Episode 111, The Banality of Evil (Part II - Eichmann in Jerusalem)

The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast

Jack Symes | Andrew Horton, Oliver Marley, and Rose de Castellane

Education, Philosophy, Society & Culture, Courses

4.8 • 612 Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2022

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Introduction

On April 11, 1961, a Monster was put on trial in the state of Israel and broadcasted to the world. The Monster, who was housed in a glass box, was accused of crimes against humanity and the Jewish people – of knowingly sending hundreds of thousands of people to their deaths. When the trial commenced, and the Monster was asked how he pleaded, he answered, 'Not guilty, in the sense of the indictment.'

As the trial proceeded, the Monster portrayed himself as a cog in a machine. He was a cog who was helpless to stop the inevitable – a cog that was merely performing its duty. To some who observed the trial, the 'Monster' who sat before them appeared all too human. Behind the glass, there was no demonic essence of evil. The Monster was, in fact, an average person: a normal person who was capable of committing terrifyingly evil acts.

One observer went as far as to say that the manner in which the accused spoke, and the way he framed his story, was evidence that he simply lacked the ability to think. To this observer, it was no radical evildoer who sat in the glass box. In fact, his professed motives, and his inability to avoid cliches, were evidence of his banality.

Contents

Part I. The Life of Hannah Arendt

Part II. Eichmann in Jerusalem

Part III. The Essence of Evil

Part IV. Further Analysis and Discussion

Links

Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem (Book)

Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (Book)

Richard J. Bernstein, Why Read Hannah Arendt Now? (Book)

Peter Hayes, Why? Explaining the Holocaust (Book)

Anne Heller, Hannah Arendt: A Life in Dark Times (Book)

Samantha Rose Hill, Hannah Arendt (Book)

Deborah E. Lipstadt, The Eichmann Trial (Book)

Dana Vila, Arendt (Book)

Eichmann Trial (YouTube)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Part 2, Eichmann in Jerusalem.
0:18.3	So just a heads up again, we're going to be referencing some sensitive material
0:22.3	relating to the Second World War and the Holocaust throughout this episode. With that said,
0:28.1	we hope you'll stick around and enjoy the show. On May 2nd, 1960, Israeli Prime Minister
0:34.0	David Ben Gurian walked up to the parliamentary podium and announced to the world
0:38.3	that they had captured the man responsible with the Nazi leaders for what they called the final
0:43.5	solution. They captured Adolf Eichmann, who played, according to them, a central role in the
0:48.9	annihilation of six million Jews. People outside were gathering around radios and newspapers,
0:54.9	almost immediately,
1:00.5	and this sent shockwaves around the world. Should we say how Hannah Arendt connects to this right from the beginning? First of all, we mentioned that in the internment camp in Goers, that
1:05.3	she spent time there and the Eichmann's task force came through and dealt with that. Thank you for
1:10.8	Wren, she had obviously fled long before.
1:13.2	A bit of a connection where their paths could have crossed while still in Europe.
1:17.8	But when it came to why she was so adamant that she wanted to cover this,
1:23.0	I mean, she was working with the New Yorker, saw that of of the caption of Eichmann and felt that she had
1:29.8	sort of a duty as a Jew to go and report on this issue. But she also, I think partly for academic
1:37.5	reasons, wanted to see whether or not her writings on totalitarianism worked out in the flesh, as it
1:43.7	were, that she could see this person
1:45.6	that might mirror some of the things that she had suspected about the Nazis and she had written
1:51.9	about other Nazi criminals prior to Eichmann where she she uses very similar language to the way
1:59.7	she describes Eichmann so she has a picture in her head
2:02.4	about what kind of person Eichmann might be and she wants to find out in person exactly what he is.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jack Symes | Andrew Horton, Oliver Marley, and Rose de Castellane, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Jack Symes | Andrew Horton, Oliver Marley, and Rose de Castellane and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.