Dr. Browning Speaks with Cadets

Dr. Christopher Browning, the Frank Porter Graham Professor Emeritus of History at the University of North Carolina, spoke to an audience of over 150 cadets, faculty, staff, and invited guests. Dr. Browning, one of the giants in the fields of Holocaust and German Studies, has written multiple groundbreaking studies. Perhaps best known for Ordinary Men, the story of the 101st Reserve Police Battalion and its engagement in mass murder in the German occupied East, Dr. Browning has also written renowned books on the Origins of the Final Solution and memory and testimony by survivors and perpetrators. Dr. Browning’s talk on the behavior of the Germans in uniform during the Second World War and the choices they made specifically focused on how the German Army’s behavior in Serbia became genocidal. His talk, titled “From Occupation to Repression to Genocide: A case study of the German Army in Serbia in 1941,” elicited a variety of questions from cadets. Dr. Browning’s visit was a collaboration between the Simon Center for the Professional Military Ethic, the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and the Museum of Jewish Heritage/A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York City, where Dr. Browning is serving as a Scholar-in-Residence.