When we think about genocides and mass murders throughout history, human nature wants us to think of the perpetrators as the antithesis of ordinary people. They come with stereotypical sub-loving evil names such as sadistic, evil, and monstrous, all with no moral code, they love killing people for fun. We like to think this, because we cannot consider the perpetrators of the genocide ordinary people like us. What is inescapably true of the most horrific genocide of the last century (the Holocaust) is that ordinary people are capable of committing the most heinous crimes imaginable. The myriad of events that took place during World War II, which constituted the destruction of the Jewish people, were carefully constructed and instituted pogroms, commonly by ordinary people, out of fear of retaliation, self-annihilation and greed. The catch-22 situation that was present for the perpetrators of Battalion 101 and the Poles of Jedwabne, illustrates how far ordinary people will go, to conform to those around them and protect themselves from harm. In almost every careful analysis of the individuals committed violent actions, past history and characteristics were analyzed, usually with some events that triggered such negative behavior. In the case of Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 And The Final Solution in Poland and Neighbors, the offenders generally had very normal backgrounds. In Ordinary Men, the men of the battalion consisted mainly of middle-aged working-class men from Hamburg. Browning found that 63% came from a working class background and few were skilled workers (Browning, 1998, p. 47). Browning is quoted as saying: These were men who knew political standards and moral norms…half of the paper…the Stanford prison study and experiments simulated many environments in which seemingly normal individuals can carry out heinous crimes, plot a parallel to the events of Jedwabne and Jozefew has its complications. While the premise of conformity and obedience for both was the same, the sheer complexity of war and combat could never be truly tested except on the battlefield. Inherent in the experiments was control. Although the Stanford prison experiment has deviated from its original course, the severity of the consequences does not approach that of someone faced with imminent death or an order to kill. Works Cited Browning, C. R. (1998). Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. New York: HarperPerennial.Gross, J.T. (2002). Neighbors: the destruction of the Jewish community in Jedwabne, Poland. New York, NY: Penguin Books.