This paper reviews Christopher R. Browning's "Ordinary Men," and its analysis of Nazi soldiers that murdered innocent civilians
in the holocaust. The paper shows the methods used by the
soldiers to rationalize their actions even though many of them were morally opposed to what they were ordered to do. From the paper: "It is understandably
commonplace to refer to Hitler as a monster, as inhuman. It is also, by extension, equally commonplace to refer to the Nazis who obeyed him as monsters as well. Yet before the implementation of the madness that was the 'Final Solution' in Germany and Eastern Europe, these Nazi soldiers were human beings like ourselves, individuals who lived in a world only a half-century or so before ours. They made ethical decisions on a day-to-day basis. They were ordinary men, according to Christopher R. Browning, who committed acts of extraordinary cruelty. The thesis of his book, appropriately titled 'Ordinary Men,' provides a less comforting view of the foot soldiers of the Holocaust than is tempting to take. But it is ultimately more ethically illuminating-these men were not monsters, Browning suggests, they were ordinary men who provide an example for us all how low we can sink if we are not vigilant in resisting the evil that exists around us."