ot 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).
Goldhagen's view of antisemitism is that it was indeed the primary factor of the behavior of Battalion 101, or anyway the enabling factor of the brutality and extent of murder enacted by Battalion 101. Goldhagen (Goldhagen 428) cites "the genocidal cohort that was Police Battalion 101." Battalion 101 had more Nazi Party members than other police battalions engaged in similar activitie
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