But truly, Browning’s study, entitled Ordinary Men helps to understand. The study seeks to understand how the individuals in Police Battalion 101 were capable of participating in the destruction of Polish Jewry. To answer this historical question, Browning uses the judicial testimonies of the men who served. He asserts that these testimonies contain “unusually vivid and detailed testimony [that] stands in stark contrast to the formulaic and transparently dishonest testimony so often encountered” (pg.210). Because of their accuracy, these documents allowed Browning to “probe issues in a way that is not possible from the records of other cases” (pg.210). The methodology that Browning chooses - studying the men by dissecting and examining their psychologies - allows the reader to peak into the minds of the members of Police Battalion 101 and understand how the vast majority of these individuals become willing executioners of the Final Solution to the Jewish
But truly, Browning’s study, entitled Ordinary Men helps to understand. The study seeks to understand how the individuals in Police Battalion 101 were capable of participating in the destruction of Polish Jewry. To answer this historical question, Browning uses the judicial testimonies of the men who served. He asserts that these testimonies contain “unusually vivid and detailed testimony [that] stands in stark contrast to the formulaic and transparently dishonest testimony so often encountered” (pg.210). Because of their accuracy, these documents allowed Browning to “probe issues in a way that is not possible from the records of other cases” (pg.210). The methodology that Browning chooses - studying the men by dissecting and examining their psychologies - allows the reader to peak into the minds of the members of Police Battalion 101 and understand how the vast majority of these individuals become willing executioners of the Final Solution to the Jewish