integral part to the commission of theHolocaust. Goldhagen asserts that the members of these battalions are bestrepresentative of a killing institution which employed the services of ordinaryGermans. A large percentage of the membership of these Police Battalionscomprised of German men incapable of active service in the Wehrmacht. While these men were not particularly Nazified, they are representative of theNazified German society. These units were initially responsible to police,regulate traffic flow, guard installations and transfer populations in occupiedterritories. These were poorly trained and equipped units. The men of theseunits were often older with established family and professional lives. By age,family situation and disposition, these were formed of men more personallyindependent than what was the norm in Germany. From this common stock,arose an efficient institution of mass killing. The remainder of this chapterrecounts actions taken by Police Battalion 65 throughout Poland, Russia andother occupied territories. In conclusion, Goldhagen accuses these ordinaryGerman units responsible for between one and three million deaths.Chapter 7: Police Battalion 101:The Mens DeedsGoldhagen chooses to focus on the actions and the men of PoliceBattalion 101. All Police Battalions were comprised of members from thesame geographical region of Germany. Police Battalion 101s home wasHamburg. It initially was ordered to Poland to pacify the populace andrestructure the subjugated areas in December of 1939. In May of 1941, theentire battalion was re-comprised of new recruits. Goldhagen then goes intoextreme detail recounting the make-up of the battalion. He separates eachmember into occupational sub-groups and compares the ratios of thebattalion to that of war-time Germany. For the most part, the composition ofthe battalion was very similar to that of Germany. Also, Goldhagen considersthe ratio of NSDAP members in the battal...
