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Eichmann in Jerusalem

A Report on the Banality of Evil

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Eichmann in Jerusalem

By: Hannah Arendt
Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
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Sparking a flurry of heated debate, Hannah Arendt's authoritative and stunning report on the trial of German Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann first appeared as a series of articles in The New Yorker in 1963. This revised edition includes material that came to light after the trial, as well as Arendt's postscript directly addressing the controversy that arose over her account. A major journalistic triumph by an intellectual of singular influence, Eichmann in Jerusalem is as shocking as it is informative - an unflinching look at one of the most unsettling (and unsettled) issues of the 20th century.

©1963 Hannah Arendt (P)2011 Tantor 20th Century Ethics & Morality Europe Israel & Palestine Middle East Military Modern Philosophy Politicians Politics & Activism Wars & Conflicts World War II Holocaust War Scary Thought-Provoking Inspiring
Insightful Historical Analysis • Thought-provoking Perspective • Amazing Narration • Compelling Moral Examination
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This is my first exposure to Hannah Arendt. It won’t be my last. The way she takes apart complex questions and reveals the inner workings of them puts her among the first tier of logicians. Her ability to understand the limitations of others and fully put herself into the mindset of Eichmann puts her in the company of skilled novelists. Those gifts together? Amazing. Sharp mind and a sharp tongue, which clearly (from the introduction’s explanation) got her in a lot of trouble.
The narrator was amazing, too, using a consistent accent for Eichmann that helped me place when words were quotations when otherwise the heard text wouldn’t have made that clear. Brava.

Awe inspiring to see such a great mind at work

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Arendt is one of the most important political thinkers of the 20th century and her career shows she can be as pedantic and academic as any. In "Eichmann In Jerusalem" she allows herself an almost journalistic style that's clear, fair and often devastating. The criticisms of this work end up appearing quite trivial in hindsight. This works subtitle became a common expression for a reason. The central thesis is hard to dispute. A must read for anyone interested in philosophy, law and ethics.

Compelling, concise, colloquial

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This is a very worthwhile read for the very troubling questions it raises about the shaky moral foundations of modern civilization. Hannah Arendt was sharply criticized by many for her approach to this book, including the subtitle “… the banality of evil.” I fully agree with that particular criticism. She was referring to the banal personality of Adolf Eichmann, who does appear as a self-deluded individual who found recourse in empty, rather “banal” clichés to justify his conduct and defend himself as a fundamentally decent person. The evil depicted in the book is, however, anything but banal. It was the unfathomable and almost incomprehensible mass murder by the Nazi government of all Jews they could capture in Germany and in other European countries they dominated.

The troubling question raised by the Eichmann case is how he (and so many like him) as a decent German “everyman” could have so lost his moral bearings that he became a willing instrument of state-sponsored mass murder directed at innocent civilian populations. He justified himself as following the established German legal order as directed by a great leader (Hitler), that obedience to state authority was a sacred duty as a German citizen, that he did what he could to lessen the sufferings of those whom he was transporting to death camps, and that he did not personally dislike Jews nor ever kill anyone himself. He had seen the death camps. He knew what was going on. Still, his main frustrations and worries seemed to center on bureaucratic confusion and infighting, slights to his authority as chief SS officer for transportation to the death camps, and his slow rate of career advancement given all that he had contributed to a smooth implementation of the transportation aspects of the “final solution” policy.

How could a truly decent person adapt his career priorities, personal talents, and otherwise normal day to day concerns to an enterprise that was fundamentally an instrument of incalculable evil and of untold and immeasurable sufferings? The answer in Eichmann’s case seems to have been a perversion of his moral sense such that the supreme and overriding good was to follow the dictates of Nazi government policy despite its flagrant violation of fundamental tenets of right and wrong he must have known since childhood. Wartime conditions, post Versailles feelings of resentment in Germany, the “stab in the back” myth as a supposed explanation for the German surrender at the end of World War I, a long German and Austrian history of anti-semitism no doubt played important roles. However, those circumstances do not excuse nor fully explain Eichmann. His story suggests that all human beings are fallible, subject to corruption of their moral sense, and capable under certain conditions of becoming untroubled instruments of horrible crimes.

We see such people today amongst the violent jihadists. We should best be on our guard against all political movements that seek to place some particular goal or policy above all considerations of right and wrong that have guided enlightened mankind throughout history.

The Evil was Hardly Banal

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This book is full of unusual insights and careful thoughts about the crimes of the Nazis during WW2 and the Holocaust. It is a report of the trial of Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi Lieutenant Colonel who was in charge of communicating with Jewish authorities during WW2. Eichmann was also the one who organized the transport of the Jewish and other victims of the Nazis to concentration and death camps. The thesis of the book is that Eichmann was actually a remarkably boring man who spoke in cliches. In a different time and place it’s likely he would have been a “normal” man, and in that fact is a warning to all of humanity. Another similar warning is in the book “Ordinary Men,” which documents the transformation of German reservist soldiers into Nazi exterminators.

Fascinating historical report on trial of Nazi war criminal

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This is a book that should be required to be read, studied, and discussed in classrooms, book clubs, coffee shops, bars, book stores, libraries, and wherever people come together interested in the plight of humanity. This is also a great example of trial writing. Arendt’s writing is clear. She organizes the book so the story is told in a compelling and illuminating way. It describes insightfully the Nazi machine that set out to accomplish Jewish genocide in Europe, and the arrest and trial of Eichmann in Israel rather than an International Tribunal. This is an instructive investigative work, but also dialectic.

Essential reading

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It remains a very controversial book, and yet actually reading and listening to Arendt’s words reveals that she is so distant from the heartless, self-hating image her critics portray her to be. Instead, you get a rigorous analysis of evil in a society where it is the norm, as well as a compelling prescription for how our severely underequipped justice systems can respond to crimes against humanity so that they shall not be repeated. Above all, though, the text offers a sobering, often uncomfortable, view into how the most ordinary, unremarkable individual is capable of the worst, unimaginable evil. Let us take Arendt’s words to heart and not be so quick to dismiss humanity’s worst excesses as the work of some demonic, monstrous force that is foreign to our modern sensibilities. Let us not repeat the horrors of the past and demand justice and responsibility for the horrors of the present.

Incredible work of journalistic philosophy

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Brilliant! With Eichmann in Jerusalem Hannah Arendt not only cracks wide open the myths we perpetuate about the idea of how evil exists in the world, what form it takes and how it acts, but moreover she forces us to confront our own compliance in the horrific atrocities carried out through our ignorance of how systems of power perpetuate oppression and exploitation around the world. I would highly recommend this book.

Must listen to!

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This work was (and is) highly contreversial and has lost none of it's power to offend. Hannah Arendt, no doubt felt that she was being honest and straightforward. Her narrative often seems far more critical of Israel than the perpetrators of The Holocaust. This is a hard, cold and uncaring narritive. There is an almost complete absence of sympathy for the victims of The Holocaust - only the flippant dismisal that is only appreciated by those who exercise it. It is easy to see why Arendt is often portrayed as a "self lothing Jew". Her unrelenting theme seems to be: this was a ridiculous and unneccesary show trial and look at all the bad and silly things that Israel is doing. Why - how dare Israel kidnap Eichmann and take him to Israel. When she occasionally manages to put her axe aside, the details are useful. Apart from this the "Banality of Evil" can easily be applied to Hannah Arendt herself.

Still has Great Power to Offend

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Very important book to read with many parallels what is currently happening here.

The German parts were almost incomprehensible - the narrator should have practiced a bit more.

A reminder for present and future generations

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Hannah Arendt, the author, was a courageous woman with an incisive mind. I have been weary of accounts of the Nazis but this book (and related film) provide a timeless, dispassionate accounting and analysis of the slaughter of millions of souls. Should we think we've left that gruesome history behind us, the author provides an inadvertent reminder that the very same evil lurks at the heart of every risk-averse yet ambitious network of bureaucrats. Alas, we've already forgotten.

Lest we forget the banality of evil

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