Reserve Police Battalion 101: How Did Ordinary Citizens Become Killers Under the Third Reich

Police Battalion 101 being inspected, circa 1941.

In the preface to his book, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland, Christopher R. Browning makes it abundantly clear that “Explaining is not excusing; understanding is not forgiving.”Throughout this aptly titled book, this account of Germany’s Reserve Police Battalion 101 supports Browning’s position that these predominantly working-class men from Hamburg were transformed into killers; most reluctant, yet some eager. No single event changed them, the transformation was multi-causal in nature. As is true with all individuals, one responds to crisis according to his abilities. The men of the 101st were no different. Some became avid———even sadistic———in their killing while most became obedient killers. The ten to twenty percent of the group who did not kill became courageous. Regardless of the results of the changes in the men, each individual had to become something foreign to his fundamental nature. Browning supports this thesis throughout his work and is convincing in his opinion that the ordinary men of Reserve Police Battalion 101 became killers as a result of deflection, the weight of conformity and obedience, and most significantly through desensitization.

Life Before the 101

Hamburg, Germany, 1933