Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland

When members of Battalion 101 arrive in Parczew on August 19, only two days after the Łomazy massacre, “the main street [is] already paved with Jewish gravestones” (89). Along with a unit of Hiwis, they drive 3,000 Jews to the nearby railway station that day and round up the remaining 2,000 several days later. The deportations are “relatively uneventful” for the policemen, with “little shooting” and none of the Hiwis’ “usual drunkenness and brutality” (90). They do not know exactly where the Jews are being taken but are aware that the “deportations mean the path of death” (90). However, having been “[s]pared direct participation in the killing,” they are not “disturbed by this awareness” because, for them, “[o]ut of sight [is] truly out of mind” (90). The deportation of 11,000 Jews from Miȩdzyrzec on August 25-26 is to be “[f]ar more memorable for Reserve Police Battalion 101” (90).

Captain Wohlauf had “several career difficulties” prior to his time in Battalion 101, with commanding officers commenting that he “requir[ed] strict supervision” or “lacked all discipline and was much too impressed with himself” (91). However, in Battalion 101, Trapp quickly recommended him for promotion, commenting that he endeavors to act on Nazi principles and is “ready at any time without reservation to go the limit for the National Socialist state” (92).