User reviews

In the summer of 1942, a police battalion from Hamburg (mostly men too old or unfit for the regular Wehrmacht) were recruited into the army and sent to conquered Poland. These men were ordinary German citizens; tradesmen, manual workers, some educated with office jobs. Not all of them were Nazi fanatics.

Once in Poland, they were informed that their assignment was to round up, murder and bury Jews, men, women and children. Contrary to the Nazi standard postwar excuse (I was following orders) they were allowed to opt out of the killing with no other consequence than the disapproval of their comrades and a possible blot in their dossiers. Very, very few took the option; of the rest, some had qualms at the beginning but all became seasoned murderers, some even suggesting improvements to the killing process. Other similar battalions were sent to the USSR after the invasion n in 1941.

After the end of the war, thousands of death squad members were investigated and tried but the rate of conviction was ridiculously small; most walked away as free men. Those convicted served few years, if that much.

This documentary consists of photos of the time and centers in some particular commanders of the death squads. Historians and lawyers try to elucidate the unanswered question: how an ordinary man, no different than you or me could evolve almost naturally into a mass murderer. Highly recommended.

There are a lot of very important lessons to be learned here that were not previously examined with studies on the Holocaust before. It's very easy for people to accept the pictures of the evil Nazi zombie like character, but much harder to accept that "seemingly" ordinary people can be so easily swayed into committing mass murder of innocents on a global scale with just the slightest nudge. As the documentary displays they even had a choice not to without punishment. This destroys the common myth that they had no choice.

The documentary does a fine job of simplifying the psychological phenomenon at play of the perpetrators. It is mind blowing and extremely concerning how the human brain can find ways to justify even the worst acts a human could even commit. I do also appreciate that it added that people need to be more equipped to be aware of the forces trying to manipulate their thinking.

A weak spot in the documentary was possibly using too much time repeating other fairly known facts and using up valuable time that could be focused more on their more recent findings. At the same time, these historical recaps could be necessary to helping remind people of critical information. Clearly with genocides reoccurring people can never be reminded of the history enough.

I thought the parts with Benjamin Ferencz were absolutely fascinating. It was amazing to be able to hear his perspective from the events that unfolded at the trial.

A final thing I will say about the documentaries conclusion is that it relies too heavily on what the Germans said after they were caught to justify their behaviors. What someone tells interviewers or in a court of law why they committed their behaviour does not necessarily prove that was what was going through their minds when they committed the acts. If their brains were able to justify doing the acts, of course their brains now are trying to spin what they did to appear in what they hope is a better way than stating they simply just hated Jews. By manipulating the story in a way that suggests that any ordinary person would do what they did allows them to feel better about their actions . In accepting their explanations for their behavior it can be providing greater relief for these murders conscience than they deserve.

I would have liked if they'd stressed more that as an individual you always have a choice. It is a bit defeatist in suggesting that the best we can do is to try to be aware of external forces operating on us. At the end of the day , we should be building a society with people willing to stand up to difficult choices with the courage of their convictions.

Overall, certainly a worthwhile watch.

I had to read the book Ordinary Men in college, and it is definitely something that sticks with you. And even though this is a shorter documentary, it sticks with you. It is hard to imagine how anyone could be so evil and detached to execute innocent men, women, and even children just because they are of a different class. However, this documentary shows how that can happen when people don't stand up to the established system. There are lots of Holocaust documentaries out there, but I like that this one examines the psychology of the men who carried out the attacks. It was also interesting to learn about the trials that took place after the war. My only complaint was it was rather short in comparison to the book. However, it is still very well done and left me with chills just thinking about how bad the Holocaust was.

I've watched a lot of documentaries about the holocaust and the WW2, and I can say this one is of the good ones, especially since it tries to answer the question 'how could so called normal people do such despicable and cruel acts'. Even though it's a subjective approach, it does being you closer to understand the thought process of those people involved.

Another aspect I really enjoyed was getting to know better the last surviving persecutor of the Nurnberg Trials, Benjamin Ferencz (unfortunately passed away recently), who is such an inspiration and a highly intelligent but kind person. The contrast between his stature and the courage that he had to confront some of the biggest nazis, adds even more charm to his on screen presence. I definitely recommend giving this a watch if you're into WW2 history and would like to get more insight!

What I found fascinating about the book by Browning, is the focus on the small group dynamics and the individual. How could Ordinary Men be driven to the atrocities they committed? One of the reasons I find this fascinating, is that the principle conclusions were uiniversal. The same psychological conclusions could be applied to the horrors of the communist regimes of Russia and China, the apartheid in South-Africa, or the genocide in Rwanda. The Netflix documentary adds facets that are not in the book, that focus very much on the specific case of nazi-Germany, making it a little bland and also makes it less obvious to draw lines between totalitarian regimes in general. At least, it was for me.

I would advise people to read the book.