(Browning 168-169) He points to Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiments where some subjects proved so amenable to authority that they were willing to repeatedly shock and possibly kill other people if an authoritative figure ordered them to do so, while refusing if a less authoritative figure gave the same orders. (Browning, 167) Browning suggests that there is an element of calculation and free will here that goes against the notion

Clearly, the reason lies within fervent nationalism and Hitler's mad scheme known as the "Final Solution." As to the book's strengths and weaknesses, Browning conveys the true brutal face of World War II via his highly-detailed analysis of Battalion 101 and its members; he also very forcefully relates to the reader that the war was fought for many reasons, the most important being the destruction of Hitler's Nazi Germany and

Himmler himself came up with an explanation for those who could not obey orders, in spite of their unconditioned obedience, so that their comrades and the rest of the population get a message of a condition in their mental health, rather than a disobedience dictated by their human nature. Almost a century and a half after the official abolition of slavery of the U.S., a comparison comes to mind. The

Introduction In the decades that followed World War Two and the unspeakable horrors of The Holocaust, much study has been conducted to both learn the details of all the interlocking forces that enabled these atrocities. Scholars and historians today have much data about how the Germans engaged in and perpetuated The Holocaust. There is a robust comprehension about the motivating factors of how the Holocaust was carried out. There isn’t a

Goldhagen and Browning: How the Holocaust Could Have Happened The Jewish Holocaust has inspired countless theories on how such an atrocity could take place in a seemingly humane and otherwise "normal" society, as Germany was in the 20th century. In other words, it was not really any different from any other society or culture in the modern era -- and yet understanding how the Holocaust could have happened, how human beings

They knew that they had to remove the 'sub-human threat' and they did not hesitate to do everything in their power in order to be successful. Browning described how the individuals in the Reserve Police Battalion 101 were not necessarily indifferent to death, as they felt that it was their job to contribute in some way. If they failed to do so they apparently "risked isolation, rejection, and ostracism --