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In college while pursuing my degree in sociology one of my professors assigned the book Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 it was one of the most powerful books I have ever read. It does not justify their actions but gives perspective on what it takes to make a human go down that path. It explores the societal pressures, views and violence from within. It was not an easy read by any means but it was very thought provoking.
In this vein, I'd like to plug the book Ordinary Men, which examines how people went from being normal middle class people with normal jobs, from bakers to bankers, to routinely killing thousands of people.
Because they were too old or out of shape for combat, hundreds of these men were conscripted into Reserve Police Battalion 101. The first order to kill came while they were in the Polish town of Jozefow. The battalion's commander was choking back tears as he gave the order to his men. He even gave everyone the opportunity to step down if they didn't feel they could carry out the order. Only 12 of the hundreds of men stepped down. 1500 Jews were executed before a mass grave that day. Some didn't die immediately and were instead suffocated by the bodies that fell on them.
That battalion of "ordinary men" went on to kill 38,000 men, women, and children; and sent another 45,000 to camps to be executed.
The author examines how they went from average citizens to mass murderers. Much of it comes from their own testimony at their trials. Some is speculation based on current psychology. Both make you really think.
I highly recommend everyone read it, as it seems more relevant today than at any time since.
You should read this...
https://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Men-Reserve-Battalion-Solution/dp/0060995068
It notes the transition of relatively normal, every day individuals before the war, into someone who could execute naked pregnant women in fields by moon light.
The sooner we all realize that under the right conditions we're all capable of this, the better.
You've got some heavy shit to deal with. Lots of serious situations, all going down at the same time. I can offer some perspectives & procedures that have helped me, and maybe help you.
1- You are NOT your thoughts. Your thoughts are instantaneous electro-chemical impulses that are so transitory, they can barely be said to exist. They will rise. They will fall away.
They're like a massive cascading waterfall- the trick is to position yourself behind the waterfall
2- Acknowledge your feelings. Allow them to pass. The physiological effects of emotions on your body can be profound- but even the strongest ones pass in moments. Unless you continue to regenerate them. "Noting"... the act of recognizing a thought or emotion... is often enough to dispel it. Note what you're feeling in a depersonalized way ("That's anger", "That's anxiety"... NOT "I'm angry" or "I'm anxious").
3- Focus on what you CAN control, Accept what you can't. This is one of the pillars of Stoicism. There's no profit in getting twisted up about things you can't change. Viktor Frankl said that even in the worst situation, each individual has the ultimate power, "The last of the human freedoms: to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way"
4- The Obstacle is the Way Understand that every crisis, every hardship, is an opportunity to develop some other virtue. Patience, Endurance, Compassion, Courage, Resourcefulness... skills that would lie dormant unless you were challenged.
5- See things as they are, not as you wish, not as you fear. Optimism and Pessimism are for suckers. Realism is the way to go. Your fortunes will rise and fall. Determine that no matter what happens, you'll be able to handle it, with competence and dignity.
​
I wish you well.
Read The Bible Unearthed. There isn't even any archaeological evidence for the genocide of Canaan or the Exodus. So now ya get to have Christians not only argue that the genocide happened because the Bible said so, but that it was morally justified. Fun!
I recently read "Ordinary Men" about how normal polish police went from being civilian normal police to aiding the Germans in the Holocaust and it's scary how many parallels there are. It requires normal civilians and police to all step up and speak against it to stop
Edit: comrade pointed out these were German civilians. They are correct.
"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."
A big thing that struck me: when the police who initially said "no" in front of the rest of the group were later asked how they were able to say no they talked about how they were older and financially independent. The young guys all said yes because they were focused on their careers and hoping for a promotion. I wonder how much of the same mindset controls our police in this country. If the chief of police is smiling at militia run check points, is the 24 year old cop ready, mentally but financially, to question him?
There's a book on the topic that I've been meaning to read: https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Their-Own-Invented-Hollywood/dp/0385265573/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=empire+of+their+own&qid=1568575461&s=gateway&sr=8-1
The short answer is that the entertainment industry has historically been open to people who are marginalized from other career paths. So disproportionate representation of minorities in the performing arts is something that you often see across cultures and throughout history.
Buy Christopher Browning's "Ordinary Men" and loan it to him . It's not a difficult read, well the topic is, but the language is not.
You see that paperbacks are pretty cheap.
The book is <em>Ordinary Men</em>, and it's absolutely horrifying. It's an extremely frank and well-supported look at just how easily and willingly so many people committed horrible acts of violence. Any time someone gives the, "We were just following orders!" or, "You'd die if you didn't obey!" excuse, they need to read this book.
Finding purpose and direction.
Check out this book. It's by a psychologist who was imprisoned in Auschwitz who made it his purpose while there to understand (and teach) what helps people through hopeless adversity.
https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl/dp/080701429X
First year, but this is why I got into it. I had a question about how were the German people swayed to follow Hitler, and I was handed a book. Then I wanted more. Then I took a World War 2 class and read this book.
Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060995068/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_WWsoCbJX1P4QK
Seriously. If you even have a REMOTE interest in how it happened, and how it was executed. Read this book. It is haunting. We cant stop history from repeating itself without knowing how it happened before.
Read the book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. There's a great audiobook version on Audible. I'm American too, except my four years of history classes were in Texas not NYC, and after reading that book I truly realized how little they actually taught us in high school.
People interested in this should try to read Brownings "Ordinary men" sometime.
https://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Men-Reserve-Battalion-Solution/dp/0060995068
It goes into some depth about what regular soldiers did in the holocaust. One of his points is that it wasn't really fear of punishment but more fear of letting ones comrades down that made people participate in mass murder.
you make it sound as if I personally take some EU funds. And you have a really condescending attitude. "You take our money, we helped you, so you must listen as we tell you". From my perspective (I am Czech), it was Germany and Russia who fucked my country up 80 years ago. One side Nazis killing slavic people because they were untermenschen, on the other side fucking USSR. If it were not for these two countries, communism would not have decimated eastern Europe. You need some history lessons
https://www.amazon.com/Bloodlands-Europe-Between-Hitler-Stalin/dp/0465031471
and nowadays we see history repeating itself. Gemany is no more nazistic and imperialistic, but it is spineless and enabling another fascist Regime, which is current Russia. Russia is again threatening other countries
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is a really great historical text on Hitler's life and WW2, focusing on Hitler's politics more than it ever looks at the war itself. It explains a lot of what you just covered with Hitler's early annexings of areas that had large amounts of ethnic Germans in them.
Basically, Hitler was doing what Vladimir Putin did when he annexed Crimea. Claim "there's so many Germans/Russians living there, they should be apart of our country!" and then invade it and hope the rest of the world lets you get away with it.
Anyone interested in this subject should read the book Ordinary Men.
The nazis, from the rank and file who were just cogs in a machine to the sadists and murderers were all people like you or me. Trying to dehumanize them like some weird defect of history is dangerous and disingenuous.
Thats exactly where this quote is from. What makes it even more powerful is that this thought is in response to being sent to a concentration camp to die.
If Frankl could maintain this mentality while being worked to near death and having to constantly outsmart gestapo, no one here has any valid excuse as to why they can't cultivate that same mindset.
Seriously, everyone get this book. Its like 200 pages (if that) of some of the most compelling writing you'll ever read.
Amazing book. Especially in the political climate today. People call everything a Nazi, when the real problem is people relinquishing their personal responsibility to say "no" to bad ideas regardless of who says them and the consequences.
"...America’s 45th president is open about the fact that he doesn’t read much history..." that's a real shame because we could all avoid a lot of pain and suffering if the dumb ass just read a little ...
https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Fall-Third-Reich-History/dp/1451651686
Hitler's statements about using the term 'socialism' to attract blue collar voters is reprinted in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer.
It's a pretty fantastic book if you're interested in Nazi philosophy and political outlook. Shirer was a journalist in Berlin when the Nazis came to power, and has more insight into their methods and beliefs than any other author I've read.
Wow! That was a fascinating read. Thanks for sharing. It really speaks to the same tribal behaviors we are seeing in current society.
I would also recommend the book “Ordinary Men” for a similar look at how an entire society became mass murderers.
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Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062303023/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_sEqHDbZNFPNYX
The user turned this narrative into a five part series of the first killings, how the ordinary men of Reserve Police Battalion 101 dealt with the aftermath of that killing, how the killings became a routine, and eventually details their largest mass killing - the killing of the 42,000 Jews in the Lublin Ghetto
HighCrimesandHistory's post is based on the fantastic work Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. The book details the 500 middle aged family men of Reserve Police Battalion 101, mostly shopkeepers and tradesmen from Hamburg, as they directly killed at least 38,000 Jews in under a year, and sent tens of thousands more to the death camps.
The book itself is incredible and a must read for anybody interested, but /u/highcrimesandhistory turned parts of the book into an incredibly visceral and readable narrative
I was you, about two years ago. I had fully committed to being a great dad and a great husband, but had stopped developing as an individual. Figuring that out is an excellent first step to, as you said, getting your life back in balance.
Here are two books that helped me:
Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl: It's a short book by a Holocaust survivor that deals with controlling your attitude at all times, and having perspective on where you are compared to where you want to be.
A Guide to the Good Life, by William Irvine: A good modern take on Stoicism, or the philosophy of taking life in stride. Contrary to common belief, it's not about eschewing all emotions and being joyless; it's about embracing joy in all things, acknowledging and preparing for grief but not letting them overwhelm you, and being mentally present in day-to-day life. Plan for the future, but don't forget to take joy in the small moments of the present.
Edited in links.
I know this isn't the time or place but if you guys are interested there's a great book about this Litteral exact thing.
It's called ordinary men and I suggest anyone interested in history have a read. It's super interesting
Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062303023/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_FhFUAb7SYTDE8
Okay, so if you think Nazis were people who were "inherently bad to begin with", how do you propose preventing people like them from rising again? Nobody thinks they're the bad guy.
Thanks! Snyder is a great writer. Bloodlands is definitely worth the read -- it's a look at the mass killings under the Hitler and Stalin regimes. If that sounds like both-sides-ism or something, it's more like 'political mass murder' is itself the center of the story, often told from the point of view of its victims.
It's gotta be really hard to be a teen in this climate. We can't go back to normal, because people will die. I know you already know that though, and it's just so shitty. I hear what you're saying about the frustration and stress. It's hard enough to be in middle school (if you ask any adult, I think they would agree that middle school is a tough time), let alone have to do this stuff with a global pandemic. It's 100% shit and nobody should disagree with that.
As an adult, I can tell you one thing (and btw - I'm giving myself advice here as I'm typing this because I need it too). This is a real-world version of the "marshmallow test". Step back one bit and take a look at yourself and how you want to manage the situation. You can either be a beacon for yourself or others, or you can go down the crapped-out road of depression. If you use this experience to check your own character, strength and resilience, you might be find that you have deep qualities that you didn't know existed. If you allow yourself just to pool in the "this sucks" mode, your brain will learn that when times get tough, the "this sucks" mode is the default. That's the equivalent of your brain sucking money out of your emotional bank account every time shit comes up in the future. Challenge that, and look back on this Covid crap as a time of immense growth and opportunity that will pay you over and over many years to come.
Also, check out Man's Search for Meaning. It's a book that explains exactly how to function in difficult times. If you ping me your info, I'll send you a copy.
They do have concrete policies that they have never wavered from. 1- Helping business owners exploit workers. Humans making below $400k only matter for votes and profit. Their usefulness to the wealthy is the only value to human lives of the lower and middle class. 2- Do whatever it takes to get and keep power. Lie. Cheat. Insurrection. Use tactics straight out of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. And that's literally, not figurative and not a metaphor.
There has never been a shortage of stupid people. They will believe what a dictator says and ignore what they do.
You might want to read ordinary men. It goes into a lot of detail on the explanations that soldiers came up with to justify their actions to themselves. One big theme was duty, basically "If I don't do this gruesome thing, the next guy in my unit will have to do it and that's not ok". Probably the one anecdote that stuck out to me the most was a soldier who would only kill children because he felt like he was freeing them from living lives as orphans since everyone else was killing their parents.
edit: This book focuses on a the history of a specific battalion working the final solution on the Eastern Front. If I recall correctly the men were reservists from an area of Germany that wasn't particularly pro-Nazi and were very "ordinary".
According to secular historians?
Yeah...not a chance.
The consensus is that pre-Exile, the Bible is entirely unreliable. Post-Exile it has a lot of fact, but it's heavily propagandized.
Here's a great book to read on the matter: https://www.amazon.com/Bible-Unearthed-Archaeologys-Vision-Ancient/dp/0684869136