{"product":{"product_id":"B01G1F0F84","title":"Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland","price":"10.99","image_url":"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51WRnb3PaWL._SL500_.jpg","url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01G1F0F84"},"comments":[{"body":"In college while pursuing my degree in sociology one of my professors assigned the book [Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 ](https://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Men-Reserve-Battalion-Solution-ebook/dp/B01G1F0F84/ref=nodl_) 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.","subreddit_name":"HistoryMemes","author":"CharisAnthos"},{"body":"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\r\n\r\nhttps://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Men-Reserve-Battalion-Solution-ebook/dp/B01G1F0F84#:~:text=Ordinary%20Men%20is%20the%20true,camps%20in%20Poland%20in%201942.\r\n\r\nEdit: comrade pointed out these were German civilians. They are correct.\r\n\r\n\"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.\"\r\n\r\nA 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?","subreddit_name":"SocialistRA","author":"czarnick123"},{"body":"You might want to read [ordinary men](https://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Men-Reserve-Battalion-Solution-ebook/dp/B01G1F0F84).  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.\r\n\r\nedit: 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\".","subreddit_name":"AskSocialScience","author":"grouchymonk1517"},{"body":"This entire post misses the mark. We're not calling them to arms, we're mocking them and pointing out their against tyranny stance has no litmus test they will actually apply. Their use of guns is partisan. This is the predicted step we all knew was coming: right wing support for police will be support for the gestapo as long as gestapo target their political enemies.\r\n\r\nI recently read \"ordinary men\". Polish authorities interviewed polish police that aided the Germans in the Holocaust for ten years. Between those interviews and police documents we can see how ordinary law enforcement are coerced into aiding genocide. It's horrifying how familiar reading all that stuff is into today's light. I'm not saying genocide will occur but law enforcement mentality towards everything occuring is wrong. The mentality they are breeding is primed for dark things \r\n\r\nhttps://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Men-Reserve-Battalion-Solution-ebook/dp/B01G1F0F84","subreddit_name":"2ALiberals","author":"czarnick123"},{"body":"Let's assume he is \"sick\", what is some medicine?  Education maybe?  I highly suggest you read this book and reflect deeply.  1/3 of the people enjoyed the murder (maybe you), 1/3 hated it but did it anyway, 1/3 refused.   \r\n\r\n\r\nhttps://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Men-Reserve-Battalion-Solution-ebook/dp/B01G1F0F84","subreddit_name":"conspiracy","author":"TideRideSide"},{"body":"A worthwhile [read](https://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Men-Reserve-Battalion-Solution-ebook/dp/B01G1F0F84?ref=d6k_applink_bb_dls\u0026amp;dplnkId=049f8a42-75cc-4bcd-a58a-305e9edaeb47#:~:text=Ordinary%20Men%20is%20the%20true,camps%20in%20Poland%20in%201942.) to that point","subreddit_name":"Indiana","author":"ifasoldt"},{"body":"Of course, ordinary people carried out the holocaust.\r\n\r\nThere is an entire book dedicated to the why and how ordinary people did such awful things. If you want to educate yourself: \r\n\r\nhttps://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Men-Reserve-Battalion-Solution-ebook/dp/B01G1F0F84","subreddit_name":"Kanye","author":"whateverizclever"},{"body":"it's not just \"fear\". it's apathy, it's \"just following orders\", it's years of scapegoating and dehumanizing \"the others\", it's blind patriotism and nationalism, it's \"doing evil for the good of the nation\", it's \"doing evil so my brothers and sons don't have to\", etc etc\r\n\r\nYou should read this book called [Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland](https://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Men-Reserve-Battalion-Solution-ebook/dp/B01G1F0F84) if you've never read it.","subreddit_name":"RussiaUkraineWar2022","author":"impulse_thoughts"},{"body":"Politicians weren't the ones pulling the triggers and burying bodies.  The atrocities against the Jews and other minorities were not committed by a handful of powerful people.  Thousands upon thousands of people had a part in it.  Too many people think that there is nothing they can do. \r\n\r\n\r\nA very interesting book on the subject: https://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Men-Reserve-Battalion-Solution-ebook/dp/B01G1F0F84","subreddit_name":"HistoryPorn","author":"Notacop9"},{"body":"Horrific...\r\n\r\n\u0026amp;#x200B;\r\n\r\nInterestingly, I just read a book called Ordinary Men and it tells a story of how a police reserve battalion became one of the Nazis most efficient killing machines. It shows how many Nazis back int he Nazi Germany era didnt want to commit horrific crimes but eventually became desensitised to it and ultimately very efficient at it. Sad those these asswipes in the article actually like it.  Nut jobs!\r\n\r\n\u0026amp;#x200B;\r\n\r\nhttps://www.amazon.co.uk/Ordinary-Men-Reserve-Battalion-Solution-ebook/dp/B01G1F0F84","subreddit_name":"worldnews","author":"Man_in_the_uk"},{"body":"Good time to recommend a very good book on this very subject read in college, [*Ordinary Men* by Christopher Browning](https://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Men-Reserve-Battalion-Solution-ebook/dp/B01G1F0F84#:~:text=Ordinary%20Men%20is%20the%20true,camps%20in%20Poland%20in%201942.). It's from 1992 but I only graduated a few years ago so it's still very much up-to-date. It's about a regiment of Hitler's kill squads on the Eastern Front and talks all about the sociology and psychology of genocide. Highly recommended.","subreddit_name":"HistoryMemes","author":"AutisticHistoryLover"},{"body":"I would NOT recommend reading this now, but the book [Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland](https://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Men-Reserve-Battalion-Solution-ebook/dp/B01G1F0F84) goes into this. From the description: \r\n\r\n\u0026gt; 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.","subreddit_name":"zelensky","author":"Excellent_Potential"},{"body":"Every person who says stuff like that should be required to read [Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion](https://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Men-Reserve-Battalion-Solution-ebook/dp/B01G1F0F84), which heartbreakingly describes how a bunch of middle-aged German men (not the young, brainwashed Hitler youth, but regular policemen who had mixed feelings about Hitler's regime) gradually devolved into committing the worst crimes the Nazis had to offer. Every day men who had families and were normal people.\r\n\r\nAnd also, people who would have 'tried to stop' the Nazis within Germany would have been killed.","subreddit_name":"PoliticalCompassMemes","author":"TralosKensei"},{"body":"It's completely incorrect. One of the best books on the subject is [Ordinary Men - Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland](https://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Men-Reserve-Battalion-Solution-ebook/dp/B01G1F0F84). The unit was an Order Police battalion, composed of middle aged reservists who were too old for frontline duty, but weren't invalids yet. Most were, as the title describes, regular middle aged men from Hamburg - police officers, factory workers, etc. The book follows the unit as it is deployed to Poland in 1942, at the beginning of the major Nazi extermination campaign against Poland's Jewish population (at this point, largely by shooting). Though the unit was under the command of the SS, the men therein were not fanatical nazis for the most part. Yet in their one year tour of duty, the 500 men of the battalion would be responsible for the deaths of at least 70,000, probably more, Jews. Some men refuse to do the shooting, and are not punished (their first mass killing, outside the town of Józefów, even features the unit's commander offering the men who did not want to shoot a chance to avoid it)\r\n\r\nThe portrayal from *Stalingrad* is a clear example of the Clean Wehrmacht myth, the idea that the German armed forces under the Nazis command were somehow separate from Nazi atrocities. This is not true in myriad ways, from the highest (slave labor being used in war industry) to the lowest, individual levels. Jews and POWs were summarily executed when military units initially advanced. Rape and looting were essentially not crimes in the East when committed by German soldiers. Official Army orders for Barbarossa contained the infamous \"Commissar Order\", which ordered soldiers to execute any Commissar or \"thoroughly bolshevized\" POW upon capture. We don't need to get into atrocity porn here, but if you're interested, do some searches for \"clean Wehrmacht\", there's a lot written about it","subreddit_name":"WarCollege","author":"Hoyarugby"},{"body":"The interesting thing about the holocaust, especially in Poland, is that all the senseless killing was the culmination of centuries of racial prejudice. Non-Jewish Poles were greenlit to take life and property in the same way white Georgians were during Andrew Jackson's tenure in America. The point is, Hitler didn't wave a magical wand to make people start murdering. Nor did he send in droves of SS agents to conduct slaughter. Much of the killing occurred organically.\r\n\r\n[source](https://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Men-Reserve-Battalion-Solution-ebook/dp/B01G1F0F84)","subreddit_name":"politics","author":"beatkid"}]}