Evening star., 1963-05-19

Source1ulneSS ana not mucn
sensitivity to the feelings of
the court, made the long trial
so stereotyped and colorless
that most reporters drifted
away after a couple of weeks.
But Hannah Arendt, cover
ing the trial for the New
Yorker magazine, saw in the
proceedings something far
more interesting than a show
contrived by Eichmann's cap
tors, the survivors of the
German pogrom, and her
narrative, analysis and final
judgment make fascinating
reading for those who, sated
with horror, feel disinclined
once again to review the al
most unexampled atrocity Of
Hitler's program of genocide
which caused the death Of
several million Jews. Not the
least astonishing thing about
the book Miss Arendt has
written is its subtitle-there
is nothing banal about the
evil she reveals or in her
revelation of it.
Contrary to the contention
Of the prosecution land, I
believe, to the general feeling
of the public, Eichmann was
not, as shown by Miss
Arendt's Interpretation of
the trial, a monster, a sadist,
a maniac, a maSs-murderer,
an anti-Semite. He denied
that he had ever killed a Jew
or anyone else in his life, and
the evidence against him did
not controvert his statement.
In the early days of Ger
many's anti-Jewish activity,
when his job was to expel
Jews not for determination
but for relocation, he upon
occasion aided Jews against
orders; in the last years of
the war, when to him the will
of Hitler had become Su-
preme law, he risked punish
ment by his immediate Su-
periors, who wanted to stop
the humiliation of Jews to
curry favor with the Allies,
by transporting Jews to gas
chamberS-also against Or
ders.
Eichmann showed himself
at his trial as not a liar, and
he did not avail himself of
the excuse that he had to
continue In his job of trans
porting Jews and GypSies
first to concentration camps,
later to the gas chamber, be-
cause If he did not he would
simply have been liquidated
himself. 1t was his position
that he was a patriotic ma
tional, doing his job well, and
he showed embarrassment at
evidence that he had helped
two Jews, distant relatives of
his mother, to -emigrate-he
was otherwise quite untouched
by nepotism. nor did he par
ticipate in the widespread
bribery In which many of his
associates were involved.
But what of decency, hu-
manity, conscience? Miss
Arendt says that at the
height of the Jewish hquida-
ton there was in Germany
absolutely no articulate
group, however small, that
opposed 1t. The Nazis them
selves, of course, called it
both necessary and right,
the decent" Germans who
had "exiled" themselves at
home, had to appear more
Catholic than the Pope, and
the Jews themselves lent
themselves with complete CO.
operation to their own ex-
tinction. All the work of Sc
lecting Jews. legally dis
possessing them, loading
them into freight cars and
finally asphyxiating them,
was carried out by Jews. who
were themselves finally exc
cuted.
Furthermore, "blood and
destruction was so in use,
and dreadful things were
so familiar" as Shakespeare
said, that poison gas had ex-
hausted its terror for even
some German Aryans, for
Miss Arendt cites speakers at
public meetings saying that
Hitler must be trusted - he
will gas us all before letting
the Russians get us. Geno-
eide and the gas chamber
were opposed by nobody in
Germany. 1t is a severe
judge-as Miss Arendt finally
shows herself to be - who
would maintain that a mans
conscience is stronger than a
combination of law, mores,
duty, and environment.
The pity Of 1t is that prob
ably very little opposition TO
the Jewish massacre (which
was not a war measure-in-
deed, the murder OF Jews was
continued even though 1t was
an obvious obstruction to the
war effort) was necessary to
stop 1t. II was Hitler's aim
to exterminate Jews not only
In Germany but everywhere;
nevertheless, eUen In the
countries occupied by Ger
many he was not successful.
France was willing that her
unconditional Jews be reset
tied" but not her nationals;
in Denmark. Heydrick CEich-
mann's infamous superior,
and ironically a half-Jew
himselD was unable TO take
the customary first step in
solving the Jewish prob
lem," for the King OF Dem
mark declared he would be
the first TO wear a Yellow
Star, and even the German
IS men In Denmark, away
from the source OF the virus
for a year, helped In sabo-