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Introduction
Ordinary Men, written by Christopher R. Browning, is a book about actual past events. It is a story about Reserve Police Battalion 101 of the German Order Police, responsible for round-ups and mass extermination of Jewish people. Peer pressure and obedience to authority are the most well-known reasons for such acts. It is known that representatives of the battalion mocked Jews, not because of hatred or thirst for blood, but because of following the ideology of the state of the Third Reich. Therefore, one should emphasize that this is a crucial concept that the author sought to entirely and consistently reveal. Obeying the rules of the Nazi leaders’ rules prompted “ordinary people” to participate in the actions.
Analysis
Pressure from peers and respect for the authorities are among the most apparent reasons for the participation of “ordinary people” in destroying Jews and other undesirable groups of German society. For instance, the author claims that “along with ideological indoctrination, a vital factor touched upon but not fully explored in Milgram’s experiments was conformity to the group.” Hence, any behavior not related to the manifestation of hatred, cruelty, or violence towards “oppressed people” is a “deviation” from the norm, generally accepted societal standards. It is evident that everyone “fought for their place under the sun,” relying on the not comforting existing picture of reality.
Furthermore, it is essential to realize that “ordinary people” were not alien to the manifestation of mercy, care, kindness, and love; they had relatives and loved ones to care for. Nevertheless, according to Christopher R. Browning, merging with the crowd, they are highly likely to obey the rules, regardless of whether they are immoral or not. Based on this phenomenon, it is possible to detect the “crowd effect,” characterized by increased suggestibility and a decrease in the degree of critical attitude towards oneself and the ability to process perceived information rationally.
In particular, one should recognize that the factor contributing to such behavior was a suggestion of the need to destroy Jews as pollutants of “pure Aryan blood,” as well as the spread of anti-Semitic ideas. In this case, Browning says: “I fear that we live in a world, […] in which a sense of personal responsibility is increasingly attenuated by specialization and bureaucratization.” In their early propaganda, the Nazis made two main false claims: firstly, that German Jews betrayed Germany during World War I and were responsible for its defeat; secondly, that Jews were liable for Germany’s economic losses during the depression in the late 1920s and early 1930s.x years. This is due to a lie about the global Jewish conspiracy. Such propaganda has become an excellent tool in the persecution and extermination of Jews. The leaders did not want and did not seek to participate in the killings and, therefore, cunningly and skillfully used “ordinary people” from the battalion to accomplish their plans.
Conclusion
Summarizing the above, it is necessary to state that open propaganda and pressure from some people are the factors that prompted “ordinary people” to participate in the actions. Police officers from the battalion are the same people who did not want to kill or cause pain and suffering to others but did it based on orders from outside and pressure from peers. Everyone sought to avoid for themselves the evil fate that could follow the failure to comply with generally accepted rules and live as corresponds to a citizen of the state.
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