Reviews tagging 'Antisemitism'

Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt

11 reviews

asiaasiaja's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Violence, Murder, Hate crime, Deportation, Antisemitism, Xenophobia, War, and Physical abuse

cleogray's review

challenging dark informative medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism

giuliii's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

It took me an embarrassing long time to actually finish this book (around a month, although I annotated it all) but I actually found it to be an extremely interesting read once I got the hang of it. It's really compelling from a psychological viewpoint because it analyzes the mind of Adolph Eichmann and National-Socialists and delves deep into what it really means for evil to be banal, without subtracting the fault out of it. It also allowed me to expand my knowledge on the events of the war and the politics of it, so now I feel like I have a better understanding of that time period. If interested in the topic or even if it's an academic demand (as was mine), I really encourage whoever to read it, you won't regret it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Slavery, War, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Torture, Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Antisemitism, Deportation, Mental illness, Trafficking, Violence, Classism, Gun violence, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, and Racism

Moderate: Homophobia and Ableism

I mean, it's a book about world war two so it's pretty self explanatory

megb64's review

challenging dark slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deportation, Genocide, Grief, Antisemitism, Child death, Confinement, Hate crime, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, War, and Violence

linneak's review

challenging dark informative slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Death, Grief, Xenophobia, Deportation, War, Genocide, and Confinement

Minor: Kidnapping, Murder, Child death, and Suicide

apersonfromflorida's review

dark informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Antisemitism, and Death

Moderate: War and Violence

aehc's review

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

This is a classic for a reason. Arendt's unflinching account of the Eichmann trial cuts to the heart of the question that looms large over retrospective looks at the Holocaust: how did seemingly normal people participate in, aid, and abet one of the most horrifying events in human history? Arendt's answer, embodied in her portrayal of Eichmann, is that ethical standards and normal behavior are set by a society and that when a society's ethics break down, most people are perfectly willing to go along with it. Of course, this did not happen overnight, and it would not have happened if violent anti-semitism was not already common and socially accepted in Europe. However, I think that Arendt's argument is now more relevant than ever, both for individual contemplation about how we commit to our own moral and ethical standards and, more broadly, how the international community should respond to actions committed by individuals working within the apparatus of a "criminal state" that are not themselves violent but make profound violence possible.

Arendt has been criticized for her characterization of Eichmann as non-ideologically motivated, when some evidence suggests that he was in fact a virulent anti-semite. I ultimately do not think that these facts undercut Arendt's argument; whether Eichmann was truly a banal paper-pusher or a true believer, he was portraying himself as a non-ideologue and on some level believed that that would make his actions less reprehensible. The fundamentals of Arendt's argument - that people who were not ideologically committed to Nazism were instrumental to its success, and that their internal motivations are at best irrelevant and in some ways worse than those of an ideologue - remain unchanged.

This book is dry - especially at the beginning - but to me that serves only to magnify the dissonance between Eichmann's logistical duties and his concern with his status, and the atrocities he was crafting at his desk.  Arendt’s use of some of the dehumanizing Nazi language is very rhetorically effective and, as I’m sure she intended, profoundly disturbing. This is one of the most disturbing books I've read in a very, very long while. I will not stop thinking about it for some time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Death, and Genocide

lefrough's review

Found it simply too dry to push through. Ironically the bits that were discussing some of the worst crimes ever committed were easier to read than pages of procedure.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide and Antisemitism

Deals with one of the main perpetrators of the Holocaust. Proceed with caution. Arendt (a jew herself) also has views which are not commonly held these days with regards to Holocaust victims.

annainthebooks's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, and Antisemitism

faksi's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism and Genocide