Language:
English
Year of publication:
2013
Titel der Quelle:
Yad Vashem Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
41,2 (2013) 173-209
Keywords:
Arendt, Hannah,
;
Eichmann, Adolf,
;
War crime trials
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Historiography
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Philosophy
Abstract:
Contends that Arendt's "The Banality of Evil" was greatly misunderstood by contemporaries and by subsequent historiography. Arendt did not belittle the seriousness and monstrosity of what Eichmann had done, neither did she reduce him to being an obedient bureaucrat. Eichmann's main deficiency, according to Arendt, was his inability to think about and understand the meaning of what he did, especially crucial in the situation of Nazism's outright reversal of moral values. Dismisses the continuity between "The Origins of Totalitarianism" and "The Banality of Evil", which many critics have taken for granted; between writing these works, Arendt revised many of her views on evil and morals. Admits that Arendt was wrong when she diminished the significance of antisemitism in Eichmann's motivation. However, her analysis may be valid for other perpetrators of the Holocaust.
Note:
In English and in Hebrew.
URL:
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