Liars

Christopher R. Browning's "Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland" zooms in to a seemingly ordinary unit of German men and depicts the horrible crimes they have committed during the Holocaust. Browning specifically mentions the Third Company of Reserve Police Battalion 101 under the command of Captain Wolfgang Hoffman and the so called "luck" that they had in being absent from the extermination that was happening in the other units. Although two platoons had initially been assigned to the outer cordon, none of them have participated in the firing squads that occured in the woods. They would have been probably exempt from all the violence and killing going on if they were left alone at their stations, leaving them guilt-free. But unfortunately, they were instructed to kill about 2000 Jews, who were largely sick and disabled in a way; some were unable to even walk into the marketplace without collapsing in their first step. So, in the German view, they were virtually useless and therefore, they were scheduled to be shot.

However disturbing that may seem, the most immoral thing that they did was to provide excuses for their actions: one claimed that the "bedridden people had asked [him] to do it", another said that he was so disgusted at what he was forced to do that he "intentionally aimed all [his] shots wide” and was even reprimanded by his sergeant, who saw his "reluctance" to shoot them (116). Such insincerity can obviously be found in their excuses. They made it sound like they were some sort of victims, who had to live through their crimes. It was so unsettling to know that right after they were "assigned to make one more sweep through the ghetto" (117) and verify that there were no more people to kill, they just took a break and relaxed by playing cards.

Even more disconcerting was the fact that Captain Wolfgang Hoffman, the head of the Third Company, was coincidentally absent from participating in actions that would "involve either unpleasantness or danger" (118). And he claimed to have amnesia, having absolutely no recollection of the day when about 1600 Jews were killed off. I find it hard to believe that someone can forget such an event like that.