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
Around July 11, either Globocnik or someone in his office contacts Major Trapp and tells him that Reserve Police Battalion 101 will go to Józefów to round up 1,800 Jews. This time, however, they will only prepare the men for transport, the rest—mostly women and children—must be killed on the spot. On July 12, most of the battalion congregates in Biłgoraj (Captain Hoffman and Third Company’s Third Platoon will arrive later) and Trapp tells the company commanders what their orders are. Lieutenant Hagen passes this information on to Buchmann, who tells Hagen that he refuses to take part in the shooting and asks for a different assignment. Hagen assigns Buchmann to escort the male Jews selected for the work camps. The company commanders tell their men to prepare for a major action in the morning, but do not tell them what it is.
These orders single out women, children, and the elderly as the primary targets of mass murder. This is particularly unsavory because traditionally women, children, and the elderly are supposed to be spared in war. These orders, then, can be used to differentiate conventional warfare from a race war. Killing women and children sends a very particular message—it’s not enough to kill some Jews in the present, as the Nazis want to destroy their ability to have a future, as well. This is at least part of the reason that Buchmann asserts that he won’t participate even before arriving in the town. His refusal is important because he asserts himself even before Trapp offers to excuse men who don’t want to shoot, indicating that, even before this, at least some men knew that they could refuse to participate in violence.
Themes
The men arrive in Józefów very early the next morning, July 13. Trapp tells the rest of the men what the orders are and then makes his unusual offer: older men who don’t think they can carry out the task will be excused. Otto-Julius Schimke of Third Company steps forward, which infuriates Hoffman. Trapp, however, takes Schimke under his protection, after which 10 or 12 more men step forward, turn in their rifles, and stand back to await new orders.
Some men decide to step forward only after seeing Trapp take Schimke under his protection. They clearly feared being punished for stepping out, but Trapp’s action lets all the men know that they will be protected if they choose not to shoot. Because of this, no man can rightfully say that he chose to shoot because he was forced to out of fear of serious punishment.
Themes
After this, the battalion is divided up and given different tasks. Two platoons from Third Company surround the town to shoot anyone trying to escape, and most of the rest of the men will round up the Jews, but they must shoot infants and those too sick to walk. Some men will bring the Jews to the marketplace where policemen from First Company will select men for work camps, and the rest of First Company will form firing squads in the forest. Second Company and the Third Platoon of Third Company will shuttle Jews to the forest. Trapp, however, spends the rest of the day in town, which upsets the men. All day long people report seeing him openly weeping, pacing, and saying he doesn’t like the orders.
It is interesting that Trapp believes that he can give his men the freedom to choose whether to participate in the shooting, but he feels that he himself does not have the same freedom of choice (presumably, if he felt like he could refuse orders then he would have, at least in this instance). Still, Trapp’s strong emotional reaction differentiates him from many of the men and possibly explains why Trapp wasn’t considered SS material—he is too humane. The men who step forward to take up Trapp’s offer in the beginning also turn in their guns. This means that they probably have nothing to do with the process of rounding Jews up, either. Being excused from firing squads, then, also means they are excused from the rest of the violent actions the battalion carries out (at least on this occasion).
Themes
While Trapp weeps, his men carry out their gruesome task. The town is so small that everyone can hear everything, including gunshots as the elderly are executed. In an aside, Browning says that the men who were interrogated gave varying stories about whether infants were actually shot right away. Some report seeing dead babies in doorways, but others say they let the women take their small children to the marketplace and they weren’t shot until later. Regardless, on that day First Company is given instructions about where to shoot to cause immediate death with minimal mess. Meanwhile, Hagen selects the “work Jews” who will go to the camps. Some unrest occurs as the first shots ring out; Jewish men weep as they realize that the policemen are killing the women and children.
Throughout Browning’s reconstruction of events, he points out times when the men’s memories become confused and there are major discrepancies between their versions of events. In this case, there’s some trouble determining if the battalion really did kill infants in their houses as ordered. It’s interesting that the men choose to debate this point because, ultimately, they did kill the infants—the only difference is if the infants and small children were killed in their house or in the forest. Still, the varying stories also imply a deep shame. No man wants to admit to having killed an infant even though many of them undoubtedly did.
Themes
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First Sergeant Kammer leads the first firing squad into the forest outside of town. When the first truckload of Jews pulls up, the men come face to face with them as shooters pair off with their victims. The policemen lead the Jews into the forest, make them lie down in a row, and Kammer orders the men to fire in unison. As the first firing squad leaves the forest, the second firing squad enters with their victims. This pattern continues throughout the day and into the night, only briefly stopping for a midday break. At some point, someone brings the shooters some alcohol. The men shoot for so long that they lose track of how many people they’ve personally executed.
The shooters pair up with their victims face to face, thus making the murder intensely personal. This is sharply contrasted with mass executions using gas chambers, which is an impersonal method. Coming face to face with their victims forces the men into the full realization that they are murdering other human beings. Still, most of the men choose to go through with it. In fact, so many of the policemen participate that it would seem odd for any man to opt out. This helps explain why so few men do choose to stop shooting or never shoot in the first place.
Themes
In the morning when Trapp first makes his offer, only a few men immediately come forward to be excused before any violence begins. For many, the reality of what they might be told to do does not sink in until later. Some ask to be excused after being shown where to shoot their victims or after taking part in at least one execution. Kammer readily excuses men who ask, but Hoffmann initially refuses to excuse men who say they can’t continue. As the men who can’t continue trickle back into town, Trapp sends them to the barracks for the day. Instead of asking to be excused, some men evade firing squad duty by hiding or making themselves look busy elsewhere. Still, when Sergeant Steinmetz offers to excuse some of his men from firing squad duty before their first round of executions, nobody takes up his offer.
In the early part of Józefów massacre, the men start to reveal which of the three main groups they will fall into: those instinctually opposed to violence (like Schimke), those willing to murder just to follow orders or conform to the group, and those who have no problem murdering at all. Interestingly, Steinmetz repeats this offer after executions have started and the men have had a chance to really think about it, but none step forward. This shows that it really doesn’t take long for many of the men to become so accustomed to the idea of violence that they are willing to perpetrate it themselves even after seeing its devastating consequences and being given an out.
Themes
To speed the execution up, Trapp orders more men to join the shooting squads. Sergeant Hergert devises a system of transporting Jews and strategically choosing execution sites that get progressively closer to the collection point, which also saves time. In his postwar interrogation, Hergert insists that nobody explicitly gave the men in his platoon the option of stepping out before the executions, but almost immediately men ask him to excuse them and he does. The frequent rotation of shooters in Lieutenant Drucker’s platoon creates so much confusion that some men simply slip off or stay by the trucks to avoid having to shoot.
Once the men have been given the option to step out, even those who don’t take it at the time apparently feel comfortable asking for it later. This shows that the men feel like they have the freedom to make their own choice even when it’s not being explicitly given to them. More importantly, their commanders respect these choices (although, as Browning states earlier, Hoffmann initially does not) and do not formally punish anyone for either declaring their intention to stop shooting or for slyly evading it.
Themes
The largest number of shooters who are interrogated after the war come from the Third Platoon of Second Company, and they provide valuable insight into the effect the executions had on the men. One policeman remembers being unable to go through with even one execution, and another is only able to execute one elderly woman before asking to be excused. Another man remembers being excused after botching his first execution by aiming too high, causing his victim’s skull to explode. Yet another man opts out of executing the Jews after meeting a German Jew, saying the business became so disgusting to him that he couldn’t go on. Most men who step out do so very early on, but some wait until they have committed up to 20 executions before asking to be excused.
It is easy to understand why so many men ask to be excused from the firing squads within the first several rounds of executions—being faced with their victim or actually committing at least one execution is very traumatic. The most interesting case here is the man who couldn’t go on shooting after meeting a German Jew. As Browning explained earlier, the men had been taught to consider Jews a foreign threat to German identity. However, the Jew that the man meets is German—how can this person be both German and an enemy of Germany? This is a question the men will have to face several times during their time in Poland.
Themes
As night approaches, the execution process becomes hectic and the forest is so full of corpses that there’s hardly room for the Jews to lie down. After 17 hours of shooting, the men finally finish and prepare to return to their barracks, leaving the dead simply lying on the ground. Back at the barracks, the men drink heavily and studiously avoid talking about the executions while Trapp tries to console them. Several days later Trapp and Wohlauf lead First and Second Companies to another village and round up all the Jews. After a moment of hesitation in which both the policemen and the Jews fear there will be another mass execution, Trapp sends the Jews home and the men return to their barracks. A few days later, the men prepare for redeployment to another area of the Lublin district.
One of the most important things to remember about these mass executions is that they are not quick. Executions take hours—hours of shooting other human beings, watching mothers cry for their children, and children crying for their parents to help them. As traumatic as this obviously is, it also gives the men ample time to become habituated to violence and bloodshed. Even still, Trapp seems to be aware that if he and his superior officers aren’t careful, the men will break down under the trauma of killing. This is why Trapp lets the Jews go home in the next village. Trapp is aware that, even if the men grow accustomed to violence, too much all at once might send them on a destructive downward spiral.
Themes
