Changes

Heinz In contrast to Buchmann*, First Company commander Captain Julius Wohlauf, having spent his pre-war years joining the proprietor of a lumber business in HamburgNazi party, SA, and SS, was drafted into an established soldier prior to the order police in 1939onset of the Final Solution.<ref>Browning, 56.Browning changed The inculcation of Nazi ideology combined with the names SS doctrine of some strength and obedience determined Wohlauf’s existence as a soldier and fostered a sense of the reservists and denoted such changes by an asteriskloathing toward weakness. This format will be maintained in this essay.</ref>He did not volunteer for service in the battalion nor did he have aspirations to become an officer. He was selected for officer training as he was well educated and considered middle-class, as opposed refused to entertain the 63 percent idea of excusing his subordinates from the battalion who duty to which they were deemed working-class.<ref>Browning, 47.</ref> This middle-aged group of civilians had jobs, homes, families, and friends. Their societal participation was conducted in relative anonymity as they undertook no exceptional actsassigned; they were average menkilling Jews. Though he was ranked in the middle-class, Buchmann was no different. Browning clearly notes He responded to any such request by indicating that Buchmann was described as a “‘typical civilian’ those who had no desire wished to be a soldierexcused, “could lie down alongside the victims.”<ref>Browning, 10362.</ref>This became evident in the summer of 1940 when he asked to be discharged after serving as a driver in Poland less than a year after the German invasion on September 1, 1939. By utilizing the timeframe noticeably provided by Browning, it can be extrapolated that Buchmann witnessed a great amount of violence and carnage that was incompatible with his moral composition. It is illogical to conclude that Buchmann wanted to be discharged if he was innately inclined to kill. His discharge was summarily denied, thereby placing him in a situation where he had to become either a killer or one courageous enough to adhere to his humanity as the Order Police, Einsatzgruppen, or any other killing squad was not an environment conducive to stagnation. Men such as Buchmann were the exceptions, whereas 80-90 percent of the battalion committed murder. Without employing their own forms of psychological tools, they may not have possessed the ability to kill. One method utilized as a form of rationalization was to deflect the act of execution onto a higher authority.

In contrast to Buchmann, First Company commander Captain Julius Wohlauf, having spent his pre-war years joining the Nazi party, SA, and SS, was an established soldier prior to the onset of the Final Solution. The inculcation of Nazi ideology combined with the SS doctrine of strength and obedience determined Wohlauf’s existence as a soldier and fostered a sense of loathing toward weakness. He refused to entertain the idea of excusing his subordinates from the duty to which they were assigned; killing Jews. He responded to any such request by indicating that those who wished to be excused, “could lie down alongside the victims.”<ref>Browning, 62.</ref> Policemen under Wohlauf’s command who were opposed to the idea of killing innocent victims, yet very well aware of their commander’s intolerance of “cowards,” were thus faced with a moral dilemma. Executing civilians, regardless of ethnicity, political agenda, or religion, did not coincide with the humane composition of certain individuals, yet the alternative, implied by officers such as Wohlauf, was to face corporeal punishment, imprisonment, or even death. In order to appease these concurrently existing opposing ideas, reservists of this ilk deflected their actions and subsequent consequences onto their superiors, thereby alleviating their sense of guilt over murdering unoffending civilians. A stark example of this is put forth by Browning when discussing the actions of Major Wilhelm Trapp after the conclusion of the massacre at Jozefow.