Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

This thread is for the June 2022 buddy read of Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil.

I'm planning on reading this sometime in June.

I am joining in too.

I bought the Kindle version of Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil and started reading it on June 1. I'll be slow going as I am trying to catch up with several other "must reads". So far, I'm really enjoying Arandt's style of presenting Eichmann's trial.

I have turned my phone off and will be reading starting sometime tonight. Like you Shirley, I am super busy with "must reads". I am determined to get lotsa reading done. Fingers crossed.

Reading Introduction.

So agree with assessment that evil comes from lack of thought,, of just following and spreading. The source of evil/of poor decisions my friendship group has long talked about: Listening to a Lie, as in listening and not questioning or thinking.

Here I am interested in knowing what kind of lies a Nazi might follow, not assess.

That lack of assessment does also indicate an intentional lack of questioning, an intentional lack of intelligence.

Reading Introduction.
Some Connections.

In The Romance of Certain Old Clothes byHenry James, two nice-looking, pleasant, not-known for-intelligence sisters (view spoiler)[ turn out to be evil. They do not think, assess, question, instead just out acting out in destructive ways (hide spoiler)]. Eichmann looked banal and was not.


In politics of Central America how effective guerilla warfare can be, weakening politicians who can never claim victory or even determined action. Guerilla warfare encouraged by Jewish leaders would have saved some lives, perhaps a significant percentage.

In France the Resistance was successful in that it saved many lives, enough for France to begin to repopulate after Franco-Prussia War, WWI, and WWII.

I am not blaming the victims. I am reminding myself that thinking outside the box--assessment and questioning--are always tools available to me and to those I speak to as I travel around city, those who ask me questions because I am old lady, a grandma person who is approachable.

Chapter 1 details what retaliation happened when Dutch Jews tried to resist.

Perhaps Hannah Arendt did not remember or know of other Jews who led others out of harm's way. These nine Jews were were not official community leaders but leaders by inclination and action. I found this book at the library today:
The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World by Kati Marton

Surely there were others who led or kept others out of harm's way. I kniw there were. Maybe in larger and definitely in smaller ways. Who ckmes immediately to mind: author:Corrie ten Boom|102203] wrote her.memiors The Hiding Place: The Triumphant True Story of Corrie Ten Boom. There were any number of other hiding places

Cynda wrote: "...Here I am interested in knowing what kind of lies a Nazi might follow, not assess. That lack of assessment does also indicate an intentional lack of questioning, an intentional lack of intelligence...."

That is very true, Cynda, but I don't think this was peculiar to the Nazi regime and its followers. Some people jump on the bandwagon early, because they are rudderless, and it [the group, the idea, the cult,...] gives them something to believe in and be part of. Later, other people jump on board out of a fear of being left out or ostracized.

Guerilla warfare encouraged by Jewish leaders would have saved some lives, perhaps a significant percentage.
and
Chapter 1 details what retaliation happened when Dutch Jews tried to resist.

Yes, I've also wondered why more Jews didn't resist when they still had time. I'm sure word of the atrocities that the Dutch Jews experienced got circulated around the Jewish community, and it became quite a deterrent for further resistance. And, of course, their weapons were taken from them quite early in the game, so they really couldn't put up any kind of fight.

Something I've thought quite a lot about was the continual policies the Nazis used to dehumanize the Jews. These Nazi policies served to abase the Jews' self-worth and therefore made it easier for people like Eichmann to carry out their inhuman practices against a people they were taught to believe were inhuman.

I found this book at the library today: The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World by Kati Marton. That sounds like a great book, Cynda! I will add it to my TBR shelf. And yes, there were definitely many people who defied the Nazis and saved Jews from being captured and deported. Most of those saviors will never be known because they didn't think they did anything special - oh, but what courage they exhibited!

Chapter 3: An Expert on the Jewish Question

At first, I was shocked that the Nazi leadership didn't kick Eichmann out of the Party for his preoccupation with (and admiration of) the Zionist movement. But then, the Party leaders thought that Eichmann was just trying to become an expert on the Jews, supposedly to aid in their extermination. And this is where Eichmann truly exhibited his lack of human connection. According to Eichmann's own words, he truly respected Zionist (if not all) Jews. His idea to rid Europe of Jews was to deport them, but when he was told that they were to be exterminated instead, he didn't even flinch. After all, he was just following orders. He truly believed that he had never killed anyone. Such a mind is hard to fathom.

Finished Chapter 3

Maybe not insane, but disconnected. More attached to the plausibility of platitudes than to force of principle. Definitely a leaf twisting in the wind--or so it seems. This dosconnection would have meant no determined path and limited success.

Chapter 4: First Solution: Expulsion
In 1939, Eichmann changes again. Now has executive position in which he seeks out the Forced Immigration. Not cooperative with Zionists anymore.

Then at least for a moment in 1945, cooperative with Zionist Youth.

This back and forth, doing whatever is pragmatic, seems to have paid off for his career. Between 1937 and 1941, he won four promotions.

Seems to have worked for awhile. Eichmann who could be relentlessly pragmatic did not see that the promotions woukd turn into a dead end and that wartime career gains often disappear after wartime. Maybe if he had been more aware/smarter, he would have made better self-serving plans.

Chapter 5: Concentration

The War with Russia changed everything. Now there can be no time/ability to find solution that would be acceptable to Jews and Nazis. Now ended Eichmann's career if seeking forced immigration or pursuing dream of a Jewish state.

Some of--a large number--of Jewish lives and families could have been saved through forced immigration or earlier development of a Jewish state.

Some of my ancestors were Sephardic Jews. I can imagine the difference in population dying in a mass-kill order versus the reality of forced immigration of Jews and of intergrating Jews in Spain after the 1492 Edict. A mass-kill order costs more lives.

So though Eichmann signed off on death of many, he did try for some years in his usual ineffective way.

Chapter 6: Final Solution: Kiling

Arendt could not have known that almost a century later that there are Germans who still believe Hilter saved Germany's businesses and dignity. At the local YWCA, I played dominoes with a woman born and raised in Germany who married an American man in the 1960s and immigrated to US--until I heard her make this homage to Hilter. I asked her if she were serious. Why yes. I quickly found a way to be too busy to play dominoes anymore.

Chapter 7
Mention of saving Western European Jews for WWII prisoner exchange. Some detailed examples described in The Train to Crystal City: FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp During World War II which I read last year as a personal Texas history challenge at a nonfiction group. Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Chapter 8

Eichmann seems to have been blown this way and that on the ever-shifting winds of history. Family both Jewish and Gentile/Christian. Understanding of Platitudes. Striving to facilitate Forced Immigration. Following orders to Mass Kill. Pledge-bound not to principles but to a person of low character. . . . .If the Road to Hell is paved with Good Intentions, Eichmann was in Trouble from early days. And many others as a result.. . . .

Chapter 10: Deportation from Western Europe
Arendt writes:

Vichy French government had shown a truly amazing understanding of the Jewish Problem and had introduced on its intiative a great deal of anti-Jewish legislation.

Uhhhhmmm. Maybe not Vichy France so much as General Pétian who first argued that he was working within the Nazi regime to undo that regime. Over time, it became clear that Pétian was more Nazi than Free France. For further accessible infirmation about 20th-century France and most particularly Paris, I suggest reading Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong written by Jean-Benoît Nadeau and his wife Julie Barlow, both French Canadians who wrote the book for the beaururatic organozation Jean-Benoit Nadeau worked for.

Chapter 10: Deportation from Western Europe: France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Italy.

Until 1943 with German Occupation, the Italians had sabotaged the Nazi's addressing the Jewish Problem. Mussolini was not much interested in Jews. He had other wartime concerns. . . . . I wonder if I were to rewatch the movie or read the book Tea with Mussolini, what I would understand differently.

Chapter 13: The Killing Centers in the East

Seems that Eichmann was tried and judged against by many Israelis--so much so that some kidnapped and delivered Eichmann to the trial.

How could they be so sure? Eichmann was the primary official if Jewish Affairs. Documents of the killers of Jews were sent directly to Eichmann, mimeographed, sent to 50 to 70 other lesser officials who then sent those documents to their top officials. These documents were cinsidered Top Secret. Eichmann knew the secrets of the killings. His information coukd only have harmed.

Chapter 15
Eichmann had hidden out longer and better than most Nazi criminals who did get caught and got tried. Most caught got tried at Neremberg. Eichmann hid in fairly and then more clearly in plain sight in Argentina. Israelis of the new state of Israel kidnapped Eichmann and took him to Jewish political center of Jerusalem to try him there.

Chapter 16 : Epilogue. I have every once in a while will encounter books where the epilogue is an important component of the book. Here I listened to a 1-hour lecture/article on international law. I have listened to this lecture 3 times total--one time under the weather half-listening and two times full-on listening, amazed how much information is held here.

Included I heardnif
* Three Objections to this trial, including it was a victor's trial witg a pre-determined judgment.

* Questions of the court's competence to try Eichmann: territorial concerns, passive or personal nature questions, universal justification (established/new legal territory).

* Questions about significance of the kidnapping of Eichmann from Argentina. His is break with international law. Since Argentina choose (may still still chose?) not to extradite criminals, Israelis may have felt compelled to take illegal action against Argentina.

* Questions of Nature of Crimes: against Peace, of War Crimes, or against Humanity (new).

* Development of Technologies resulting in Gratitious Brutality--->Crimes against Humanity.

* Eichmann charged with criminal activity because he was the premier Jewish authority in the Nazi regime and he was the one the killers of Jews reported to. From Eichmann's office did go out mimeographed reports of killing to lesser offices which then sent this information to higher up office. Eichman was at the center of the killing. Although his office destroyed many of the killers' documents, other offices had not. Plenty of documentation.

* Eichmann was tried as other murder-criminals are--not as much as murderer of humans who belonged to social network--but as murderer of elements of society. Israel claimed the Jewish dead as being members of Israel.

. . . . So I have learned something something of international law. Oh my.

Cynda wrote: "Chapter 6: Final Solution: Kiling

Arendt could not have known that almost a century later that there are Germans who still believe Hilter saved Germany's businesses and dignity. At the local YWCA,..."

This woman's attitude, and many like her - I also ran into this mentality when I lived in Germany in the early 70s... isn't this exactly what Arendt's book was all about??? The banality of evil? These people couldn't see past their own discomforts (and dignities!?) to acknowledge that their life's improvement was over the dead bodies of millions of people, including 6+ million Jews. Just unbelievable! Arendt's book will always be timely.

I'm currently on Chapter 12 of Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil and am reading it ever so slowly to fully absorb all of the information that Arendt presented in it. There is so much more to this book than the psychology of Eichmann and what drove him to do what he did during WWII.

Regarding Eichmann, back in the 70s, I read The House on Garibaldi Street: The First Full Account of the Capture of Adolf Eichmann, the fascinating account of the tracking down and capture of Eichmann by the Israeli Mossad. It left me with the impression that Eichmann was one of the overtly evil masterminds of the Final Solution, like Heydrich and Himmler. But Eichmann was in reality a middle-management type who facilitated the transportation of Jews to the concentration camps in order to gain recognition and promotion. He thought he was doing the Jews a favor by providing them with more efficient transportation to their deaths. If he had a conscience, he didn't let it get in his way.

In Chapter 7, the assistance of the Jewish Council in their own demise was incomprehensible to me. Here are a few excerpts from that chapter:

The Jewish Councils of Elders were informed by Eichmann or his men of how many Jews were needed to fill each train, and they made out the list of deportees. The Jews registered, filled out innumerable forms, answered pages and pages of questionnaires regarding their property so that it could be seized the more easily; they then assembled at the collection points and boarded the trains. The few who tried to hide or to escape were rounded up by a special Jewish police force. (Day in day out the people here leave for their own funeral), as a Jewish observer put it in Berlin in 1943.

Jewish officials could be trusted to compile the lists of persons and of their property, to secure money from the deportees to defray the expenses of their deportation and extermination, to keep track of vacated apartments, to supply police forces to help seize Jews and get them on trains, until, as a last gesture, they handed over the assets of the Jewish community in good order for final confiscation.

...the members of the Jewish Councils were as a rule the locally recognized Jewish leaders, to whom the Nazis gave enormous powers--until they, too, were deported...

As Arendt pointed out, To a Jew this role of the Jewish leaders in the destruction of their own people is undoubtedly the darkest chapter of the whole dark story.

Chapter 6: The Final Solution: Killing

Prior to reading this book, I had never heard of the term Einsatzgruppen (special action groups, or mobile killing units). These units were a combination of German armed forces and local collaborators who rounded up the Jews (as well as Gypsies, Communists and other undesirables) in occupied Russian territories and either shot and buried them or asphyxiated them in mobile gas vans. They were then dumped in mass graves. It is estimated that 1-2 million Jews died at the hands of these mobile killing units.

I am glad you are here Shirley and defining words. Because I listened to the audiobook rather than reading the text, I heard words I could not see/spell. So I am glad to see "Einsatzgruppen". . . . .Another word I would appreciate help with seeing sounds something like "uturine," used when Aren't seems to mean something or more or less like "unified" or "whole" or "complete".

You are right about rudderless people. I am remembering now Rolf from the movie The Sound of Music. He like many other young men who had no close family members chose to join the Nazis as they provided organization and support.

I am coming to this late but am glad that that it was suggested since it finally got me to pick up Arendt. Wonderful prose so far though I am only two chapters in. For those that have finished or still reading I recommend Margarethe Von Trotta's Hanna Arendt, a marvelous film and ritle performance by Barbara Sukowa that dramatized the criticism Arendt faced from her writing on the trial.

Cynda wrote: "I am glad you are here Shirley and defining words. Because I listened to the audiobook rather than reading the text, I heard words I could not see/spell. So I am glad to see "Einsatzgruppen". . . ...."

I am looking out for that word meaning “whole”, Cynda. I haven’t found it yet, but I have my eyes out for it. I wish this book had a glossary of German terms. I do try to look up the words I think will help me understand what Arendt is trying to say.

Sam wrote: "I am coming to this late but am glad that that it was suggested since it finally got me to pick up Arendt. Wonderful prose so far though I am only two chapters in. For those that have finished or s..."

I’m glad you’re joining in our discussion, Sam. This book has been so fascinating to me, with a totally different perspective on so many aspects of what went on in Europe during WWII. I appreciate Arendt’s unapologetic tone. Thank you for the name of that documentary, too. I checked, and it is available at my local library. I look forward to watching it.

Thank you

@ Shirley. I hope someday to find book or online text of this collection of articles.

@ I will look for the Hanna Arendt movie with Barbara Suites through the movie services I use.

Cynda wrote: "You are right about rudderless people. I am remembering now Rolf from the movie The Sound of Music. He like many other young men who had no close family members chose to join the Nazis as they prov..."

I had forgotten about that movie, and The Book Thief addressed this too. It is sad that regimes take advantage of young people who have little life experiences, limited historical knowledge, and can so easily be manipulated. Throughout history, unfortunately, this tactic with young minds has been “wash, rinse, repeat”.

Shirley (stampartiste) wrote: "In Chapter 7, the assistance of the Jewish Council in their own demise was incomprehensible to me. Here are a few excerpts from that chapter:The Jewish Councils of Elders were informed by Eichmann ..."

I have a various groups of Old World ancestors who came to the New World, including Sephardic Jews who converted, leaving behind in Spain and other European states their close family members. I feel it as cousins killing cousins. Not sharp but dull deep pain. . . .to identify why I am reading.

Cynda wrote: "Shirley (stampartiste) wrote: "In Chapter 7, the assistance of the Jewish Council in their own demise was incomprehensible to me. Here are a few excerpts from that chapter:The Jewish Councils of El..."

I can understand your personal bond with the Sephardic Jews of the "Old World" and the personal pain you feel at their treatment once again during WWII. I found it interesting that Amsterdam (and Holland in general) once again protected the Sephardic Jews who had taken refuge in their country when they were driven out of Spain in 1492. It was a lesson in resistance against oppression, as Arendt pointed out, that 370 Sephardic Jews remained unmolested in Amsterdam.

Yes legal loopholes were used sometimes effectively to keep from having to kill Jews. To hate another human being can be easy enough to do, but to kill a human being isn't easy. Grateful for the legal loopholes.

Chapters 9 - 12: I found the chapters that Arendt wrote on deportations of Jews from individual countries to be very telling of anti-Semitism in each country. Many of the countries, like France, encouraged the deportation of foreign Jews - at least until they realized they were being killed. Many of the countries, like Rumania, were so anti-Semitic that their actions even horrified the Germans. If possible, their means of exterminating Jews were even more inhuman than the Germans' methods.

Then there were countries like Denmark and Sweden and Italy and Bulgaria who simply refused to work with the Nazis but did everything they could to protect and save Jewish lives. I had never heard of these pockets of national resistance, so what they were able to accomplish was truly amazing.

In this way, lives were saved, families allowed to continue.

I think Hannah Arendt described Adolf Eichmann perfectly as putting a face to the banality of evil. Throughout the trial, he kept trying to absolve himself of any guilt in his involvement with the Final Solution. True, he was not in the inner, inner circle of Hitler's entourage, but he communicated with them directly, gladly accepting his role of overseeing the transportation of Jews to the concentration camps. He even bragged that his efficiency actually benefited the Jews by making it easier on them. He seemed to believe that the only ones responsible for their deaths were the ones who orchestrated the Final Solution and those who carried out the killing. In his mind, he (a mere cog in the machinery, as he described himself) was blameless of their deaths. He actually said that he had never killed anyone. How many hundreds and thousands of "ordinary" Nazis justified themselves in the same way and were never brought to answer for their crimes?

Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil was a fascinating account of Adolf Eichmann's role in the Final Solution, as well as an absorbing analysis of how each European country responded to the call to deport the Jews living within their borders.

My review is here.

I still have a couple of chapters left but one thing that made this work so well was Arendt's prose style. She presents the information so matter-of-factly, and so wryly, that it magnifies the horror as delivered in the same manner as if she were reporting on a dog show. The delivery supports the
"banality of evil," theme. Just like it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a lot of complicity/complacency to effect the conditions of holocaust and everyday ignorance, and blinding oneself to truth, and lack of compassion is all that seems necessary.

Yes Hannah Arendt was a political philospher and would have felt the horror as she was a Holocaust survivor. Like many in the courtroom in Jerusalem, she was seeking answers, meaning, closure.

I feel rather than know that Arendt was was both horrified and glad that other Jews of Israel had kidnapped Eichmann to make that happen.

Sam wrote: "I still have a couple of chapters left but one thing that made this work so well was Arendt's prose style. She presents the information so matter-of-factly, and so wryly, that it magnifies the horr..."

Indeed, Sam... that is exactly what I thought of Arendt's writing style. I described it as clinical, and it had the same effect on me. I'm glad you're enjoying it and look forward to reading your comments and/or review.

Shirley (stampartiste) wrote: "Sam wrote: "I still have a couple of chapters left but one thing that made this work so well was Arendt's prose style. She presents the information so matter-of-factly, and so wryly, that it magnif..."

Shirley, sorry to get back to you so late. I had finished the book and wanted to let it set awhile before answering but lost track of time. I had not planned on adding much more than I already wrote since I joined the read mainly to get a taste of the author's style in anticipation of reading The Origins of Totalitarianism and perhaps some other of her more philosophical works. In the last couple of years, I have been a lowly catching up on some of the twentieth century women authors I had managed to miss and having just finished The Second Sex, the buddy read for Arendt seemed perfect. So I was focused primarily on style and not studying the material deeply and have spoken on that enough. I had mentioned Von Trotta's film which spends more time on the fallout from Arendt's reporting and it begged the question of what did Arendt do that incurred such a negative reaction and why did she risk the fallout in writing it?
It is those questions that I thought the book helped answer. Arendt sesmed to be interested in the true legitimacy of the trial and inquiry and was concerned that the pursuit of justice was carried out justly without prejudice and with the understanding of the moral gravity of the act of arrest, prosecution, and punishment of any guilty party. This was something that should not be taken lightly and I felt that in Hannah's eyes, was what separated the accusers from the accused.

Sam wrote: "I had mentioned Von Trotta's film which spends more time on the fallout from Arendt's reporting and it begged the question of what did Arendt do that incurred such a negative reaction and why did she risk the fallout in writing it?
It is those questions that I thought the book helped answer. Arendt sesmed to be interested in the true legitimacy of the trial and inquiry and was concerned that the pursuit of justice was carried out justly without prejudice and with the understanding of the moral gravity of the act of arrest, prosecution, and punishment of any guilty party. "

I enjoyed reading your comments, Sam. I still do not understand how Arendt was attacked for the way she wrote the events of Eichmann's capture and trial. I thought she did an excellent job of presenting the facts without interposing her own feelings into the narrative. Is this why she was attacked? Because she did present an objective account? This is what gave power to her exposure of this dark episode in history, in my opinion. The negative reception to her book escapes me. I thought it was wonderful. And like you, I also want to read The Origins of Totalitarianism next, as well as On Revolution. I'm sure they will both be as excellent as Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil.

IMO, Arendt was attacked for three reasons.

1)A political reason which I feel is well-explained in this article, linked below.
https://www.city-journal.org/html/han...

2) A philosophical/theological?? reason where Arendt's "banality of evil," thesis contradicted traditional depictions of evil which stress more intent in the individual, see good/evil in binary terms, and tend to demonize the perpetrators making punishment more palatable

3) A gender/age reason where criticism toward her was more exaggerated because she was a young female upstart in her critic's eyes when her reportage on the trial was published. This last reason is implied in Von Trotta's film I think.

I am rereading with another GR group. There too was mentionnof the film. I will see if I can find it after rereading.

This book has continued to inform my reading and commenting here at Catching Up. This book haunted me as I read The Promise by Chaim Potok with others here at Catching Up. So I felt the the need to reread when at another group others wanted to read. I find I better understand, maybe particularly after read a biography of Hannah Arendt: Hannah Arendt: A Life in Dark Times by Anne C. Heller.