Reviews tagging 'Antisemitism'

Eichmann in Jerusalem: ein Bericht von der Banalität des Bösen by Hannah Arendt

14 reviews

nicowill's review against another edition

5.0

dark informative reflective medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism

mrs_gm's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark informative reflective sad slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Antisemitism, Deportation

Moderate: Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, War

ezbreezy98's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Torture, Violence, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Murder, War, Deportation

asiaasiaja's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

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Content Warnings

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

cleogray's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark informative medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism

giuliii's review against another edition

4.5

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

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

Moderate: Ableism, Homophobia

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

megb64's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark slow-paced

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Content Warnings

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

linneak's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark informative slow-paced

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Child death, Suicide, Kidnapping, Murder

apersonfromflorida's review against another edition

4.0

dark informative reflective sad slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Antisemitism

Moderate: Violence, War

aehc's review against another edition

5.0

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

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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: Death, Genocide, Xenophobia, Antisemitism