Used to be Ordinary Men

During this week's reading of Ordinary Men I felt that a lot of the points we touched upon in discussion last week were expanded further. Things like why the men did these horrible things when they had the option to say no are touched upon on page 127 which talks about the battalion being divided into the "strong" and the "weak". There was clearly judgement from other men in the battalion, even though there may have been no direct punishment at first. I also thought a lot more about how these men became so accustomed to doing these horrific things. "Growing callousness can also be seen in the post-shooting behavior of the policemen" (128) Browning tells us. We saw in the beginning that many men were very shaken up by the killings, but when they became more frequent it is as if a shield went up before they went into these situations, and it became less personal each time. This reminds me, as someone mentioned in class, of child soldiers in Africa. These children are taken and basically hypnotized into thinking that they are doing something good and that killing these people is what needs to be done. After a while, human life becomes something these soldiers are numb to.

At the same time, the way the men cope with their actions is very important. Clearly the Nazis know they are doing something morally wrong on some level because they provide the men with alcohol to numb their pain after. The story of Captain Hoffmann and his "illness" was of interest to me as well. He was showing all of these physical symptoms of illness, but it was most likely caused by stress and guilt. Even though the men may say that they felt as if they were not doing wrong, getting sick the night before a big killing is sign that he knew he was doing something wrong in one sense or another. Even though all of these men started out as "ordinary", by the end they were all murderers, whether they had participated in killings or not. The ones who did not kill are responsible because they could have stood up for what they believed in and changed things. Sitting out and deciding you cannot participate is not enough, and so they should be held responsible as well.