ideological factors led the Nazi to commit serious crimes against humanity.

The Nazi believed that its race was pure and superior to other races, thereby maintaining its superiority. Hence, according to them it was necessary to clear other races that they deemed to contribute in contaminating the pure and clean German race (Browning 225). As a result, the killings led to transforming ordinary citizens into actual killers that helped to exterminate Jews.Work citedBrowning, Christopher. Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and The Final Solution In Poland. Great Britain in Penguin Books 2001 . 2001. Web. 12 Apr. 2014. .