Language:
English
Year of publication:
2011
Titel der Quelle:
Legacy; Journal of the International School for Holocaust Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
4 (2011) 38-47
Keywords:
Eichmann, Adolf,
;
Arendt, Hannah,
;
Scholem, Gershom,
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
Good and evil Religious aspects
;
Judaism
;
Good and evil Philosophy
Abstract:
Discusses Arendt's view of Eichmann's crimes, noting that her use of the phrase "banality of evil" does not mean that they were not so bad, but rather that they were unique and unprecendented. Arendt felt that, since Eichmann was not able to empathize with others or understand their suffering as a result of totalitarian evil, a punishment far more commensurate with his crimes would have been isolation, banishment from human society. Arendt points out that totalitarian regimes attempt to negate the distinction between good and evil; they train soldiers to disassociate from their actions in order to commit war crimes like robots, without emotion or exercising judgment. Halbertal contends that disassociation can also be the result of a soldier's perfect identification with the action, believing that what he is doing is absolutely correct. Eichmann totally identified with Nazi ideology and acted not like a robot, but out of deep conviction. Discusses, also, the view of Gershom Scholem, who saw Nazism as the embodiment of the demonic force. Halbertal rejects this mystification of evil, which could enable individuals to evade responsibility. He proposes that Nazism was a "radical" evil (beyond "ordinary" evil), which attempted to redefine moral values and to deify itself by, inter alia, achieving absolute control over the lives and deaths of human beings. Notes that, throughout history, the Jews have represented that which is uncontrollable and therefore must be destroyed. Contends that the Eichmann trial dispelled the illusion that a state can carry out an act of extreme criminal nature without anyone being responsible for it on an individual moral level.
Note:
In Hebrew:
,
"בשביל הזיכרון" ס.ח. 7 (תשעא) 19-12
URL:
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