Eichmann In Jerusalem:A Report on the Banality of Evil(Revised in 1965 by Hannah Arendt)
Summarized by Richard Mohley (1/17/08 and revised April 2011)
Introduction
by Amos Elon pp. vii – xxii summarized by Richard Mohley, last additions on 4/10/11
Eichmann In Jerusalem caused a huge emotional furor in the Jewish community worldwide. “No book in living memory had elicited similar passions. A kind of excommunication seemed to have been imposed on the author by the Jewish establishment in America.”
Upon its publication, the Israeli government organized an international propaganda campaign to denounce the book and its author from synagogues in America. Many of its critics had apparently not read the book (Isaiah “Berlin gets violent sometimes irrational prejudice…for example Hannah Arendt, although he has never read her book”). Others dishonestly attributed statements toher that she had not made or written. Arendt herself was surprisedand amused.
Apparently, the cause of the brouhaha was her portrayal of (A) evil as banal, (B) Jewish com-munity leaders as cooperating with the Nazi’s, (C) Ben Gurion as the instigator of the trial for propaganda purposes and (D) the events of the Holocaust in a flippant writing style.
According to Arendt, the entire project was the Ben Gurion government’s effort to create a belief that (A) anti-Semitism is an eternal phenomena placing Jews at the center of all human history, (B) they are completely innocent victims and (C) must band together to carry on eternal war with all non-Jews. Eichmann’s arrest and “show trial” was planned by as a PR campaign to serve political goalsbut not offend Germany. (Nazi’s were not being pursued in Germany but the two govern-ments were on very good terms. Massive reparations were being paid by Germany to Israel.)
What most outraged the Israeli’s was her revealing Gen Gurion’s plan and then portraying evil as often banal, simple minded and bureaucratic. If evil is monstrous, clear and in those people over there, then we are innocent and good by contrast.
Arendt foresaw at the time the moral parallels of the treatment of the Jews in Germany and the Palestinians in Israel. “The Paslestinians, a people who bore no responsibility for the collapse of civilization in Europe but ended up being punishe for it.”
Ironically, she suspected that a pervasive sense of guilt over war time behavior motivated two forces (1) German postwar disinterest in pursuing Nazi’s and (2) Israeli protests over her book. Arendt was not the first or the most outspoken reporter of those events, but she was the one most condemned for publicizing them.
Arendt fervently wished for a blending of the Arab and Jewish peoples in Mideastand was deeply disappointed by events. Unless Palestinians and Israeli’s are integrated, she predicted endless violence.
Adolph Eichmann’s Personality and Lifestyle
Adolph Eichmann:
was certified by psychiatrists as “normal” p. 25 (more normal than the psychiatrist)
possibly had a low I.Q., he could not graduate from high school
had not personally ever killed anyone p. 22 (his testimony)
had “personally” nothing against the Jews p. 26 (his testimony)
had Jewish relatives who he helped p. 26
had not read Mein Kampf p. 33 (his statement)
had not known Hitler’s program when he joined the Nazi Party p. 43
bragged repeatedly about killing 5 million Jews (which was not true) p. 46 and then after
slapping Dr. Lowenherz, “his favorite Jew” he apologies to him in front of his staff p. 47
was unable to look at any issue from someone else’s viewpoint p. 48
thought and spoke primarily in clichés, out of which he could not think p. 48
never belonged to high Nazi circles p. 84
his name was not mentioned once during the Nuremburg trials
is only familiar to us because of this trial and Arendt’s book (my conclusion)
viewed himself as simply a law abiding citizen. p. 35
never became a “moderate” as almost all Nazi’s did at the end of the war p.145
(a “moderate” was someone who eased up on the program and believed that not killing as many people as hecould have was a justification or legal defense p.145)
was a family man, married and had two children, after the war his wife moved to Argentina and they remarried under different identities, I think they had another child
Adolf Eichman as young man, as Nazi, after war and on trial in Jerusalem.
From Chapter VII, The Wannsee Conference
Many high ranking Nazi’s had Jewish ancestors and relatives; e.g. Heydrich who was called the “architect of the Final Solution.” p. 133 “but that fact was highly confidential p. 178, “there were Jews among orginary SS men” p 178
Top Nazi’s got willing (enthusiastic) cooperation from non-Nazi government functionaries (“the backbone of every government administration”) in their Final Solution (the Holocaust).p.113
The Holocaust was basically run by Jewish people from the Councils of Elders(rabbi’s, civic leaders and “Jewish police”) down through police, guards, executioners and tooth extractors. A person could ride the train across Europe to a death camp and not see a “handful of Germans.” p. 115, 117, 123 The “Central Jewish Council” “enjoyed their new power.” P. 118
Adolph Eichmann could find no one on any level who objected to the Final Solution, he referred to this as his “Pontius Pilate Realization” p. 116
When told of the purpose of death camps, victims denounced their informants as “not sane.” p. 119
Those who cooperated with the authorities (Nazi’s and Jewish Counsels) had a survival rate of 1 %.
Those who did not cooperate and fled had a survival rate of 50%. p. 124
All Germans seemed to agree with the Nazi government policies but (it seemed like that) every German had a Jewish friend who was an exception and should be spared. p. 137
Standardized Steps in the Nazi Final Solution Plan
1st: deport all German Jews for their own good, so they will be saved from harm. p 57
Organize “Jewish Councils” and ask the Jewish leadershipin each newly acquired country for help in administration
2nd: concentrate all Jewish people in a few locations
- identify them with yellow badges p. 156
- invalidate their citizenship (no citizenship in any country means no protection)
- confiscate their property
3rd: kill them all p. 83
Eichmann’s Personal Philosophy
Eichmann saw himself as an “idealist.” A idealist is one who “lives for his idea” and does not let his personal feelings interfere. The “greatest idealist” he knew as was Dr. Rudolf Kastner, later tried in Israel because he “scarified his fellow-Jews to his idea”, that was “as it should be.” P. 42
He saw himself in a “movement.” “The Party program was not taken seriously by Nazi officials, they prided themselves as belonging to a movement, as distinguished from a party.” P. 43
Only when Hitler physically died did Eichmann consider his pledge to obey him terminated.
Eichmann considered himself a follower of Immanual Kant, even claimed to have read the Critique of Pure Reason; but with a twist. His philosophy was to “act in such a way that the Fuhrer, if he knew your actions, would approve it.” P. 136
“Half a dozen psychiatrists had certified him as “normal.” “More normal, at any rate, than I am after having examined him, one of them was said to have exclaimed” “His attitude towards his wife and children … was not only normal but desirable… ” p. 25-26
“Yes, he had a conscience, and his conscience functioned in the expected way for about four weeks, whereupon it began to function in the other way around.” P. 95 His conscience wasn’t concerned with murder, but with murdering German Jews (who were “from our own cultural milieu”) P. 96
Some Good Guysand some not-so-good guys
To the Nazi’s surprise, other Europeans had different ideas about Jewish people. Non-German anti-Semites had very different ways of expressing it. For example, the Italian people didn’t support the anti-Semitic program of their government, so it wasn’t enforced. P. 176
“probably due to the restraining influence of Mussolini and Italian Fascism, …Hungary, not unlike Italy, had become a haven for Jews to which even refugees from Poland and Slovakia could some-times still escape. P. 139
The French Government (Vichy, headed by WWI hero Marshal Petain) was very enthusiastically anti-Semitic. But although it was eager to expel non-French Jews, they were “adamant in their refusal to hand over their own Jews to the Germans….And Himmler…immediately gave in and promised to spare the French Jews.” P. 165 (Marshal Petain was highly regarded as the savior of France in WWI. After the war, he was tried, convicted and sentenced to death for treason for heading the Vichy Government. That was later commuted to life imprisonment by Charles De Gaul. He died in 1951 at the age of 94.From national savior to death for treason, what a trip!)
Marshall Phillipe Petain during WWI, meeting Hitler in WWII and in a Vichy Government poster
The gassing of civilians halted inside Germany because of civilian protests and then immediately began in the East. P. 109
The Belgian police refused to cooperate with the Nazi’s. p. 165
In Holland, college students went out on strike to protest the Nazi firing of Jewish professors. P. 169
Denmark was unique. The Danish government refused to cooperate. German soldiers stationed in Denmark were considered “unreliable” and soldiers from Germany were send to Denmark to make arrests. The Danish rabbi’s openly helped their communities to escape instead of turning them over to the Germans. Non Jewish citizens hid many Jewish families who fled their homes when German solders arrived. Wealthy Danish Jews spend great sums helping Jews from other countries escape. As a result of all of this, very few Jewish Danes were lost. p. 172/3
WhenBulgariawas directed by the Nazi’s to solve their “Jewish Problem,” it issued “very little yellow stars.” Most Jewish Bulgarians didn’t wear them. The people and parliament were so sym-pathetic to the Jews that the stars became a badge of honor. Finally the government reported to Berlin that their “Jewish Problem was solved.” No one was ever harmed. P. 185/6 The Bulgarian
Communist Georgi Dimitrov stood up to Goring during the Reichstag fire trial so well that it was said that “There in only one man left in Germany; and he is a Bulgarian.” P. 188 The Vatican nuncio (Cesare Orsenigo)on the other hand, when protesting Hungarian threats to massacre Jews said it was not done“from a false sense of compassion.”
Arendt’s book Men In Dark Times tells the stories of several remarkable good human beings. Here are four of them.
Walter Benjamin, Rosa Luxemburg, Pope John XXIII, Isak Denesen (Baroness Karen von Blixen)
Finally, when faced with “determined opposition,” “The Nazis… possessed neither the manpower nor the will power to remain “tough”… P. 165
Miscellaneous Facts Of Interest
By 1943 it was clear to them that the war would be lost. Without Hitler’s consent the extermination camps were closed and evidence destroyed. Hitler stated that the SS had become “unreliable.”
Jews who did not have strong relationships with their religious communities were much more likely to survive. Jews with strong connections in congregations were much more likely to be killed.
After the war started, all German civil servants were made members of the SS, whether party members or not. p. 68 “there existed not a single organization or public institution in Germany, at leased during the war years, that did not become involved in criminal actions…” p. 159
The terminology changed, killing by doctors was now called “medical matters.” P 69
Some national governments refused to cooperate and the Nazi’s consented. Some national governments were so anti-Semitic that it embarrassed even the Nazi’s.
Since the war, Eichmann had been living in Argentina and working for Mercedes-Benz.
He had never been in combat or witnessed people killed. P. 89
German officers who conspired to assassinate Hitler (considered by Eichmann to be traitors and scoundrels) were not motivated by the mass murdering of minorities, but by the damage being done to Germany by Hitler. P. 98
The defense of I was acting out of fear of being killed if I didn’t follow orders in the Nazi and Nazi Collaborators Punishment Law of 1950 “ had been drawn up with Jewish collaborators in mind.”
“Jewish Sonderkommandos had everywhere been employed in the actual killing process.” p 91.
The shoot-or-be-shot justification for killing people was not a legitimate excuse for Germans. There was never a single SS man who lost his life from refusing to kill people. There were administrative penalties but never the threat on anyone’s life. p. 91
Hitler’s “word” (written or simply spoken or just his living desire) was considered law and anything contrary to it was unlawful p. 148
There were “excellent relations” between the SS running the camps and German industrialists. It was understood that the inmates were to be worked to death and those companies are still familiar business names. I.G. Farben, Krupp and Siemens p. 79
The SS considered themselves virtuous, doing a necessary but difficult thing. A “systematic effort was made to weed out all those who derived physical pleasure from what they did” p 105 “What horrible things I had to watch in the pursuance of my duties, how heavily the task weighed upon my shoulders!” p 106
P. 107 “ the Eastern gas factories grew out of Hitler’s euthanasia program”. (Eugenics was an American idea that spread to Germany.)
P 118 “In the matter of cooperation, there was no distinction between the highly assimilated Jewish communicates of Central and WesternEurope and the Yiddish speaking masses of the East.” P 120 The naming of individuals who were send to their doom had been with few exceptions, the job of the Jewish administration.”
Ben Gurion probably wanted to represent that resistance to the Nazi programs as coming from the Zionists. But, “the true distinction was not between Zionists and non-Zionist but between organized and unorganized people, and even more import, between the young and the middle- aged.” P. 122
“the actual work of killing in the extermination centers was usually in the hands of Jewish commandos.” P. 123
Opposition inside German was almost zip. There were those who claimed to have “inward opposition” but “they had to appear “outwardly” even more like Nazi’s than ordinary Nazis’ p 127 Otherwise, the only way to live and not appear like a Nazi was to “withdraw from significant participation in public life.”
“Evil in the Third Reich had lost the quality by which most people could recognize it, the quality of temptation.” P 150 Oddly, most Germans were probably tempted to not murder people. “they had learned how to resist temptation.”
A story is told about a Nazi propaganda person who visited a Bavarian village to reassure the people towards the end of the war. She told them that “the Fuhrer in his great goodness had prepared for the whole German people a mild death through gassing in case the war should have an unhappy end.” T he listeners “when home shaking their heads.” P. 110
From Other Sources:
Extermination and medical experimentation came from Eugenics, a school of thought originating in the United States.
IBM was instrumental in providing technology to Nazi’s for identifying and keeping track of Jews. There is absolutely no doubt that Watson knew what they were planning.
The Apostolic Nunio to Istanbul (Roncalli, later Pope John XXIII, “The Good Pope”) was approached by von Ribbentrop asking for Vatican support for the invasion of Russia. Roncalli asked him about the millions of Jews he was killing. That was in 1941 before it had hardly begun. There can be no doubt that if Roncalli in Turkey knew about it, the Pope (who had lived in Berlin for many years) knew all about it. That Pope was Pius XII, sometimes called “Hitler’s Pope.” He had a mixed and much criticized record in dealing with Hitler and the Holocaust.
Pope Pius XII and current pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger ) as youth (18 in 1945) in Germany and today
Common Rationalizations for Cooperating With Hitlerism
“I was inwardly opposed to the Nazi program.” p. 126/7
If I weren’t cooperating, a real Nazi would take my job and he would be worse. p. 128
While Hitler was successful, he was supported by the people. p 98
If Hitler was being defeated, opposition to him would have set up a “stabbed in the back” myth. p. 98
I am a “moderate.” (if I kill fewer people than I could have, I am absolved of guilt)
It is not the role of the soldier (or citizen?) to pass judgment on the supreme national leadership, thatis the business of history or of God. p. 149