Browning Reading

After reading Browning's article, I can say that the reason to kill innocent Jews was not because of anti-Semitism.  The author says that years after the incidents, soldiers would name other reasons before anti-Semitism, if anti-Semitism at all.  Also, we can say that these killings did not come from "special selection, indoctrination, and ideological motivation" (127) because the men involved in these mass murders were none of those things.  They were middle-aged, mildly educated, humble men who joined the military for (most likely) economic reasons.  Most would say the killing stemmed from strict military orders.  Most of these men seem to understand the strong adherence to orders and commends.  When their superiors told them to perform a task, they did just that (unless they were physically unable to perform that task).  Major Trapp does seemed to offer additional mental reasons that might make the killing easier (bombs were falling on Germans, Jews supported partisans, they instigated boycotts against Germany, etc.).  But there seems to be other personal reasons as well (Browning does say that "the battalion in general was under orders to kill the Jews of Józefów, but each individual man was not" 127).  Some say they weren't really given a choice or they refused to accept that choice.  Others say they didn't want to seem cowardly or were acting like cowards or they simply weren't thinking about what was occurring.  So the reason why they killed seems to be a combination of reasons seemingly juvenile and blind.