Excellent work from Hannah Arendt. In this book, (which is a shorter version of the real book) we see the trial of Adolf Eichmann who is thought to be the "architect of the holocaust". Arendt believes that analyzing this trial is crucial, since the crime was committed once, and is likely to happen again any time in the future. Arendt, a political scientist, and a philosopher emphasizes the term that she concluded as "banality of evil". In this term, she argues that the banality, ordinarity of the criminal is what makes him/her dangerous. She also points out how a totalitarian regime (in this case, the Nazi regime) affects society and makes "banal" and ordinary people become criminals. Moreover, she criticizes the prosecutors since they judge Eichmann as the mastermind of the plan. She thinks that Eichmann did not do evil plans, his crime was thoughtlessness, that is the inability to think of somebody else's point of view. She also thinks that the prosecutors' being Jewish make the trial unjust since it no longer will be a trial, but an act of revenge. Furthermore, she thinks that this crime was against all humanity. There are much more things to cover in this book. If you have a chance, I recommend you to read it.
