Police Battalion 101 Summary

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Browning used many different judicial records from the men of police battalion 101 when writing his book. He had studied archival documents and court records of the Holocaust for nearly twenty years before discovering the men of 101. He found that the men openly discussed their crimes with a feeling of frankness and honesty. Browning had permission to the court records of the decade long legal process, from the state prosecutor. He accessed the roster of the battalion and was able to see where these people come from and their role in the killing process. He studied the interrogations of 210 out of the 500 men when the battalion was at full force in 1942. These testimonies gave a sample of information on age, social background, party and SS membership. He used 125 of these testimonies for a detailed narrative reconstruction and analysis of the unit. These interviews were of the same events and unit, but had differing roles, perspectives and memories. However, many of the men may have deliberately lied or omitted information while being interrogated. The accounts needed to be weighed and their reliability assessed. Some testimonies needed to be partially or totally dismissed for conflicting ones that were accepted. …show more content…
Browning was condemned because they believed that he didn’t use the evidence correctly. As the policeman were investigated knowing that there would be a trial they would have lied and tried to distort the truth. How can a historian work through evidence in which there is such ‘a high motive not to tell the truth’? Browning believed that Goldhagen had put the barrier too high and dismissed too much information that may have been useful. Browning argued that the testimonies that were given could be divided into three groups:
Those that were extremely self-incriminating, giving information that would prove them guilty. These accounts were used by both Goldhagen and
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