Final Solution In Christopher Browning's Ordinary Men

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Christopher Browning uses his book Ordinary Men to provide insight to the operation of the “Final Solution” that occurred in Poland during World War II, as well as the events that led to it. The Final Solution, the term given to the mass-extermination of the European Jews, was carried out by the Nazi Regime and eventually led to the murder of over six million people. Their plan was not confined to Germany, as the genocide was seen across Europe through the hands of the Nazi Officials and the Reserve Police Battalion 101. By targeting Jews, deporting them from their homes, and killing them in some of the most barbaric ways humanity has ever seen, the Final Solution became one of the most tragic events in human history. When the Final Solution …show more content…
Thousands of Jews were uprooted from their homes and boarded on trains that were to be sent to “the east,” where they would be processed into concentration camps (26). Approximately two hundred Jews were loaded onto each car, which caused many to die from suffocation, overheating, and exhaustion; when unloading the cars, around two thousand were found dead from these causes alone (36). This number does not even include the Jews that were shot prior to loading the trains due to being too old, sick, or simply unable to work (36). While the Jews were not told precisely where they were being taken, they had enough of an idea of what awaited them to make an attempt to escape. Some Jews attempted to break through the barbed wire that guarded the train. Most were shot in the act, and of the few that were able to make it free were found and killed by railroad guards shortly thereafter (32). As disturbing as the events themselves were, the scale at which they took place makes it unimaginably horrific. While over 260 trains deported Jews from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia alone, almost 450 additional trains were used to expel Jews from the rest of western and southern Europe (27). While the German military was all too close to accomplishing their goal of eradicating the Jewish people, they were not the only ones responsible for the heinous
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