Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Ordinary Men, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Freedom of Choice
Peer Pressure, Conformity, and Acceptance
Normalization of Violence
Nationalism, War, and Ethnic Cleansing
Summary
Analysis
Before the fall of 1942, Reserve Police Battalion 101’s Third Company and their commander Captain Hoffmann were largely spared from the killing and violence—the men had not been part of firing squads at Józefów and only Lieutenant Peters’ First Platoon had to take part in deportations or shootings because most of the company were so far away from the action. In early October, however, Third Company is ordered to help clear the ghetto at Konskowola, home to about 2,000 Jews. Third Company must help make Northern Lublin judenfrei along with First Lieutenant Messmann’s gendarmerie, about 100 Hiwis, and several SS men. In an unusual move, the Hiwis go cordon with the police while Messmann’s gendarmeries and some of Hoffmann’s men search the ghetto and round up the Jews.
Most of Hoffmann’s men have been near violence and murder, but they have not perpetrated any systematic mass murders nor extremely violent roundups yet. While they have some idea of what murder is like, their lack of personal experience is bound to make this event very traumatizing. However, because they are rounding up the Jews first, each man initially has a choice—they can either shoot, or they can make themselves look busy elsewhere instead of shooting. Because of this and the pattern that began in Józefów, it is reasonable to assume that the roles the policemen choose for themselves in the first hour or two (non-shooters, men who will shoot if directly asked to but otherwise have no interest in participating, and men who are willing to shoot without question or complaint) will define their roles in the rest of the company’s violent actions.
Themes
The ghetto has lately been afflicted with an epidemic of dysentery, so many residents can’t walk or even get out of bed. As a result, shooting can be heard everywhere, including the hospital where men kill every patient. In the marketplace, the Jews are separated by sex and some of the men are selected for the work camps. Witnesses report that between 500 and 1,000 Jews are selected for work, but they’re so weak that about 100 are shot on the way to the train station. The rest of the Jews (about 800 to 1,000) are shot in the woods at the edge of town. When it’s all over, some of the men find a nice farmhouse and spend the rest of the afternoon playing cards.
It seems that, for most of the men, their first real experience killing other people isn’t as traumatic as it was for the men who shot at Józefów. Instead of losing their appetite and feeling depressed, the men enjoy a game of cards. This callousness, of course, might have been a front. Hoffmann’s men aren’t just surrounded by their own comrades—they’re with other units they aren’t familiar with, so they might be trying harder to seem unbothered. On the other hand, Browning notes that most men became habituated to violence at Józefów, so they might not have needed prolonged exposure to violence to become indifferent to it. Either way, the fact that the men have apparently reached a high degree of callousness is evident in how different their post-execution behavior is from how it was in Józefów, namely that they go play cards as if they hadn’t spent most of the day killing people.
Themes
Twenty-five years later, Hoffmann claims that he remembers nothing of the action at Konskowola despite his men killing up to 1,600 Jews that day. This might be due to his health problems, which in 1942 he blames on a bad dysentery vaccine. In the 1960s, when he’s interrogated, Hoffmann says the illness was actually due to stress from the Józefów massacre. His illness includes painful stomach cramps that are aggravated by bumpy movements (like driving), so he stops accompanying his men on actions. Most of these bouts of cramps coincide with orders for violence and the men began saying that if they are going to have to do something unpleasant then Hoffmann is sure to be ill. Still, it takes a long time for Hoffmann to seek medical help. During his second trip to Germany for treatment in 1943, Trapp relieves him of his company command.
Hoffmann’s symptoms seem to be psychosomatic, especially because they tend to flare up just before violent actions. However, it takes Hoffmann a long time to seek medical advice. This could imply that, on some level, he knows his symptoms are really a strong reaction against violence and conventional medicine cannot help him. To Hoffmann, these symptoms are a sign of weakness. As a leader, it is more important for him to seem tough and strong because he is supposed to inspire those qualities in his men. Admitting weakness could be devastating, even more devastating for regular rank-and-file policemen. Unfortunately, his refusal to admit that something is wrong has the same effect—his men mock him for having stomach cramps before violent actions. These same men generally respect Trapp, implying that if Hoffmann had just been honest about not liking violence (like Trapp) then his men might have more respect for him.
Themes
Hoffmann and Trapp’s relationship sours over time. It starts when Hoffmann refuses to sign a document stating that he won’t plunder or steal and gets worse when some men tell Trapp about Hoffmann’s mysterious illness. Hoffmann resents losing his company command and appeals to Trapp’s superiors, but Trapp’s decision is upheld and Hoffmann transfers to a new police battalion in Russia. While in this new unit, Hoffmann earns the Iron Cross Second Class and by the end of the war he becomes a first staff officer for a high-ranking police general. He does not suffer from his mysterious illness in Russia. Hoffmann’s illness likely wasn’t cowardice—it might have been psychologically induced. The fact that Hoffmann tried to hide his illness of so long indicates he was ashamed of it, not purposely using it to get out of work.
Details about Hoffmann’s duties in Russia aren’t provided, but presumably something about this new assignment isn’t as stressful to him as his duties in Poland. The Iron Cross Second Class is typically only given to people who display great courage in the face of danger or who provide services that go above and beyond their duty. Hoffmann doesn’t just succeed once he is taken out of Poland and the particularly distasteful duties he was asked to perform there—he thrives. Hoffmann’s story and mysterious illness show that even the men who aren’t personally involved in shootings (Hoffmann typically helped form firing squads, but it isn’t clear if he regularly took part in them himself) suffer a huge amount of psychological distress just from seeing them. This presumably includes those who consistently choose not to shoot; they might not be shooting, but they hear and see it happening and likely do suffer a lot of trauma and distress as a result.
Themes
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