Policemen

Telling my story in the context of the Holocaust I often mention something that my aunt Marta told me. When we were marched from the international ghetto to the main Budapest ghetto, some time in November 1944, my grandfather approached the policeman escorting us and said to him that my aunt, Margitka, who was handicapped, would not be able to keep up with the column. The policeman told my grandfather not to worry, and he put my aunt Margitka at the head of column, so no one could go faster than she, and we all made it safely to Dob Ucca in the ghetto. I tell this story to show that a man, who was doing a distasteful job, escorting a large group of elderly Jews and children did what he had to do, but did it with a measure of compassion and humanity. I thought of this when I read Christopher Browning's story of the Reserve Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland, Ordinary Men. Some of these men were career policemen, some were assigned to this unit because they were too old to be in the army fighting on the front. Some were card carrying Nazis, but most of them were neither Nazis, not anti-Semites. One claimed to be a communist. They were given a distasteful task that probably none of them wanted, and none but a very few sadists relished. They were sent from Hamburg to Poland to murder Jews, the entire Jewish population of a small town, Jozefow, 1800 people, men, women, young and old, including children. Their commanding officer, 53 year old Major Wilhelm Trapp, a career policeman, explained the order that the men of the battalion were tasked with, and gave the men the opportunity opt out if they felt unequal to the task. Only a few of the men opted out initially, although many more found after the killings started and they were faced with the victims that they could not carry on. None of them were punished for this or faced consequences. After giving the order for the massacre Major Trapp broke down and cried. He also made sure that the men who refused to take part in the killings were protected. After the Jozefow massacre the men of the battalion participated in a number of other massacres, and hunted down Jews who somehow managed to escape. The men of the battalion were just a random group, many with limited education, but not selected for any cruel, blood thirsty streak. They were just ordinary men, who happened to be from Hamburg, Germany, but could have been from anywhere. Certainly the Ukrainians who helped them with their sorry task were no better, but perhaps the US Marines at Mai Lai, or soldiers from any other place, New Zealanders, British, Israelis, Syrians, facing battle conditions and an enemy that was demonized acted in a like manner. Who is to judge? It is understanding not judgement that is needed. Major Trapp's comment after giving his order to his troops was telling. 'If this Jewish business is ever avenged on earth', he said 'then have mercy on us Germans'. He always avoided being present at the shootings. Yet after the war, of all the personnel of battalion, he was the only one to be executed in Poland.