Society's Influence on Morals The atrocities of the Holocaust have stimulated much investigation by researchers into understanding how humans could behave so cruelly towards their fellow humans. Theories have been formulated that cite the men of Battalion 101 as "exceptions" or men with "defective personalities", when, in reality, they were ordinary men. The people who attempted to carry out genocide were the same people as you and me, with the only difference being the environment in which they worked. The behavior of the men of Battalion 101 was not abnormal human behavior, rather, their actions testify to the premise that when humans are exposed to certain environmental and psychological conditions, extreme brutality is very likely to occur. The members of Police Battalion 101 had the same ideas and influences as the rest of the German citizens. Due to the racist teachings produced by the German government, the entire German society was uniform in the belief that they were the dominant race. Germans were taught that anyone different from their species (white Anglo-Saxon Protestants) needed to be removed from their society in order for them to thrive. The men of the police battalion shared the same beliefs as everyone else, but they had to do the dirty work of killing approximately 83,000 Jews. Christopher Browning states in his book Ordinary Men that “…the men of Reserve Police Battalion 101, like most of German society, were immersed in a deluge of racist and anti-Semitic propaganda” (Browning 184). Unless you are placed in the situation of the men of the Battalion, you cannot understand how one population of people could turn so wickedly against another. People of every culture are sensitive to the ideas and beliefs brought upon them by propaganda. Whenever an idea becomes accepted as the “norm,” people will find a way to justify it and follow it despite the evil implications it may carry. Humans have faced these situations numerous times over the past two centuries. For example, the American slave trade was entirely acceptable to Southerners because blacks were perceived as inferior human beings. Slave owners did not mind controlling and abusing a slave as if he were an animal because in their minds the slave was comparable to an animal. This was true in Germany with the only difference... middle of paper.... ..g, Ervin Staub stated that “'cruelty is of social origin much more than characterological'...most people 'slip' into the roles that society provides them...” (167). Evil ideas and beliefs are shaped into a person by his surroundings rather than inherent in his personality. With such a strong influence on our behavior, propaganda can lead a society to think and believe the unimaginable. The men of Police Battalion 101 are a testament to the idea that people are capable of not only thinking the unimaginable, but can also act upon it. Works Cited Bortnick, Rachel Amado. “Dallas honors a just nation.” Dallas Jewish LifeNov. 1993.Browning, Christopher R. Ordinary Men. New York: Aaron AsherBooks/HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1993.Fogelman, Eva. Conscience and courage. New York: Anchor Books Doubleday, 1994. Jacobs, Mike. Speech to the class. Dallas, March 31, 1997. Reich, Walter. “The men who pulled the triggers.” The New York Times April 12, 1992. Weapons of the Spirit. Writer/Director Pierre Sauvage. The friends of Le Chambon.1988.