Hannah arendt the banality of evil

book by Hannah Arendt

Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil is a book by the philosopher and political thinker Hannah Arendt.

Arendt, a Jew who fled Germany during Adolf Hitler's rise to power, reported on the trial of Adolf Eichmann, one of the major organizers of the Holocaust, for The New Yorker. A revised and enlarged edition was published in

Theme

Arendt's subtitle famously introduced the phrase "the banality of evil." In part the phrase refers to Eichmann's deportment at the trial as the man displayed neither guilt for his actions nor hatred for those trying him, claiming he bore no responsibility because he was simply "doing his job." ("He did his 'duty'; he not only obeyed 'orders,' he also obeyed the 'law.'")

Eichmann

Arendt takes Eichmann's court testimony and the historical evidence available, and she makes several observations about him:

• Eichmann stated in court that he had always tried to abide by Immanuel