Dr. Christopher Browning- "Ordinary Men" of the Holocaust

In this interview with historian Dr. Christopher Browning, we discuss his book, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. An internationally renowned author and researcher, Dr. Browning is also a professor emeritus of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). He is an internationally recognized expert on the Holocaust and Nazi Germany and has authored over 75 publications.

 

His focus on Battalion 101 emerged during his research of the Holocaust, when he discovered that this battalion was unlike any other in the German army or police force—it was comprised of ordinary, middle-aged men, not trained soldiers. Despite this fact, they assimilated into the Nazi practices of mass murder with disturbing ease. Dr. Browning examines the psychological and cultural influences that impacted this seeming phenomenon and offers poignant insights from existing historical documents.