Date finished 16 Oct 2021
Recommendation: 10/10
It was hard but everyone should read this. Browning discusses many factors that influenced a unit of average middle-aged Germans in becoming cold-blooded murderers of tens of thousands of Jews; obedience to authority, conformity, self justifications and dehumanisation among others. His point is that in certain situations ordinary men are capable of horrific acts that are unthinkable in other circumstances. Each man had a choice and is responsible for his actions, but it’s a chilling reflection on what ‘ordinary’ men are capable of.