Christopher Browning's Ordinary Men What was the situation of the Police Battalion 101 that prompted their actions? "How did a battalion of middle-aged reserve policemen find themselves facing the task of shooting some 1,500 Jews" in a Polish villa Continue Reading...
Clearly, the reason lies within fervent nationalism and Hitler's mad scheme known as the "Final Solution." As to the book's strengths and weaknesses, Browning conveys the true brutal face of World War II via his highly-detailed analysis of Battalio Continue Reading...
In the horrifying details regarding a mass execution operation conducted by a series of German platoons, one man recalls that "it was in no way the case that those who did not want to or could not carry out the shooting of human beings with their ow Continue Reading...
Ordinary Men Christopher R. Browning is a history professor at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. His work on holocaust historiography has allowed Browning to contribute to the world's most important compendium of holocaust history a Continue Reading...
(Browning 168-169) He points to Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiments where some subjects proved so amenable to authority that they were willing to repeatedly shock and possibly kill other people if an authoritative figure ordered them to do so, wh Continue Reading...
Himmler himself came up with an explanation for those who could not obey orders, in spite of their unconditioned obedience, so that their comrades and the rest of the population get a message of a condition in their mental health, rather than a diso Continue Reading...
Introduction In the decades that followed World War Two and the unspeakable horrors of The Holocaust, much study has been conducted to both learn the details of all the interlocking forces that enabled these atrocities. Scholars and historians tod Continue Reading...
King evokes many of the philosophical premises that justified Gandhi in his actions, and explicitly mentions another famous social agitator -- Socrates -- in the hopes of solidifying the logical foundations of the notion of social protest. When it Continue Reading...
Goldhagen and Browning: How the Holocaust Could Have Happened The Jewish Holocaust has inspired countless theories on how such an atrocity could take place in a seemingly humane and otherwise "normal" society, as Germany was in the 20th ce Continue Reading...
They knew that they had to remove the 'sub-human threat' and they did not hesitate to do everything in their power in order to be successful. Browning described how the individuals in the Reserve Police Battalion 101 were not necessarily indifferen Continue Reading...
Administrative Evil Review of Unmasking Administrative Evil In Understanding Administrative Evil, authors Guy B. Adams and Danny L. Balfour explore the idea and evolution of the concept of evil. Adams and Balfour begin by defining historical evil Continue Reading...
Holocaust, and how Primo Levi survived his imprisonment in Auschwitz. Specifically, it will answer the questions: What perspective does Levi provide on day-to-day survival within Auschwitz? Is there order amidst the chaos of mass murder? Primo Levi' Continue Reading...
