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Ordinary Men, Less Ordinary Men and Genocidal War in the East, 1941-1945

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Ordinary Men, Less Ordinary Men and Genocidal War in the East, 1941-1945 Klaus Jochen Arnold. Die Wehrmacht und die Besatzungspolitik in den besetzten Gebieten der Sowjetunion: Kriegführung und Radikalisierung im "Unternehmen Barbarossa". Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2004. 579 S. EUR 48.80, paper, ISBN 978-3-428-11302-6. Edward B. Westermann. Hitler's Police Battalions: Enforcing Racial War in the East. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2005. 329 Seiten $34.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-7006-1371-7. Reviewed by Thomas Kühne Published on H-German (May, 2006) What made ordinary Germans, ordinary men search into the links between sociology and ideol‐ and ordinary soldiers commit mass murder? This ogy. How were racial and eliminationist ideas and question has been at the center of Holocaust and utopias transformed into deadly action and be‐ Third Reich scholarship since the early 1990s, havior?[1] when pathbreaking books by Christopher Brown‐ Edward Westermann, professor of compara‐ ing and Daniel J. Goldhagen and the sensational tive military theory at the School of Advanced Air exhibition on the war crimes of the Wehrmacht and Space Studies in Montgomery, Alabama, and provoked scholarly as well as public controver‐ Klaus Jochen Arnold, scholar in Münster, Ger‐ sies. Browning was criticized for explaining the many, claim to present new insights into this and mass murder of Jews without considering anti‐ related questions with the published versions of semitism; Goldhagen was charged for exaggerat‐ their Ph.D. dissertations. They do so with varying ing the lethal intention of antisemitism; the degrees of success. Westermann provides a thor‐ Wehrmacht exhibition was blamed for generaliz‐ ough and reliable account of the ideology, organi‐ ing about how many soldiers actually participated zation and racial politics of the Ordnungspolizei in mass murder. The debate died down after a (the uniformed police of National Socialist Ger‐ few years, leaving the demand for further re‐ many) under Hitler (and Himmler). Arnold re‐ H-Net Reviews peats well-known facts and fgures on the Throughout his book, Westermann proves the Wehrmacht's genocidal war in the East. organizational entanglement between police, SS For a long time, the Ordnungspolizei, unlike and Wehrmacht. He shows a continuous exchange the Gestapo, did not receive much attention from of personnel as well as intense indoctrination, Holocaust scholars. Convicted and condemned at and considers their cooperation in the murder of the Nuremberg Trial, the SS in general and the Jews, Poles and other civilians. Westermann pro‐ Einsatzgruppen in particular were seen as being vides a broad range of small case studies that exclusively responsible for the mass killings be‐ leave no doubt of the regularity and voluntarily of hind the eastern front from June 1941 on. Brown‐ the police battalions' participation in the Holo‐ ing's and then Goldhagen's case studies shed light caust. The crucial point of the book is its thesis. on the fatal role "ordinary policemen" played in Westermann disagrees with both Browning's (or Hitler's racial war. Although German scholars Stanley Milgram's) psychological focus on con‐ have recently published overviews of the organi‐ formity and obedience and with Goldhagen's ideo‐ zation of the Ordnungspolizei and regional stud‐ logical approach; he rejects both as reductive. In‐ ies on its role in the Holocaust, Westermann stead, in Westermann's view, a certain "organiza‐ presents the frst comprehensive book in English tional culture" "established and promoted its own on this aspect of the Nazi terror machine. He values, beliefs, and standards for behavior, that tracks the history of the police back to Weimar created an environment in which persecution, ex‐ Germany and shows in his frst chapter how ploitation, and murder became both acceptable Himmler's empire took charge of it in the 1930s. and desirable attributes of a police corps charged Chapter 2 focuses on certain elements of "martial with preserving the German Volk and locked in identity," such as militarism and racism; the uni‐ an apocalyptical battle against the internal and formed police adopted them as early as the 1930s external enemies of the Reich" (p. 239). and embraced them more thoroughly after the The concept of "organizational culture" is bor‐ war had begun. Indoctrination resulted in the po‐ rowed from Edgar H. Schein. It is seen as a set of liceman as the "political soldier" who had com‐ "basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by pletely internalized the Nazi ideology. These po‐ members of an organization, that operate uncon‐ licemen stood "shoulder to shoulder with their sciously, and that define in a basic 'taken for counterparts in the SS" (p. 90). Chapter 3, entitled granted' fashion an organization's view of itself "Instilling the SS Ethic," looks more closely at the and its environment."[2] The term has recently contents and mechanisms of that indoctrination. been introduced into scholarship on earlier Ger‐ The next three chapters revolve around how po‐ man genocidal traditions by Isabel von Hull to an‐ lice battalions actively carried out genocidal war alyze "habitual practices, default programs," and in the East. Chapter 4, "Baptism of Fire," explores "unreflected cognitive frames" of Imperial Ger‐ the police's key role in subjugating the Polish na‐ many's military. Hull wants to explain why the tion. Chapter 5 tracks the police's participation in German military at that time (and later on, we the racial "crusade" in the Soviet Union from sum‐ might add) labored under "extremism" that was mer 1941 on. Chapter 6 fnally presents a few unable to accept anything other than "final, or to‐ more case studies and general considerations on tal, solutions".[3] Whereas in Hull's view such the murderous occupational regime and how the "military culture" did not need racism to carry out German police cooperated with other organiza‐ genocide, Westermann asks how ideologies like tions in Eastern Europe. antisemitism were transmitted into the feelings and actions of military units; following Schein, Westermann points to the impact of leadership as 2 H-Net Reviews the "key mechanism in the creation of an institu‐ choice as a textbook for any upper undergraduate tional identity" (p. 8). or even graduate seminar on Holocaust perpetra‐ The historian's job is to explore how that tors or on the Nazi terror machine in general. In transmission worked--that is, how "ordinary po‐ some parts the book is redundant, but that might licemen" adopted and internalized those ideologi‐ not necessarily be a fault when it is read by non- cal offerings and pressures, and how all that fnal‐ specialists. ly translated into individual and collective action. The same is not true for Arnold's study on the This transmission, however, is not the focus of radicalization of warfare and of the occupational Westermann's research. Instead he presents a col‐ regime of the Wehrmacht in the Soviet Union. lage of three things: reviews of NS and SS propa‐ Why did the honorable German military become ganda material and speeches used inside the po‐ involved in one of the worst crimes of human his‐ lice, information on its hierarchical structure and tory? The question is not new, but still worth con‐ reports on its murderous actions. The book does sidering. However, this book brings neither a new not investigate how these three elements were in‐ approach nor new answers. Arnold does cover a terwoven, how racist stereotypes or martial im‐ broad range of topics. He starts with the planning ages made these men commit mass murder. In‐ and preparation of Operation Barbarossa, focus‐ stead, the concept of "organizational culture" ing in two chapters on the Wehrmacht's politics of serves to cover the gap between the questions occupation and exploitation. He describes the raised and missing answers. The message of the mass death of the Soviet POWs and fnally moves book is that organizational culture somehow man‐ on to the radicalization of the partisan war and aged that transmission, even if we don't know the participation of the Wehrmacht in the Holo‐ how it did so. Learning more about that "some‐ caust. All this material is based on the fles of the how" would have meant to look for--changing and army, that is, mostly on orders and official re‐ varying--choices of units and individuals. For that, ports. Such primary sources reproduce and con‐ Westermann might have profited from the socio‐ firm the hierarchical structure of the military. Not logical, psychological and anthropological litera‐ surprisingly, Arnold's introduction (p. 29) makes a ture on homosocial relations and male bonding in clear point in stressing the significance of obedi‐ the military and other organizations.[4] Another ence for anything that happened and was done by issue are racial and martial traditions, which military units and individual soldiers. Looking were well-developed long before those men be‐ critically on recent scholarship (and obviously came policemen. The concept of "organizational also on the controversial frst Wehrmacht exhibi‐ culture" distracts from the fact that Nazi police‐ tion, launched in 1995)--which left no doubt that men had absorbed racism and martial masculini‐ there was still some choice for individuals as well ties long before they became policemen; the po‐ as units--Arnold runs the danger of marginalizing lice in Nazi Germany were not a racist island the impact of order structures. Wehrmacht sol‐ midst in a functioning civil society. Since civil so‐ diers, including those at the top level, don't per‐ ciety no longer existed, I doubt that the concept of form in this book as agents but as victims: victims "organizational culture" is especially useful in an‐ of Hitler; anti-communist and antisemitic Nazi alyzing genocidal societies at all. propaganda; and not least of disastrous logistics, These criticisms aside, Westermann nonethe‐ lack of supplies and the dysfunctional transporta‐ less provides a welcome introductory overview tion system in the East.
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