were human beings, hence able to kill them with little if any remorse. Indeed, Browning cites examples (Browning 153-4) of Battalion members' failing to intervene on behalf of Jewish servants who were peremptorily transported by the SS. But fact that ordinary Germans involved in killing Jews could form a range of attitudes about Jews as a group tells Browning that antisemitism was not the overarching factor in the murders enacted by the Germans. He explicitly says so, indeed, in his rejoinder to Goldhagen, when he says that he does not view antisemitism as something that was "'pre-existing, pent-up,'" something "that Hitler had merely to 'unleash' and 'unshackle'" (Browning 222) in order to accomplish the project of a Jew-free Europe. On the other hand, Browning acknowledges the significant institutionalization of race-based antisemitism prevailing in Germany and Europe, but significant for its symbolic value as "an integral part of the conservative political platform and [as something that had] penetrated deeply into the universities" (Browning 196).
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