Eichmann, euphemisms and the 'respectable society' in the thought of Hannah Arendt

ABSTRACT: This article aims to offer a new perspective on Hannah Arendt’s study of Eichmann in Jerusalem. First, we will focus on the ‘banality’ of the Holocaust perpetrators, illustrating the generalised collaboration of the ‘respectable society’  in the III Reich’s crimes. Second, we will explain how euphemisms gave the Holocaust a cover of ‘respec-tability’, depersonalising the victims and illustrating the totalitarian tendency to manipulate reality. Third, we will indicate the importance of the myth of ‘the battle for the destiny of the German people’ in ra-dicalisation observed in the Reich’s policies. We will argue that these three factors were essential in eroding the moral consciousness of German society, thus adapting them to the psychological demands of genocide.

KEYWORDS: Arendt, National Socialism, totalitarianism, morality.