Eichmann Before Jerusalem Quotes

“Whether he said five or six million (or perhaps both, depending on the point in time and who he was speaking to), he came close to the correct figure decades before historians managed to gather enough material to prove it. This striking accuracy shows how well informed Eichmann was about the scale of the genocide and how deceitful were his later attempts, in both Argentina and Israel, to feign ignorance.”
― Bettina Stangneth, Eichmann before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer

“Systematic mass murder is not just the sum of isolated instances of sadism but the result of a political thinking that is perverted from the ground up.”
― Bettina Stangneth, Eichmann before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer

“Eichmann reveled in the play of arguments, the power of words, and his own power to manipulate. A desire for effect is ever present in his writing, a desire to lead the reader on and force him to accept Eichmann’s own thought constructs.”
― Bettina Stangneth, Eichmann before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer

“Eichmann didn’t write in order to develop or refine an intellectual construct, his thoughts taking shape as he went; he was laying out a fully formed, rigid train of thought, and—as his handwriting and the tone of his voice reveal—giving free rein to his aggression toward “the enemy.” In his writing, he was permanently covering his back.”
― Bettina Stangneth, Eichmann before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer

“When Eichmann wanted something from people, he was always very good at telling them what they wanted to hear, and talking them into submission, until it was too late. We would do well not to underestimate Eichmann’s will to power: even in his writing, he used all the tools of manipulation at his disposal to serve it.”
― Bettina Stangneth, Eichmann before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer

“The reason Eichmann was so receptive to the totalitarian system was that he was already in thrall to totalitarian thought. An ideology that scorns human life can be very appealing if you happen to be a member of the master race that proclaims it, and if it legitimates behavior that would be condemned by any traditional concept of justice and morality. Eichmann wanted to do what he did, but above all, he wanted respect for having done the right thing. And he wanted to proselytize. That is what makes his writings so sickening.”
― Bettina Stangneth, Eichmann before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer

“Power is a phenomenon created by group dynamics, never solely by the “powerful man.”
― Bettina Stangneth, Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer

“Again and again—even with experienced interpreters—Eichmann and his texts led people to false conclusions. A person who takes luggage with them “to the East,” and who is asked to take note of where they put their clothes before the “delousing,” naturally expects there must be a reason. Anyone who receives a postcard from a relative in the Black Forest naturally assumes that their relative is in the Black Forest and has not already been gassed in Auschwitz. In the same way, we always search texts and testimonies for their relation to our own knowledge and experience. In other words: we reason. We want to understand. The National Socialist “ideological elite” grasped our susceptibility to this desire to understand.”
― Bettina Stangneth, Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer

“Everything … in the book that speaks against me leaves a bad taste in the mouth—I take it to be lies.”
― Bettina Stangneth, Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer

“Eichmann’s preferred form was clearly the monologue, a speech with no interruptions. In a monologue, he could lay out his hermetic interpretation of the world and abandon himself to the pathos of his own language.”
― Bettina Stangneth, Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer

“The immense quantity of text he produced expresses his need to justify his actions, but even more his desire to become a demagogue, forcing his vision upon people with the power of his persuasive rhetoric. This desire also came from inside the hermetic seal of racial theory: having a strong argument in a closed system means having power, and power over people was something Eichmann missed terribly, now that he was anonymous.”
― Bettina Stangneth, Eichmann before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer