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Sergeant Hans Keller
The name Otto-Julius Schimke is an alias for the one man who immediately accepted Major Wilhelm Trapp’s offer to be excused from Reserve Police Battalion 101’s first ordered mass execution in Józefów. Schimke risks his reputation and social standing within the battalion by being the first man to opt out of being part of the shooting squads, which not only makes him very brave but also indicates his deep sense of right and wrong and unwillingness to compromise his values just to conform to the group. After the massacre at Józefów, Schimke is never made to participate in the executions of unarmed Jewish men, women, children, and the elderly, making his story the perfect example of how officers typically respected the individual choice not to participate in violence, thus leaving the freedom of choice open to all battalion members throughout their time in Poland.
Otto-Julius Schimke Quotes in Ordinary Men
The Ordinary Men quotes below are all either spoken by Otto-Julius Schimke or refer to Otto-Julius Schimke. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 7 Quotes
After explaining the battalion’s murderous assignment, he made his extraordinary offer: any of the older men who did not feel up to the task that lay before them could step out. Trapp paused, and after some moments one man from Third Company, Otto-Julius Schimke, stepped forward. Captain Hoffmann, who had arrived in Józefów directly from Zakrzów with the Third Platoon of Third Company and had not been part of the officers’ meetings in Biłgoraj the day before, was furious that one of his men had been the first to break ranks. Hoffmann began to berate Schimke, but Trapp cut him off. After he had taken Schimke under his protection, some ten or twelve other men stepped forward as well. They turned in their rifles and were told to await a further assignment from the major.
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Browning returns to the moment when Major Trapp makes his “extraordinary offer” and details what happens immediately afterwards. It is important to remember that Browning is reconstructing these events using testimonies from the 1960s, about 20 years after the events they’re recalling. In other words, this might not be exactly what happened that day, but enough of the men’s testimonies corroborate it that Browning has deemed it most likely factual. The average reader today will look at this offer and think that the right choice is obvious: just choose not to shoot. However, these men are in Nazi-occupied territory just Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi soluta perspiciatis. Ut minima autem. Modi omnis iure. Sint qui qui. Qui similique praesentium. Ex consequatur magnam. Aliquid iste enim. Sequi aut maxime. Adipisci volupt
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Otto-Julius Schimke Character Timeline in Ordinary Men
The timeline below shows where the character Otto-Julius Schimke appears in Ordinary Men. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 7: Initiation to Mass Murder: The Józefów Massacre
...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,...
(full context)
Chapter 14: The “Jew Hunt”
...firing squads or patrols, and some are very open about their personal dislike of violence. Otto-Julius Schimke , the first man to step out at Józefów, reports in his interrogation that, because...
(full context)
