Cambridge A-Level History (9489) Paper 3 The Holocaust Sample Essay
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Cambridge A-Levels
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Cambridge A-Levels
A collection of 3 A* standard essays for Cambridge A-Level History (9489) Paper 3: The Holocaust. I achieved an A* for History in the Cambridge A-Level October/November 2022 Examinations and was awarded the Outstanding Cambridge Learners High Achievement Award for History.
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I offered a portrayal of the Reserve Police Battalion 101 that was multi-layered. Different groups
within the battalion behaved in different ways. The ‘eager killers’ – whose numbers increased over
time – sought the opportunity to kill, and celebrated their murderous deeds. The smallest group
within the battalion comprised the non-shooters. With the exception of Lieutenant Buchmann, they
did not make principled objections against the regime and its murderous policies; they did not
reproach their comrades. They took advantage of the policy within the battalion of exempting those
who ‘didn’t feel up to it’, and those who said that they were too weak or that they had children.
The rest of the battalion, the largest group, did whatever they were asked to do, without ever taking
the risk of confronting authority or appearing weak, but they did not volunteer for or celebrate
the killing. Increasingly numb and brutalised, they felt more pity for themselves, because of the
‘unpleasant’ work they had been assigned, than they did for their dehumanised victims. For the
most part, they did not think what they were doing was wrong or immoral, because the killing was
sanctioned by legitimate authority. Indeed, for the most part they did not try to think at all. As one
policeman stated: ‘Truthfully, I must say that at the time we didn’t reflect about it at all. Only years
later did any of us become truly conscious of what had happened then.’ Heavy drinking helped:
‘Most of the other men drank so much solely because of the many shootings of Jews, for such a
life was quite intolerable when sober.’ That these policemen were ‘willing executioners’ does not
mean that they wanted to be genocidal executioners.
In addition to a multi-layered portrayal of the battalion, I offered a multi-causal explanation
of motivation. I noted the importance of conformity, peer pressure, and deference to authority,
and I should have emphasised more explicitly the legitimising capacities of government. I also
emphasised the mutually intensifying effects of war and racism, as the years of anti-Semitic
propaganda dovetailed with the polarising effects of war. I argued that nothing helped the Nazis to
wage a race war so much as the war itself, as the distinction between racially superior Germans
and racially inferior Jews, central to Nazi ideology, could easily merge with the image of a
beleaguered Germany surrounded by enemies. Ordinary Germans did not have to be of one mind
with Hitler’s demonological view of the Jews to carry out genocide. A combination of situational
and ideological factors that concurred about the enemy status and dehumanisation of the victims
was sufficient to turn ‘ordinary men’ into ‘willing executioners’. The example of the group of men
from Luxembourg in Reserve Police Battalion 101 offers the rare opportunity of comparing people
in the same situation but of different cultural backgrounds. While the evidence is suggestive rather
than conclusive, I noted that the 14 Luxembourgers seem to have behaved very much like their
German colleagues, implying that situational factors were very strong indeed.
What can you learn from this extract about the interpretation and approach of the historian who
wrote it? Use the extract and your knowledge of the Holocaust to explain your answer. [40]
9389/33/M/J/15 (Section B: Topic 2 The Holocaust)
The focus of this extract is on the perpetrators of the Holocaust, more specifically the
Reserve Police Battalion 101. The extract does not consider the cause of the
Holocaust, and therefore cannot be characterised as an intentionalist, functionalist,
or synthesis interpretation. The extract forms part of the wider debate about the ways
in which ordinary men were turned into executioners, carrying out the orders of those
from the higher ranks of the Nazi party. The extract argues that these ordinary men
were turned into executioners because of the war, and not solely because of Hitler’s
ideology. Other aspects discussed by the extract include the involvement of non-
Germans as perpetrators and the motivations of the members of the Reserve Police
Battalion 101.
The author argues that ordinary men were made into executioners primarily because
of the war, which helped higher-ranking Nazis carry out the race war. The war
separated the two sides, and as men with arms, they were tasked with killing those
who didn’t belong to "their side." This meant the Jews were targeted and treated as
the "enemy". The "unpleasant work they had been assigned" demonstrates that the
orders to kill came from above, and that at large, these men didn’t think about
whether their work was immoral because the killing "was sanctioned by legitimate
authority"—their Nazi government. Their lack of consideration for what they were
doing is supported by the police officers, who stated that they "didn't reflect on it at
all" at the time. This demonstrates that they concentrated solely on the tasks
assigned to them; nothing more. Thus, a point the historian highlights is that because
these policemen were "willing executioners," it does not mean that they did so solely
on the basis of Hitler’s racist ideology. This interpretation is shared by Browning, who
argued that anti-semitism played only a minor role. These men acted in the same
capacity that a soldier fighting for his nation would, killing those who were equated
as "the enemy".
The historian further argues that ordinary men "did not have to be of one mind with
Hitler’s demonological view of the Jews" to carry out the killings. This means that
while there were "eager killers" who were hardcore Nazis eager to kill to realise
Hitler’s ideological vision, not all the ordinary men shared the same motives. The
author also highlights that there was a fraction of the paramilitary group who "didn’t
feel up to it" and felt that they couldn’t carry out their task of killing. Because of this,
the historian writes that there was a policy "within the battalion of exempting those
who [couldn’t take part in cold-blooded murder]". This suggests that some officers
reassigned anyone who asked to be. The Reserve Police Battalion 101 was
comprised of the German equivalent of city policemen and country sheriffs, most of
whom came from working and lower middle class neighbourhoods, and were likely
family men. This echoes Browning’s interpretation as he argues that the parts of the
Reserve Police Battalion, for the most part, shied away from shooting infants,
despite their orders. Furthermore, the author writes that "such a life was intolerable
when sober." Possibly, the use of alcohol, mainly vodka, was used to numb the
senses, giving them liquid courage to carry out the heinous tasks they were
assigned. The fact that substances were needed for the men to carry out the killings
proves that they weren’t fanatics who really believed that the people they killed
deserved to die.
By Sonia A. Sanjay (printsbysonia)
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