blog assignment

The irony of Browning’s story is that the battalion became killers for the same reason that the death camp prisoners refused to fight. The people that did the killing were dehumanized to the extent that they did not have a will or a choice over their actions. The killers proceeded with robotic efficiency because that is what the Nazi regime made them into—robots. Their own identity was stripped, and instead they were simply part of a cause. This is a perfect example of how defining oneself by an organization can get out of hand. When a person sees his or herself as a follower of Nazism, one’s own personal opinions are suppressed. This tendency is ever common in society today. Our own military does not question orders given by superiors for the same reason. One can say that it is different in Browning’s case, that these men had a choice. I am willing to assert that these men lost their sense of self, and therefore their ability to choose. They only could do what they are told to do. Dr. Sorensen, you once asked me, when we were talking about the river between, if there was any evidence to support that personal choice is better than relying on the community for identification. This is one of the best examples to support that the answer is yes! The prisoners in the death camps also lost their own identity, they were dehumanized. This is what made the prisoners able to take orders from SS officers so easily. Human nature has such an incredible down side, an evil side. For the sake of conformity, we are all able to turn so quickly. Even in the film we saw today, the Holocaust survivors were surprised and saddened at how their own neighbors and friends mocked them as they left for the death camp. Group conformity blurs absolutes. As a kid, I was always told, “what is popular is not always right, what is right is not always popular.” I am beginning to think that this phase is much more difficult to follow than meets the eye. How does one know what is right? Is there such an absolute? The Battalion that did the killings held no such clear-cut right and wrong. It was extinguished by the group.