Adolf Eichmann:
- Britannica
- Worked for the SS on Jewish affairs – gained authority
- Held more and more power in the SS → tasked with coordinating the Final Solution (Chief Executioner)
- Final solution – the mass killing of European Jews
- Escaped post-war imprisonment, fled to Argentina, arrested by Israeli authorities
- Put on trial in Israel – claimed he wasn’t anti-semitic, denied responsibility for the Final Solution, said he just followed instructions
- Sentenced to death – only Israeli court issued death sentence
- Wilson Quarterly
- An important official of the SS
- Hid in Argentina post-war; captured by Israeli agents in 1960
- Speach before his execution – said he stands behind Hitler’s organization and rule of the Third Reich; claimed Hitler’s Germany was better, more ideal
The Banality of Evil – Hannah Arendt
- Britannica
- Eichmann’s trial already controversial, Arendt made it more controversial
- Banal
- Argued he simply followed orders, no concept of the consequences/scale of his actions – he wasn’t evil, just thoughtless/unaware
- Brain Pickings
- Arendt wrote the article for the New Yorker – response to the trial of Adolf Eichmann
- Writes that malicious acts create tragedy, but people who carry out these acts don’t intend to create evil – they’re just mundane/normal/thoughtless
- Controversial – labeling Eichmann as banal implied the Holocaust was commonplace
- Banal v. commonplace
- Wilson Quarterly
- The banality of Evil – report on Eichmann’s trial
- Claimed he wasn’t a villain, he mindlessly followed commands of his superiors
- Banal
- Not usually associated with evil
- Commonplace, trivial, unoriginal
- Describes shared land/property
- Refers to ideas rather than action
- Not conventionally a moral term
- The banality of Evil – report on Eichmann’s trial
- AEON
- New Yorker article describes Eichmann as normal – he only carried out the Final Solution to advance his career/bureaucratic status
- He was not a monster
- Carried out malicious acts without evil intentions
- “Banality of Evil” – instead of evil, he was shallow/clueless, blindly followed instructions, and showed no emotions
- Criticism of article – Arendt focused too much on who Eichmann was rather than what he did; she downplayed his actions
- New Yorker article describes Eichmann as normal – he only carried out the Final Solution to advance his career/bureaucratic status
