Eichmann in Jerusalem

I was a just administrator. I did good things guided by my character, and bad things, thanks to the vagaries of war (2666, Roberto Bolaño). We are men of our time. When all this is over, who will be innocent?

Originally published in 1963, this account of the surprising Banality of Evil resulted from Arendt's journalistic coverage of the trial (Jerusalem) of Adolf Eichmann, one of the main figures responsible for the logistics of the Nazi “Final Solution”.

Arendt (a German-American thinker of Jewish origin, exiled in the United States during the Nazi regime) does not merely report the legal facts. She proposes a reflection on the nature of evil and individual responsibility. Her main thesis - that of the “banality of evil” - argues that Eichmann was not an irrational monster, but an ordinary, obedient man, incapable of thinking critically about his actions.

This concept generated intense debate, especially by suggesting that extreme evil can be committed by normal people, provided they disconnect from ethical thinking.

What does it mean to obey? Where does personal responsibility begin? How to judge those who act within a legal system, but in a morally unacceptable way?