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Interesting Read: Book Portrays Eichmann as Evil, but Not Banal
Posted on 9/3/14 at 10:59 am
Posted on 9/3/14 at 10:59 am
quote:
More than 50 years after its publication, Hannah Arendt’s “Eichmann in Jerusalem” remains enduringly controversial, racking up a long list of critics who continue to pick apart her depiction of the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann as an exemplar of “the banality of evil,” a bloodless, nearly mindless bureaucrat who “never realized what he was doing.”
Bettina Stangneth, the author of “Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer,” published in an English translation this week by Alfred A. Knopf, didn’t aim to join those critics. An independent philosopher based in Hamburg, she was interested in the nature of lies, and set out around 2000 to write a study of Eichmann, the Third Reich’s head of Jewish affairs, who was tried in Israel in 1961, in light of material that has emerged in recent decades.
quote:
“Eichmann Before Jerusalem,” based on research in more than 30 archives, certainly contains plenty of eye-opening facts, including the revelation that in 1956 Eichmann had drafted an open letter to the West German chancellor, Konrad Adenauer — discovered by Ms. Stangneth in a trove of Eichmann’s papers held in German state archives — proposing that he return to his homeland to stand trial.
Ms. Stangneth also describes the sometimes surprisingly open postwar networks that protected Eichmann, as well as the reluctance of West German officials — who knew where Eichmann was as early as 1952, according to classified documents published in 2011 by the German tabloid Bild — to bring him and other former Nazis to justice.
quote:
Together, in Ms. Stangneth’s depiction, these men formed a kind of perverse book club, meeting almost weekly at Sassen’s home to work through the emerging public narrative of the Holocaust, discussing every volume and article they could get their hands on, including ones by “enemy” authors. Their goal was to provide material for a book that would expose the Holocaust as a Jewish exaggeration — “the lie of the six million,” as one postwar Nazi publication in Argentina put it. But Eichmann had another, contradictory goal: to claim his place in history.
LINK
5
Posted on 9/3/14 at 11:06 am to cwill
quote:so?
but Not Banal
Posted on 9/3/14 at 11:12 am to NC_Tigah
It doesn't change anything. It's just an interesting read on the mindset of Eichmann who had portrayed himself as a simple bureaucrat doing his job..."The Banality of Evil" saying comes from the former analysis of him by Arendt. These additional documents which are now available paint a much different picture.
Posted on 9/3/14 at 12:32 pm to cwill
As is well known by historians, Eichmann was no simple bureaucrat. It was he alone who was responsble for the murder of the 400,000 Hungarian Jews at a time when the war was all but over.He kept pushing and pushing Hungry to release them to German control till the govt finally caved in. And at a time when railway cars were in serious demand by the German Army, he kept absolute control over the trains necessary to transport the Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz.
Posted on 9/3/14 at 12:33 pm to cwill
quote:hardly a reach
Book Portrays Eichmann as Evil
Posted on 9/3/14 at 1:37 pm to cwill
Good story - thanks for the link
Posted on 9/3/14 at 4:02 pm to cwill
quote:
Eichmann
Quoted by eyewitnesses as saying that "he would leap into his grave laughing with the knowledge that he had 5 million souls on his conscience".
Hardly banal. Yet the very face of evil.
Posted on 9/3/14 at 5:21 pm to cwill
I don't know how on Earth Ms. Arendt could conclude that Eichmann never realized what he was doing. That defies common sense.
Eichmann must have been one of the most enthusiastic of all Nazis.
Eichmann must have been one of the most enthusiastic of all Nazis.
Posted on 9/3/14 at 5:49 pm to Champagne
For Arend it's not that he didn't realize what he was doing, but that he in his mind only felt he had been doing what he was ordered to do - a passionless bureaucrat.
Posted on 9/3/14 at 6:51 pm to cwill
I can't agree with that analysis at all.
From what I remember reading:
Hitler himself believed that only men of what he called special toughness could be relied on to systematically persecute the Jewish people. Hitler himself did not believe in the "passionless bureaucrat" model. He believed that your average person/bureaucrat would be too squeamish and sentimental to conduct the program of persecution.
Hitler believed that a men of special hard-hearted ruthlessness needed to be found, and, he also believed that your average German young man who was a good soldier was not the right kind of man for that job (too soft-hearted). Only an especially committed, ruthless and hard-hearted Nazi could be relied on for those special tasks.
That's why I suspect Eichmann was just such a man.
It could be that my recollection of what I read is inaccurate, so, I invite contradiction and correction.
From what I remember reading:
Hitler himself believed that only men of what he called special toughness could be relied on to systematically persecute the Jewish people. Hitler himself did not believe in the "passionless bureaucrat" model. He believed that your average person/bureaucrat would be too squeamish and sentimental to conduct the program of persecution.
Hitler believed that a men of special hard-hearted ruthlessness needed to be found, and, he also believed that your average German young man who was a good soldier was not the right kind of man for that job (too soft-hearted). Only an especially committed, ruthless and hard-hearted Nazi could be relied on for those special tasks.
That's why I suspect Eichmann was just such a man.
It could be that my recollection of what I read is inaccurate, so, I invite contradiction and correction.
This post was edited on 9/3/14 at 6:53 pm
Posted on 9/3/14 at 6:54 pm to Champagne
quote:
That's why I suspect Eichmann was just such a man.
See the above quote that I posted.
I have zero doubt that he was quite enthusiastic about performing the task that he was assigned.
Posted on 9/3/14 at 9:51 pm to Champagne
I think he new book who's author had access to new writings by eichmann confirms he was just such a man. Arendt has been challenged and doubted for years and this latest book is considered the nail in the coffin of her theory.
Posted on 9/4/14 at 12:03 am to cwill
The Thule Society at work
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