Ordnungspolizei

Abby Mangefrida History 339 April 2, 2017 Ordinary Men Christopher Browning’s Ordinary Men follows the tasks of Police Battalion 101, a division of the Nazi paramilitary Order Police, which operated as a mass execution squad from 1941 to 1942. The battalion consisted of primarily working class middle aged men of German descent. The majority of the men were neither Nazi party members nor people with military or police experience. Their selection for the Order Police was largely due to their age, deemed too old to fight in the German army. Browning’s book includes both narratives of the actions that this battalion performed and statements from the interrogations of 125 men to explore their transformation from “ordinary men” to killers. The book draws on psychological and common characteristics of human nature such as obedience to authority and group conformity as factors that, when combined, can prompt ordinary men to become capable of mass murder. The first order for the execution of the Jews by the Reserve Police Battalion 101 came on July 12, 1942, in the Jewish Ghetto of Jozenfow. Before the events took place on this day, members of the Reserve Police Battalion 101 were given the choice of opting out if not up to the task, but only about a dozen did. While not knowing the complete story of what was to come, the rest of the policemen performed their first murders. Since this was the first task, it was described as slow and disorderly. The policemen were matched face to…

Reasons behind human responses and actions cannot be explained in black and white. After all, many decades of research later, neurologists and psychologist have been attempting to decipher several mechanisms in the human brain, that include the decision making process, and still have yet to find concrete answers. Decision making is essential to human nature because individuals need to make basic decisions to survive, or get through important events in their lives. The decision to comply with…

the Gestapo brought nothing but fear and terror to European Jews and German citizens through their inhumane violence, complete control over society, ability to rise over the law, and complex system of informants. Another group, called the Ordnungspolizei or Green Police, joins the Gestapo as one of the most feared forces. Within a few years, this group transformed from a law-abiding group of policemen to hardened men responsible for the death of at least one million Jews. Although they had fewer…

the Heer, the kriegsmarine, and the luftwaffe. “ The Einsatzgruppen usually operated behind the army, moving from village to village, killing and disposing of bodies”(The einsatzgruppen). The Waffen SS was the armed wing of the Nazi Party’s SS organisation. “ After the victims had handed over their valuables and undressed, men, women, and children were shot, either standing before the open trench, or lying face down in the prepared pit”(United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). Axis was the…

After the German army invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, a new stage of the holocaust began. A new special action squad, or Einsatzgruppen, was formed. It was made up of Nazi SS units and police. They were also aided by residents of regions the Nazis had previously taken over. Einsatzgruppen (which means deployment groups in German) was a unit of the Nazi special forces. It was composed of members of the SS, the Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police), and the Ordnungspolizei (Order…