Ordinary Men by Hans Doerr https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5 Describe your 'unease', if any, with 'Ordinary Men'? en-us 2022-06-02 17:43:46 UTC 2025-10-11 22:41:19 UTC hello@padlet.com Finley Rupright https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209280548 I felt unease with learning about these men's personal lives. Many, but not all, were murderers. Some felt content or even pleasure from killing innocent Jews. When learning about these men and their lives before the war, it humanized them for me. When they were described as carpenters, bakers, or butchers, it made them normal (ordinary). They could have been a neighbor even friend, since nothing in their lives leading up to the war suggested they were violent anti-semites. ]]> 2022-06-02 17:55:42 UTC https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209280548 Doerr doerrh https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209280628 I'm not sure that Browning really knows why these men did what they did. And if that's the case, then I'm left terrified by the possibility of the book. The notion that something inside us--a deference to authority and the group--that is so powerful it could override one of society's greatest taboos is downright spooky. I have to imagine that some of these men went to Sunday school, or had loving and nurturing parents. Maybe dogs and kids they loved and adored. It gives me the heebie jeebies. ]]> 2022-06-02 17:55:47 UTC https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209280628 Leah T-S thornszostkiewiczl241 https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209280678 Trying to understand the thought process of the men in Reserve Police Battalion 101 was difficult, especially because the book provided such graphic and detailed accounts of what they did to the Jewish population. It made me feel uneasy to try and empathize and try to process what these people did. The fact that many were offered a chance to not participate, yet chose to anyways, is also quite disturbing. It did not seem like they were being threatened or bribed either, meaning that they chose to participate in these massacres with their own free will. ]]> 2022-06-02 17:55:51 UTC https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209280678 https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209281749 It was disturbing to read how much these soldiers enjoyed killing. The parts where they focused on specific killings were worse to read. When they hunted down families and groups of Jews who would run into forests and the like. It made it feel more personal. Also it felt uneasy learning about the non eager killers more so than the eager ones. Those who killed, didn't enjoy it, but would keep doing it and would continue to follow orders. ]]> 2022-06-02 17:57:00 UTC https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209281749 Jonathan Shen shenj241 https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209282029 Browning focuses mainly on reserve policemen who have sat out on their own will. However, he mentions throughout the book how there was still an excess of men willing to participate and shoot Jews. I often read about commanding officers only excusing four or five men who asked, and how many continued to shoot because they didn't want to be cowardly. It also makes me uneasy how in some cases, reserve police officers would be forced to meet their victims face to face, and the policemen would still shoot.]]> 2022-06-02 17:57:18 UTC https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209282029 Robby https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209282740 I think the uneaseness from reading this book stemmed from the fact that these men came from ordinary lives. It was a combination of uncontrollable factors that led them down this horrific path. These men were surrounded and confined in pretty messed up circumstances. Browning mentioned this, but many of the these factors are present in most people's everyday lives. This leads to the even more scarier question, could any person be transfomed into killers under such crazy circumstances?]]> 2022-06-02 17:58:00 UTC https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209282740 Isabelle https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209283263 To be completely honest, the unease I felt was more directed towards the exposure of how similar the battalion members were in terms of feeling empathy and humanity. For most of my life, I've viewed these men as cold-blooded killers. I felt discontent knowing that I've almost history in a sense of black and white, the fact that these men also had feelings and experienced trauma never came to my mind before. Ordinary Men was an "interesting book" to read. I often found myself lacking vocabulary to describe what I had read because of how shocking a situation was. But of course, despite feeling that unease, to understand is not to forgive, as much as I am seeing both sides of this period of history I still cannot really brush over the fact of how millions of lives were lost.]]> 2022-06-02 17:58:32 UTC https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209283263 Challenging https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209284093 I was most uneasy when people made the transition from ordinary men to people who enjoyed killing. I also found it very uncomfortable that people like Traub were disturbed by the killing and did not participate but ordered others to. This gave me a weird impression that he knew what he was doing was wrong, but nonetheless still continued to do it. The way people had to watch their families get murdered also created great unease for me. They were helpless to defend what was going on, but I still feel like the way they were so passive with people getting murdered in front of them felt wrong. I also found it hard to comprehend the people that were given a choice to drop out, but still decided to kill. ]]> 2022-06-02 17:59:18 UTC https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209284093 morrissyb24 https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209285119 It made me uneasy to find that the vast majority of the soldiers, now conditioned to kill, ended up even celebrating the atrocities they committed and began acting as if it was a game. I feel as if Browning doesn’t truly know the reason why these people turned into the monsters they became, but i do feel that he was close with the idea that they were conditioned by the “brutalization” of the actions.]]> 2022-06-02 18:00:15 UTC https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209285119 Uneasiness in OM armstrongk241 https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209285141 One aspect that is particularly difficult throughout the book is that the Holocaust was a race-war and non-conventional. Meaning that the Nazi soldiers were deliberate about their actions and therefore chose to participate in the massacres. However, Browning asks us to consider empathy for Battalion 101 and that was equally as frightening. Additionally, we never reach any type pf resolution and so it is never clear why the men chose the path they did throughout WWII. ]]> 2022-06-02 18:00:16 UTC https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209285141 Phoena Dadson https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209285614 It made me uneasy when i would try to think about what was going through teh soldiers mind when they would kill or hunt Jews.  One part of the book that made me really uneasy was when it said " A mark was made on the bar door for each Jew shot and 'victory celebrations" were repotedly held on days when high scores were recoreded." I thought this was disgucting the fact that eradicating the jews was like a competition to them ]]> 2022-06-02 18:00:47 UTC https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209285614 https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209285690 Something I found hard to process towards the end of Ordinary Men was the shift in motives for all of the characters. At times I would have my various thoughts of figures such as Kammer, Traub, and even some of the figures who appeared later. Seeing their own character development and looking at how Browninh wrote them as such complex individuals with their own backgrounds and set of emotions had me thinking way too much by the end of the book. Seeing some of them act in the setting where a very normal, familial enironment was established was especially confusing because for the whole book it seems as if we as the readers were meant to be against them, although at times the reaction towards these men were not as simple as black and white. By the end of the book I truly understood the concept of Ordinary Men being put into not so ordinary situations]]> 2022-06-02 18:00:51 UTC https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209285690 Braden https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209286293 What makes me uncomfortable as I read was the willingness to follow orders. Many of them followed the orders and even enjoyed it as they worked. The book describes many graphic scenes as the men carried out the horrible orders that they were given. Even after learning about some of the backgrounds of the men they still continued to shoot the Jewish members of the community. ]]> 2022-06-02 18:01:29 UTC https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209286293 Guilt zhuh241 https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209287402 The hardest part in the book is that through Browning's description of these members of Police Battalion 101, I can get a sense of humanity and feel for them. Which should not happen considering the crimes they had done. However, Browning's description of what these policemen think, talk and worry is real. It actually makes me start to think if I'm under the same situation would I done the same thing as they had done. Meanwhile, reading the innocent Jews getting slaughtered is makes me even more disgusting and guilty of myself because it seems like it is me doing it. ]]> 2022-06-02 18:02:38 UTC https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209287402 Bonner https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209287811 My unease in Ordinary Men was how unstable the policemen were mentally. It's really scary to think about what could go on inside of a humans brain and how little control you have over a person and yourself sometimes. For example, the member of Police Battalion 101’s actions were all based on control and mental stability. The policemen needed the control and strength to be able to not pull the trigger or load those “half-starved to death” Jews into the train cars that will determine their fate for the worst. I personally would like to know how mentally stable each policeman was and whether they had any kind of mental problems wrong with them.     

 
]]> 2022-06-02 18:03:04 UTC https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209287811 Battalion 101 became killers and they were ordinary men, and my uneasiness with the book ends with the last line of the book implying that anyone could be a killer. Browning also states in the preface that he is not trying to make excuses for why the battalion killed, but then proceeds to make a whole book sympathizing with the battalion. My conclusion is that my uneasiness lies in the fact that Browning is talking as if the battalion didn't kill so many people and drastically humanizes them, and does not keep in mind what horrible things Battalion 101 did, the book felt like an encyclopedia while disregarding the Battalion 101's horrible actions. https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209293230 OA]]> 2022-06-02 18:08:27 UTC https://padlet.com/doerrh/9f8p0ox6ml40uki5/wish/2209293230