"On the scaffold, his memory [Eichmann] played their last round:" euphoric ", he had forgotten he was attending his own death.
As if in the last minutes, he summarized the lesson we learned this long study of human wickedness - the lesson of the terrible, the unspeakable, the unthinkable banality of evil "(written in italics).
Hannah Arendt helps us understand the character was devoid of consciousness. Was the liability of third parties provided no? No, because there was that of the superiors of Eichmann, that of a totalitarian bureaucracy that German service department was engaged heightened competition in the hunting and killing of Jews. Worse, there was no one quite "crazy" probably to tell Eichmann that his action was wrong, he was in evil.
Resistance in Germany face the Nazi beast in ignominy racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, anti-God, anti-human, the "ruthless toughness" - rücksichtsloser Härte- there was unfortunately the name a few heroes, rare, often forgotten, yet so glorious as those cited by the philosopher Hans and Sophie Scholl The White Rose.
Terrible asphyxiation sense of humanity that led to small small Jewish communities deportation and divested of all their goods, rendered stateless, ghettoized and finally deported to be exterminated.
"I insisted on this chapter of history, the trial of Jerusalem omitted to expose to the world in its true dimensions, because it helps to understand, in the most striking way, the extent of moral collapse the Nazis provoked in respectable European society. - not only in Germany but in almost all countries, not only among the torturers, but also among the victims " (P 240)
Terrible fragility of humanity! In fact:
"But the truth is that there were organizations of the Jewish community, emergency associations and support both nationally and internationally. Wherever Jews lived, there were Jewish leaders , recognized as such, and that direction, almost without exception, cooperated in one way or another, for one reason or another, with the Nazis. (...) According to calculations Freudiger, 50 % could have been saved if they had not followed the instructions of the Jewish councils. " (P. 239)
Some collaborated large-scale disaster such as Dr. Kastner, in Hungary, "rescued 1,684 people and there were about 476 000 people. Not to leave the selection to" blind chance "had to" truly sacred principles are the force which guides the low human hand signing on paper the name of an unknown person and thus deciding his life or his death. "And that these" sacred principles "they designated to be saved? Those who had worked all their lives zibur for [community] - that is to say, the Jewish leaders - and the "most prominent Jews," as Kastner says in his report. " (P 229) - also incriminated by Rudolf Vrba in his poignant testimony I escaped from Auschwitz.
This makes even greater the sacrifice of Christians who saved, as my family, Jews, risking the death of their own families.
Hannah Arendt is a great author. His book is remarkable teachings. I recommend also reading the one written by Joseph Kessel Last Judgments: the Petain trial, Nuremberg and Eichmann
