Lieutenant Paul Brand Character Analysis

Lieutenant Paul Brand (an alias) is the leader of one of the platoons in Reserve Police Battalion 101’s First Company. As such, Brand comes into close contact with the executions at Józefów, but virtually nothing is shared about his personal feelings about the orders to execute the Jews. Brand also helps oversee deportations of Jews from one area to another as Himmler begins focusing on making more areas judenfrei for Germans to move into. Like Captain Wohlauf, Brand allows his wife to visit him in Poland. While there, his wife encounters the callous attitudes of the men towards the Jews and Poles. She is openly critical of these things at the time, but Brand carefully instructs her not to share her criticism too openly. Brand’s instructions to his wife not to express her displeasure at the men’s attitudes implies that Brand himself would not have expressed similar sentiments. However, as Browning declares in the end, Brand always had the choice not to take part in the violence and could even criticize it without being formally punished. Still, he chose to be an active member of the battalion during violent events, which means that Brand is morally guilty for the murders and violence.