ABSTRACT
Why were so many Germans under National Socialism willing to play an active part in the extermination of the European Jews? This question has been the object of heated debates for decades. Whereas the term “ordinary Germans” located the root cause in a deep-seated and uniquely German “eliminatory antisemitism,” the term “ordinary men” finds the answer in a combination of peer pressure, conformism, obedience, ideology, and emotional deadening. This chapter argues that the crucial factor was the integration of individuals into an organizational framework that prompted them to perform their roles.
Rather than foregrounding the “ordinariness” of the men involved, this chapter places the analytic emphasis on the ordinariness of the organizations involved. Why and how far do the individual acts of the “Final Solution,” for instance, belong to the “ordinary tasks” of a police battalion and its members? How and why do mass killings, deportations, and resettlements become part of the routine organizational activities of a member of a police battalion? The concept of “ordinary organizations,” as part of a systems theoretical approach, can lead to new and comprehensive explanations and insights for perpetrator studies more generally.
