As proof, he recounts a number of killings which are contained in the investigation report of a German prosecutor. Goldhagen maintains the battalion knew of the planned destruction of the Jews before its entry into the Soviet Union. Goldhagen emphasises the importance of the extermination order, but while some former members of the battalion confirm its existence, others give differing statements, among them the clerk through whose hands the order would have had to pass. One battalion member changes his story radically and speaks of an order to kill all Jews in his final statement only, the one which Goldhagen relies upon. This should arouse the suspicion of a researcher.
Closer scrutiny reveals the likely reason for the change of story to be a defence strategy.
What happened in Bialystock appears to be in the nature of a pogrom, caused by a group of officers who, through their closeness to the SS, were ideologically zealous. This is corroborated by two men from the rank and file, who say that they were hustled into the action before they knew what was happening to them. One describes how he was disgusted by the burning alive of defenceless people. One of the two company leaders had been involved after the first world war with right-wing groups such as the Freikorps, while the other was an SS member in 1933. Individual witness statements are treated with similar selectiveness.