Summary of Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The courtroom was solemn, and the judges’ attention was focused on the suffering stories they heard. They were not theatrical, and their conduct was natural.

#2 The trial was not a show trial, and Judge Landau, who presided over it, did his best to prevent it from becoming one. The proceedings happened on a stage before an audience, with the usher’s marvelous shout at the beginning of each session producing the effect of the rising curtain.

#3 The judges at the Eichmann trial were careful to avoid the spotlight, but they were still in it. The audience was supposed to represent the whole world, and in the first few weeks, it consisted chiefly of newspaper and magazine writers who had flocked to Jerusalem from all corners of the earth.

#4 The Israeli government was extremely hostile to the idea of an international court that would have indicted Eichmann for crimes against humanity, rather than just crimes against the Jewish people.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822513044

IRB Media

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Insights on Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The courtroom was solemn, and the judges’ attention was focused on the suffering stories they heard. They were not theatrical, and their conduct was natural.

#2

The trial was not a show trial, and Judge Landau, who presided over it, did his best to prevent it from becoming one. The proceedings happened on a stage before an audience, with the usher’s marvelous shout at the beginning of each session producing the effect of the rising curtain.

#3

The judges at the Eichmann trial were careful to avoid the spotlight, but they were still in it. The audience was supposed to represent the whole world, and in the first few weeks, it consisted chiefly of newspaper and magazine writers who had flocked to Jerusalem from all corners of the earth.

#4

The Israeli government was extremely hostile to the idea of an international court that would have indicted Eichmann for crimes against humanity, rather than just crimes against the Jewish people.

#5

The audience at the trial was supposed to be the world, and the play was supposed to be the huge panorama of Jewish sufferings. But in reality, it was mostly elderly European immigrants who knew all there was to know about the Holocaust, and they were not in the mood to learn anything.

#6

The play aspect of the trial collapsed under the weight of the hair-raising atrocities. A trial resembles a play in that it begins and ends with the doer, not with the victim. The presiding judge, Servatius, was a bit bolder when it came to the submission of documents.

#7

The trial was never a play, but the show Ben-Gurion had in mind to begin with did take place, or at least the lessons he thought should be taught to Jews and Gentiles, Israelis and Arabs, in short, to the whole world.

#8

The trial was a failure in many respects. The lessons were unnecessary, and in some cases, they even misled people. The Jews have been discredited because of Hitler, but this is not because they have become more popular all of a sudden.

#9

The contrast between Israeli heroism and the submissive meekness with which Jews went to their death was a fine point, but the truth is that no non-Jewish group or people had behaved differently.

#10

The Eichmann trial was an important tool for uncovering other Nazis and criminals, but not in the Arab countries. They had openly offered refuge to hundreds of them. The trial revealed only that all rumors about Eichmann’s connection with the former Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el Husseini, were unfounded.

#11

The relationship between Israel and Germany has been good, and Israel has paid seven hundred