Jozefow Term paper
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There is no doubt that during Hitler s reign in Germany, someone killed Jews. Someone ordered the killings, someone organized the killings and someone killed them. Is there a difference in these someones ? For many years there has been controversy surrounding the extermination of the Jews during the Nazi era. People were tried and convicted for their involvement: some of them denied their contribution, others appeared neutral, and still others were proud of their involvement. These killers came from numerous nationalities, mixed political backgrounds, varied social/economic statuses, and age range. In the article ONE DAY IN JOZEFOW, Initiation to mass murder, the author, Christopher R. Browning, gives his reader an intriguing perspective into the mindset of men who were actually given a choice of whether or not to kill the Jews. Because his perspective only focuses on one specific event, his conclusions are, for the most part, not completely convincing. It is reasonable to believe that there was a stronger underlying force which caused otherwise normal people to become killers during the Nazi era, but Browning s use of minimal sources, skewed numbers and somewhat vague statements, causes the reader to feel they have been subjected to a micro-study with macro conclusions.
Browning s article provides insight into a specific occasion in Jozefow, Poland, where Jews were murdered at point blank range by ordinary policemen. Of these policemen, some were drafted and some volunteered for one reason or another. This group, called Reserve Police Battalion 101, consisted of men around the age of 39 with only about 25 per cent of them belonging to the Nazi Party. (Browning, 304) After studying the court records of interrogations and trials of certain members of this police battalion, Browning discovered that these men were given a chance to reject the task of killing the Jews, yet the majority of them still followed through with the original orders. (Browning, 309) Conclusively Browning argues that this incident provides some proof that if the rest of the Germans that were ordered to kill the Jews had been given a chance to back down, the majority of them would have also rejected the offer.
Browning is effective at his attempt to show the significance of this event for German history. It is important for the average citizen of today to realize that some of the men in the German police forces were given a choice not to kill the Jews. The specific men of Police Battalion 101 were, for the most part, not Nazi party members. According to Browning, most of them were older men who were once working-class German citizens. Very few of them were economically independant and most had held jobs such as truck drivers, dock workers, and machine operators. Many of the men in this battalion were originally from Hamburg, one of Germany s least Nazified cities. (Browning, 304) Browning points out the ages, political backgrounds, and economic statuses, in an effort to show what type of men made up the battalion which was responsible for the murder of over 1500 Jews in Jozefow. He specifically points out that the majority of these men did not belong to the SS or any other anti-Semitic group. They were raised in a social class that in its political culture had been anti-Nazi. (Browning, 304) Once again, this is an attempt by Browning to give his readers an in-depth background of some of Nazi Germany s bloodiest killers that were really not true and loyal Germans.
The sources of this article, consisting soley of judicial records, are reputable and are clearly stated at the beginning of the article. This allows the reader to gain a certain feel for the type of information that will be contained in the article to follow. However, the sources provide only minimal information to support Browning s vast assumptions. Just as with most micro-focus studies, it is hard to make a credible hypothesis based simply on one specific study. In this case the hypothesis simply suggests that any other German soldier, officer or policeman, would have chose to kill Jews even if given the chance to refuse. Even Browning himself states I know of no other case in which a commander so openly invited and sanctioned the nonparticipation of his men in a killing action. (Browning, 314) Therefore the reader is left wondering...
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