here were now ordered to kill the cooks and servants they had working for them. This sweep was led by the SS and involved digging mass graves that the victims were rounded up into. Once stripped naked, they were ordered to lie down into the grave, where they were sprayed by machine gun fire. The next round was ordered to lie down on those who were already shot. This was even more inhumane then the previous killings because there were no neck shots, the victims were often only wounded. The wounded wouldnt die instantly, but would be crushed by the next wave of victims being ordered to crawl onto the bodies of their wounded friends and family. Did Police Battalion 101 significantly contribute to the genocide? With a conservative estimate of 6,500 Jews shot during the earlier actions like those at Jozefow and Lomazy and 1,000 shot during the Jew Hunts, and a minimum estimate of 30,500 Jews shot at Majdanek and Poniatowa, the battalion had participated in the direct shooting deaths of at least 38,000 Jews. With the death camp deportation of at least 3,000 Jews from Miedzyrzec in early May 1943, the number of Jews they had placed on trains to Treblinka had risen to 45,000. For a battalion of less than 500 men, the ultimate body count was at least 83,000 Jews. (Browning, 142) At this time, one must wonder what drove these dock workers, bankers, and businessmen, ordinary men, to kill so many people. Browning goes into a deep analysis of the possible causes for these men to become hardened killers. He dismisses propaganda because many of the men were older, and had seen life before the Nazi regime. He also does not believe the men were specially chosen to be killers. By age, geographical origin, and social background, the men of Reserve Police Battalion 101 were least likely to be considered apt material out of which to mold future killers. (Browning, 164) So, what did actually drive them to kill? He attributed much of it to out of site, out...
