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  • Ordinary Men

  • Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland
  • Written by: Christopher R. Browning
  • Narrated by: Kevin Gallagher
  • Length: 10 hrs
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (230 ratings)

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Ordinary Men

Written by: Christopher R. Browning
Narrated by: Kevin Gallagher
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Publisher's Summary

“A remarkable - and singularly chilling - glimpse of human behavior...This meticulously researched book...represents a major contribution to the literature of the Holocaust." (Newsweek)

Now available in audio for the first time, Christopher R. Browning’s shocking account of how a unit of average middle-aged Germans became the cold-blooded murderers of tens of thousands of Jews - now with a new afterword and additional photographs. 

Ordinary Men is the true story of Reserve Police Battalion 101 of the German Order Police, which was responsible for mass shootings as well as round-ups of Jewish people for deportation to Nazi death camps in Poland in 1942. Browning argues that most of the men of RPB 101 were not fanatical Nazis but, rather, ordinary middle-aged, working-class men who committed these atrocities out of a mixture of motives, including the group dynamics of conformity, deference to authority, role adaptation, and the altering of moral norms to justify their actions. 

Very quickly three groups emerged within the battalion: a core of eager killers, a plurality who carried out their duties reliably but without initiative, and a small minority who evaded participation in the acts of killing without diminishing the murderous efficiency of the battalion whatsoever. While this book discusses a specific Reserve Unit during WWII, the general argument Browning makes is that most people succumb to the pressures of a group setting and commit actions they would never do of their own volition.  

Ordinary Men is a powerful, chilling, and important work with themes and arguments that continue to resonate today.  

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2017 Christopher R. Browning (P)2020 HarperAudio

What listeners say about Ordinary Men

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    4 out of 5 stars

good book - hard to digest

Why books like this don't make it into high school curriculum is a mystery. Much to learn about the capabilities of ordinary human beings and how "group think" can be a straight path to hell.

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Eerily Relevant

This book should be read in schools. It's hard to hear the horror stories of the holocaust but digging into why these ordinary men performed these atrocious acts will make you think about our society today.

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Important read

To understand the present, one should look to the past - so as to not repeat what has been forgotten. This book does this.

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2 people found this helpful

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everyone should read this book

it's a hard to hear what normal people can do to each other but good to understand . this book shows you that very few people are above being a killer under the right conditions

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unbelievable

It is a slow informative start and a slow ending describing horror and death of so many innocent people. Those that follow others without question is the death of all individuals.

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An interesting look at the psychology

An interesting look at the psychology behind participation in the holocaust, utilizing a uniquely atypical militarized unit of police during the war. The first three quarters of the book deals directly with the details of the war and the unit. The last quarter, which includes a massive afterword, soon after publication in which the authour repudiates claims by another researcher who was very critical of this authour's efforts; and then a follow-up twenty five years later, after which much more research and information has come to light. None of the new information disproves the original assertions made by this authour, but it definitely gets very, very deep into the "psycho-babble", which will likely be off-putting for many readers. It's still a very worthy read, even for people like me, who are not remotely qualified as even armchair psychologists.

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Truly terrifying

It is impossible to listen to this book without feeling a deep sense of dred. Most people never think about how these atrocities were facilitated not by mustache twirling villains, but by the everyday people convinced by their government that what they were doing was not only right but necessary.

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The Horror

Difficult to keep reading the chapters describing the number of Jews rounded up and murdered by the German Police. But good summary and analysis in the final two chapters.

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Eye opening

Great breakdown of how police officers became murderers. Also parallels to me how the vaccinated were so easily turned again the unvaccinated by the goverment during the COVID-19 pandemic. I saw similarities in behavior. Not suggesting murderous behavior, but willingness to follow the goverment without question. You listen and decide.

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Hard read. Critical questions!

Well written, difficult topic to write on. Well researched and well thought through. Disturbing topic, critical questions to try to answer. Author does an excellent job. How can good normal people because heartless murderers? How can they return to a normal life? Need to as face these issues.

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