Daniel J. Goldhagen, an author and former Harvard professor, is an acclaimed academic who studies prejudice and antisemitism. Historians and professors are familiar with most of his publishings, however, his response to Christopher Browning’s book, “Ordinary Men” has gotten the most attention. In his book, Christopher Browning argues that the men who were able to mass murder innocent people were merely standard, German citizens who had no vindictive agenda; he claims that they killed due to social pressures. Goldhagen successfully refutes Browning’s claim in his article, “Presentation of Hitler’s Willing Executioners.” Maintaining a casual tone in his writing, he quotes credible historians and former Nazis, presents accurate historical facts,…show more content… It is important to educate future generations about the Holocaust so we do not repeat our abhorrent history. It was quite alarming when students in my tenth grade history class had to ask “what a Holocaust” was. It is even more alarming that there are parallels to the Holocaust happening right now in our country and in other parts of our world. We must not excuse the individuals who allow for our modern world to resemble Nazi Germany. Goldhagen is keen on this logic, refusing to let Browning dismiss the mass murderers of their horrid crimes. With the Holocaust being an emotional subject matter, Goldhagen uses evidence and sensible reasoning to supplement his argument, intentionally intensifying the troublesome emotions of the…show more content… He begins with acknowledging one thing that him and Christopher Browning agree on, that there was an outrageously high number of individuals who participated in the mass murders. According to the German justice center in charge of investigating Nazi crimes found that there were “over 333,000 people, not all of whom were German, who served in concentration camps, ghettos, execution commandos and other institutions that were used to kill Jews and others.” Goldhagen uses this piece of evidence to counter Browning’s assumption that this meant people who mass murdered were not evil, but social pressured. Goldhagen insists that this heinous number demonstrates that the exterminationist antisemitism was cultural norm in Nazi Germany. One must have evil motivations when the thought of mass murdering innocent people was accepted, not to mention
