Immorality from Mortality

The discussion we shared in this past week’s recitation continued to resonate with me while reading the second half of Browning’s “Ordinary Men.” One topic that was discussed which seemed to amplify the power of Browning’s account was the idea that the men of the Reserve Police Battalion 101 were conditioned to act with very limited moral options. As Browning vividly details the brutal killings committed by the Battalion to satisfy quotas and fulfill duties, it is clear that these once “Ordinary Men,” that may have harbored strong moral values, have been transformed to operate under little or no moral conscience at all.

Another fascinating addition to consider with the limited-moral character of the Reserve Police Battalion is the fact that many of the men involved had quite liberal upbringings. Initially, it is baffling to attempt to trace the trajectory from being raised to hold liberal beliefs and develop a sense of morality to join a group that was essentially a killing squad. A generation above the “Hitler Youth,” the men in the Reserve Police Battalion had not been a part of the violent expression that stemmed from the youth’s energetic and enthusiastic support of Hitler and the Nazi party. Rather, many of the men in this group were raised supporting the Social Democratic Party and shared more beliefs with the left than with the increasingly powerful right.

While Browning’s chronicles of the Reserve Police Batallion’s violent escapades succeed in illustrating the caliber of violence committed by the group, they also validate the underlying reasons behind the “Ordinary Men’s” predicament of acting within limited moral options. Considering the social hemisphere in which this group of men came from, it is clear that minimizing their own moral consciousness was the only possible way members of the Battalion could complete their violent tasks. Browning’s validation for the Battalion’s lack of morality is especially vivid in the chapter “The Strange Health of Captain Hoffman.” The chapter recalls the psychological and psychical affliction faced by one of the Battalion’s captains. Browning describes that as the Captain’s “health” problems worsened: “It became common for the men to predict, upon hearing the night before of a pending action, that the company chief would be bedridden by morning” (118). From this it is clear that he did everything in his power to hide it or confront it himself, the chief’s health problems resulted from an innate morality, and sense of grief and guilt for not only partaking but leading in mass killings. Within this piece of evidence and several similar accounts in the book, we find that while “Ordinary Men” does boast an impressive amount of violent imagery, Browning is depicting the seemingly ordinary and humane sentiments that existed but suppressed in a group of men subjected to violent acts.

Rebecca Hartke