Adolf Eichmann

Assassination has always been part of war and in recent years it has played increasingly important roles in United States military policy. The assassination of Osama bin Laden offers itself as an example of an assassination that nevertheless claims to be just. Comparing the bin Laden assassination with the assassination of Simon Petlura by Sholom Schwartzbard in 1927 and the kidnapping and trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961, this article argues that assassinations, which under certain conditions are justified under international law, can also be just, but only when they are accompanied by the risk of a jury trial.

Contemporary thinkers such as Philip Zimbardo, Alexander Hinton and
Elizabeth Minnich recently coined the terms Banality of Heroism, Banality
of Everyday Thought, and Banality of Goodness respectively (without these
concepts being the linchpins of their theses). These terms can be retraced
to one thinker in particular who is constantly referred to by them: Hannah
Arendt. Arendt’s Banality of Evil, a key concept in her work, was devised
to discuss the trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961. This paper seeks to
critically analyze these “banalities,” and ascertain whether they have
contributed meaningfully to the existing literature on the problem of evil.

This article explores Hannah Arendt’s critique and reformulation of human rights in three parts. Part One offers a summary of Arendt’s critique of human rights as she develops it in the central chapter of The Origins of Totalitarianism, “The Decline of the Nation State and the End of the Rights of Man.” Part Two explores the intellectual foundations of Arendt’s reconstruction of human rights as the “the right to have rights” in her concept of natality, the core condition of human being. Finally, Part Three, engages Arendt’s effort in Eichmann in Jerusalem to think clearly about how international law might meaningfully understand the crime of “crimes against humanity.”

From its beginnings, Greece was founded and based on the principle and constitutional dictate of full emancipation and freedom of Religion for all its citizens.  Greece was attacked by Italy in 1940 and beat her in the field.  The German Reich invaded and occupied all of Greece on April 1941.  The country was divided in 3 occupation zones:  German, Italian (up to September 1943) and Bulgarian.  The Quisling governments supported the Jewish Greek citizens, albeit with no success.  The Church supported fully the Jews.  Also many were saved by joining the Resistance in the mountains.  The overwhelming majority of the non-Jewish population was sympathetic to the plight.  The Holocaust proceeded differently in various localities and not simultaneously.  In smaller cities-communities full integration of the Jews into them coupled also with historical tolerance was instrumental in rescue.

From the Euthanasia Programme to the wholesale and systematic murder of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews at KZ Auschwitz in 1944, this presentation aims to take a clinical look at the development and deployment of the mechanisms that made murder on such a colossal sale possible. Beginning with an overview of Auschwitz and its complex roles in the Nazi death economy it moves to the lived experience of Hungary's Jews as they fell under the shadow of Nazi German oppression.

Nelle pagine che seguono faremo riferimento a fatti, eventi ed opere non molto lontane da noi e appartenenti, di diritto, alla storia contemporanea, al cruento e movimentato “secolo breve”. Al centro del mio studio, infatti, sono il tenente colonnello nazista Adolf Eichmann, il processo che l’ha visto coinvolto nel 1961 e le riflessioni di Hannah Arendt, instancabile coscienza critica delle vicende e delle idee politiche del Novecento.
Il mio percorso di ricerca si connota come interdisciplinare e, in un certo senso, border-line situandosi tra storia contemporanea e filosofia pratica, intrecciando spunti e modalità analitiche dell’una e dell’altra. Ho quindi effettuato il tentativo di far dialogare su questi temi la storia e la filosofia, spesso accomunate solamente dall’insegnante negli studi liceali, portando avanti parallelamente l’analisi della controversa figura di Eichmann e le riflessioni di Hannah Arendt, con particolare attenzione a La banalità del male. I protagonisti di questo lavoro sono stati, entrambi, oggetto di importanti evoluzioni, quando non di veri e propri rovesciamenti, relativamente alla loro conoscenza e interpretazione.
Noi tutti ci troviamo, quotidianamente, ad essere spettatori di atrocità, costretti ad assumere la nostra dose di male quotidiano.
La scelta di questo oggetto di studio nasce quindi dalla necessità, sempre attuale, di riverificare alcuni punti fermi; di rafforzare, scandagliare e proteggere verità che potrebbero perdersi.

Wim Sassen never lost contact with his former SS Kriegberichter comrades. After the war they maintained contacted and most of them resumed their career as correspondents or editors of daily's and magazines. Out of this group many were recruted by the German Intelligence Service, the BND.

[Attention:  The attachments contain correct download links to the accompanying presentation in both pptx and ppsx (presentation & show)] in English and Greek [Ελληνικά]
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Jewish Thessaloniki is unique because the most cataclysmic and momentous event in its 2,000 year history is its (near total) obliteration. Unfathomable events of human annihilation took place within a space of a few months in 1943 CE. These events have been only superficially researched as to the interplay of circumstances and powers that allowed them to take place, to the degree and speed they occurred. Documentary evidence shows the bureaucratic efficiency of the perpetrators. The events of the Holocaust of the Jews of Thessaloniki should be correlated with the history of the Community before AND after the destruction. The question is twofold: if more human beings could have been saved and, irrespective of the outcome, what was the moral standing of the surroundings of the Community? The latter, for objective purposes, can only be surmised and deduced by the behavior, attitude, actions, reactions and / or omissions of the non–Jewish community, as a whole and as individuals, BEFORE and AFTER the Holocaust. Unfortunately the general Holocaust mathematical equation has two parts: The first equality states that it only takes a few evil persons to assassinate [too] many. The second equality states that many righteous humans may save, at most, a finite number of fellow beings. Darfur waits our actions. . .

Hannah Arendt stutzt. Sie sitzt im Jerusalemer Gerichtssaal und sieht den Mann, der gerade in den Glaskasten geführt wird – einen unscheinbaren, schmächtigen, behornbrillten Mann mit leicht zerzaustem, spärlichem Haar. Dieser Mann soll für die Ermordung von Millionen Juden mitverantwortlich sein? Hier erscheint kein Monster, sondern ein Spießer, ja ein Niemand – „ein Gespenst, das noch dazu Schnupfen hat und gleichsam von Minute zu Minute in seinem Glaskasten an Sub-stantialität verliert.“ (BJ, 471) Arendt ist irritiert und hat offenbar eine Erfahrung gemacht, denn man sieht es ihr am Gesicht an, dass Ihre Erwartungen enttäuscht wurden. Soweit eine Szene in Margarete von Trottas Film Hannah Arendt.
Ich kann nicht beurteilen, ob es sich so zugetragen hat. Allerdings wäre es zu-mindest verwunderlich, wenn, wie auch Elisabeth Young-Bruehl meint, „[d]er ‚leibhaftige‘ Eichmann“ Arendt etwas Neues „gelehrt“ hätte.  Es ist viel plausibler, anzunehmen, dass sie hier nur das sieht, was sie schon seit 20 Jahren zu wissen meint.  Denn das in Eichmann in Jerusalem etablierte Täterkonzept findet sich schon im Bild der Täter des modernen Verwaltungsmassenmordes, das Arendt seit 1945 gezeichnet hat. Dieses Täterbild ist aufs Engste mit Arendts Moderne-Verständnis verbunden, speziell mit dem schillernden Konzept einer „Herrschaft des Niemand“ bzw. dem, was man ihre Depersonalisierungsdiagnose nennen kann.
Im Folgenden werde ich dieser Diagnose nachgehen und fragen, ob es Arendt gelingt, das Besondere der Täter der Shoah damit zu fassen. Dabei möchte ich vorab Umrisse von Arendts Modernebegriff skizzieren, in dem bereits die Arbeit, das Interesse, das Man und die große Zahl als Momente anonymer Herrschaft auftauchen.
Im zweiten Teil wird dann die Totalitarismustheorie einbezogen, in der die Herrschaft des Niemand in drei miteinander verbundenen Bedeutungen als Ursache der Massenverbrechen des 20. Jahrhunderts begriffen wird. 1. Bürokratische Herrschaft als übergesetzliche „Herrschaft des Niemand“, die 2. im Namen eines „Nie-mandsland[es] übermenschlicher Kräfte“ (E, 743) ausgeübt wird und 3. „das größte […] Böse“ bewirkt, „das von Niemanden begangen wurde, das heißt, von menschlichen Wesen, die sich weigern, Personen zu sein.“ (ÜB, 101). Die Idee der Niemandsherrschaft wird sich damit auch als Grundlage für die berühmte „Banalität des Bösen“ erweisen, die Arendt Eichmann attestiert.

[Attention:  The attachments contain correct download links to the accompanying presentation in both pptx and ppsx (presentation & show)]
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Jewish Salonika is unique: the most cataclysmic and momentous event in its two thousand year history is its near total obliteration. The year 1943 CE witnessed unfathomable events of human annihilation that took place within the time frame of just a few months. These events have been only superficially researched. Such superficiality is exemplified in the research on the interplay of circumstances and powers that allowed them to take place and the degree and speed to which they occurred. At odds with such feeble research is the existence of documentary evidence demonstrating the bureaucratic efficiency of the perpetrators. Given such documentary evidence, the events of the Holocaust of the Jews of Salonika should be correlated with the history of the Community before and after the destruction. Proceeding in this manner should be done in keeping with the framework of concurrent Hellenic history in particular and European–world history in general. The inquiry partially catalyzing such a correlation is twofold: first, could more human beings have been saved and second, irrespective of the outcome, what was the moral standing of the Society at large? The latter, for objective purposes, can only be deduced by the behavior, attitude, actions, reactions and/or omissions of the non-Jewish community as a whole and as individuals before and after the Holocaust. Deducing as such must occur with cognizance. Mainly, there is difficulty in judging the behavior of bystanders when it is impossible to ascertain how the critic would have behaved under similar circumstances. Mindful of possible ambiguity, the general Holocaust calculus nevertheless has two parts: the first operation states that it takes only a few evil persons to assassinate many. The second operation states that many righteous humans may save, at most, a finite number of fellow beings.

Informed by such evidence and caveats, my objective is to present a glimpse of Jewish Thessaloniki with special emphasis to the Holocaust. This vast topic may be broadly divided into the following subtopics: 1) The history of Jewish Thessaloniki up to the Holocaust, 2) The Holocaust of the Jews of Thessaloniki and 3) The post war aftermath encompassing the current status and future of Jewish Thessaloniki in general and the preservation of the remnants of Sephardic heritage and traditions.

The goal to which I aspire is to provide a sequence of historical events and by so doing, to attempt to stimulate interest in further research. A cursory non-web or web based search lays bare both the surprising little we know, as well as the fact that scholarly or non-scholarly published work, in most instances, employs the repetition of a bare minimum of facts and data. Informed by such a reality, one might be tempted to believe that a particular subject especially that of the annihilation is taboo. Gaps in the historiography of Greece do a disservice both to the remaining Jewish Greeks in particular and the whole Hellenic nation in general. It is encouraging that research has recently accelerated, albeit at a slow pace. These endeavors are nevertheless a welcome step in the right direction. The main reason that research should accelerate at full speed is the inescapable reality of the biological attrition of the ranks of eyewitnesses and Holocaust survivors.3

“Reconciling Oneself With Reality, Whatever it May Be,” explores themes of responsibility and reconciliation in Hannah Arendt’s Denktagebuch. Arendt’s long first entry establishes reconciliation as a theme that returns over the next twenty years and also is reflected (and altered) in Arendt’s later works. If one reads only Arendt’s published writings reconciliation seems to be a meaningful, but not central, in Arendt’s effort to rethink the practice of politics in the modern age. All this changes, though, when one opens Arendt’s Denktagebuch, within which reconciliation is a constant, fluid trope to which she returns again and again in the face of an enormous variety of intellectual problems. In order to emphasize the extraordinary flexibility and incisive influence of the idea of reconciliation for Arendt’s thought, this essay eschews a unitary account of anything like “Arendt’s theory of reconciliation.” Instead, the essay identifies nine interrelated but distinct (and sometimes in tension) understandings of reconciliation to be found in the Denktagebuch. In doing so, the essay also presents a way of thinking about the content of the Denktagebuch that emphasizes Arendt’s own resistance to systematicity in favor of conceptual flexibility and responsiveness to the world around her.

This article analyses Hannah Arendt’s notion of reconciliation, its
relationship with forgiveness and the limits of both. Whilst in her
early Denktagebuch she develops her understanding of reconciliation by
distinguishing it from forgiveness, in other works, such as The Human
Condition, the distance between them seems to vanish. Moreover, both
reconciliation and forgiveness are not absolute, because Auschwitz
represents something that “ought not to have happened”. These limits
are shown in Arendt’s reading of Eichmann trial.

This book reexamines one of the most intense controversies of the Holocaust: the role of Rezső Kasztner (Rudolf Kastner) in facilitating the murder of many of Nazi-occupied Hungary’s Jews in 1944. Because he was acting head of the Jewish rescue operation in Hungary, some have hailed him as a savior. Others have charged that he collaborated with the Nazis in the deportations to Auschwitz. What is indisputable is that Adolf Eichmann agreed to spare a special group of 1,684 Jews, who included some of Kasztner’s relatives and friends, while nearly 500,000 Hungarian Jews were put to death.

After World War II, many Holocaust survivors condemned Kasztner for complicity in the deportation of Hungarian Jews. It was alleged that, as a condition of saving a small number of Jewish leaders and select others, he deceived ordinary Jews into boarding the trains to Auschwitz. The ultimate question is whether Kasztner was a Nazi collaborator or a hero. Opinion remains divided.

Paul Bogdanor makes an original, compelling case that Kasztner helped the Nazis keep order in Hungary’s ghettos before the Jews were sent to Auschwitz, and sent Nazi disinformation to his Jewish contacts in the free world. Drawing on unpublished documents, and making extensive use of the transcripts of the Kasztner and Eichmann trials in Israel, Kasztner’s Crime is a chilling account of one man’s descent into evil during the genocide of his own people.

O ponto de partida deste livro é o caso Eichmann, tal como analisado por Hannah Arendt em Eichmann em Jerusalém (1963), obra que resulta de sua participação no julgamento do ex-tenente-coronel da SS responsável pela logística de transporte dos judeus para os campos de concentração e extermínio durante o regime nazista na Alemanha. Conforme mostra o autor, o descompasso entre a monstruosidade dos crimes que Eichmann ajudou a perpetrar e a sua figura perante o tribunal – que não pareceu monstruosa ou maléfica a Arendt, mas completamente normal e até medíocre –, levou-a a cunhar a expressão banalidade do mal. Com tal noção, Arendt designa um novo tipo de mal, o qual não é causado por motivos torpes, instintos corrompidos ou por uma vontade maligna, e sim pela obediência ao dever de ofício ligada a uma recusa do agente em pensar naquilo que faz. Com o objetivo de compreender quais são as condições que propiciam essa incapacidade ou ausência de pensar (thoughtlessness), o autor examina, dentro do arcabouço teórico de Arendt, como não só os regimes totalitários, mas também a própria Era Moderna, produzem a experiência da solidão (loneliness) no interior da sociedade de massa. Tal experiência prejudica a instauração de um
mundo comum no qual possa se afirmar a pluralidade humana, condição para o exercício da capacidade de agir, sentir e também de pensar.

According to a thesis with supporters in a wide range of disciplines – philosophy, psychology, theology, literary studies, and others – narrative is crucial to human self-understanding and self-representation. Many readers of Hannah Arendt view her as an important champion of this thesis. For Arendt, they claim, political life can only truly be represented in narrative form. When Arendt witnesses the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem, however, she confronts an individual fatally oblivious to the demands of a genuine political action who is nonetheless capable of producing stories. In fact, Eichmann is an avid storyteller, at work on his autobiography. Arendt is therefore forced to conclude that storytelling does not necessarily entail any realization of what it means to be a political, i.e. an acting human agent. ‘Eichmann in Jerusalem’ contains an implicit theory of the ‘banality of narrative’, the ability of established and hackneyed storytelling templates to block the narrating subject's recognition of the unpredictable interactions of multiple, diverse human beings. When Arendt famously analyses Eichmann's obtuse reliance on clichés, she is not speaking only of isolated phrases, but of entire plots that impose a spurious order on human lives.

"The History of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust: An Exposé

The goal to which I aspire this evening is to provide a sequence of historical events and, by doing so, to attempt to stimulate your interest in further research. You will be surprised, doing a cursory non-web or web based research, of how little we know, and, that most scholarly or non-scholarly published work, in most instances, just repeats a bare minimum of facts and data. Thus one might be tempted to believe that the subject, especially that of the annihilation, is taboo. Gaps in the historiography of Greece do a disservice both to the remaining Jewish Greeks in particular and the whole Hellenic Nation in general. It is encouraging that research has picked up lately, albeit at a slow speed. Nevertheless, it is a welcome step in the right direction. The main reason that research should accelerate at full speed is the inescapable reality of the biological attrition of the ranks of eyewitnesses and holocaust survivors.

For completeness, the Abstract of the presentation follows:

Abstract
Jewish Thessaloniki is unique because the most cataclysmic and momentous event in its 2,000 year history is its (near total) obliteration. Unfathomable events of human annihilation took place within a space of a few months in 1943 CE. These events have been only superficially researched as to the interplay of circumstances and powers that allowed them to take place, to the degree and speed they occurred. Documentary evidence shows the bureaucratic efficiency of the perpetrators. The events of the Holocaust of the Jews of Thessaloniki should be correlated with the history of the Community before AND after the destruction. The question is twofold: if more human beings could have been saved and, irrespective of the outcome, what was the moral standing of the surroundings of the Community? The latter, for objective purposes, can only be surmised and deduced by the behavior, attitude, actions, reactions and / or omissions of the non–Jewish community, as a whole and as individuals, BEFORE and AFTER the Holocaust. Unfortunately the general Holocaust mathematical equation has two parts: The first equality states that it only takes a few evil persons to assassinate [too] many. The second equality states that many righteous humans may save, at most, a finite number of fellow beings. Darfur waits our actions. . ."

Il presente volume nasce da una rielaborazione (sia nel contenuto che nella bibliografia) della Dissertazione dottorale in Filosofia e Teoria delle Scienze Umane, "Tra totalitarismo e democrazia: la funzione pubblica dell’etica" (discussa presso l’Università Roma Tre nel 2007), della quale alcuni estratti sono stati editi (senza gli approfondimenti qui proposti) in varie riviste culturali.
In questa sede, quelli che erano i paragrafi della Dissertazione, sono stati resi saggi autonomi, suddivisi in grandi ambiti argomentativi che rendono sinteticamente la complessità dell’esistente: Filosofia Morale, Filosofia Politica, Etica. Questo, sia per agevolare il lettore (che si troverà così di fronte una sorta di mappa filosofica della modernità, con indicazioni bibliografiche integrate nelle note), sia per rendere l’idea di una complessa modernità a mosaico, il ché non inibisce affatto una sua, anzi auspicabile, ricostruzione in un’immagine unitaria, a patto che essa non derivi da una visione uniformante, assolutizzante, totalizzante, ma dai giochi, cristallizzabili solo con un atto di forza, di interazione, scambio, de- e ri-costruzione permanente dei tasselli che la compongono.

In his recently published posthumous works "Prefiguration" and "The Rigorism of Truth" Hans Blumenberg surprisingly steps into the area of political history that he had left widely unconsidered in "Work on Myth". While Prefiguration tackles the “demonic” aspects of Napoleon and Hitler that Blumenberg tries to dismantle and bring into derision, in "Rigorism of Truth" he attacks Hannah Arendt's phrase of the Banality of Evil in relation to the Jerusalem trial against Adolf Eichmann in 1961. In this latter issue Blumenberg defends the demonic he sees culminated in the form of Eichmann to assert what he calls the “mythical dimension“ in the Israeli process of nation-building. To him, Eichmann represents a prototypical demon incarnate that must be slaughtered by the heroic character seen in young state Israel. This obviously turns Blumenberg's criticism of Napoleon and Hitler into an affirmation of political myths that, on the face of it, appears to be a contradiction in terms. The essay focuses on this theoretical tension and tries to point out that significance (“Bedeutsamkeit”) is not only a necessity for individual self-assertion (“Selbstbehauptung”) but also a category of communality that must be handled with care.

Das Deutsche Historische Museum , das 1987 im ehemaligen West-Berlin gegründet wurde, versteht sich „als ein Ort lebendiger Vermittlung und Diskussion von Geschichte“..  Vom 27. März 2020 bis 18. Oktober 2020 fand dort die Ausstellung „Hannah Arendt und das 20. Jahrhundert“  statt.

Με αφορμή την πρόσφατη απόφαση (07/10/20) της ελληνικής δικαιοσύνης για την απόδοση ποινών στα στελέχη της οργάνωσης της Χρυσής Αυγής, θεωρούνται επίκαιρα τα ζητήματα που θέτει η παράσταση του 2016 του Ido Shaked: Ο Άιχμαν στην Ιερουσαλήμ ή Οι κανονικοί άνδρες δεν ξέρουν ότι όλα είναι δυνατά.

Amos virtuales, esclavos reales. El hombre SS, una raza de amos-esclavos INTRODUCCIÓN Iniciaremos este artículo con dos afirmaciones generales que iremos desgranando a lo largo de nuestra exposición. Todo lo que sucedió en Auschwitz 1 se halló conforme: 1) a reglas que favorecían y apoyaban las condiciones del entorno y 2) al ser humano entendido como objeto de experimentación. Indudablemente una sociedad se rige por reglas que conllevan un orden y hacen posible una convivencia entre los habitantes que la componen. Auschwitz aplica esta lógica, pero adaptada a sus intereses. Ausch-witz se rige por unas reglas que, en efecto, comportan un orden. Sin embargo, el fin de dichas reglas no fue nunca la convivencia, sino el dominio de la población concen-tracionaria. Tanto las víctimas como los verdugos fueron objeto de experimentación en los campos nazis. Las víctimas a través de vejaciones, torturas y muertes cruentas. Ellas fueron empleadas como conejillos de indias para mostrar cómo el sufrimiento y el terror servían para controlar y someter sumisamente a masas despojadas de toda identidad y dignidad humanas. Por otra parte, los verdugos a través de la banaliza-ción de violencia que infligían gratuitamente a las víctimas debían mostrar su resis-tencia ante tales condiciones. Es decir, debían demostrar la fortaleza de su "raza"; una raza por cuyas venas corría una sangre que despreciaba y aborrecía la compa-sión; una sangre que rebosaba de orgullo narcisista y, que llevaba al verdugo a la ne-cesidad insaciable por el sufrimiento y a la persecución y el derribo del otro como prueba de su superioridad. Ni que decir tiene que ello propició una nueva identidad tanto a víctimas como a verdugos. Auschwitz posibilitó conocer al hombre como si se tratase de un simple ob-jeto que se pudiera reducir a una apariencia humana, 2 programando su ser a fin de hacer uso de él a favor del poder. Abrirse a Auschwitz significó el inicio de una identi-dad a adquirir; lograr su afianzamiento se consiguió a través del deseo; del deseo for-mulado, del deseo articulado en los victimarios. Nosotros nos ceñiremos aquí a la cuestión de la identidad de los verdugos 3 y de su construcción como tales. Verdugos a quienes el nacionalsocialismo les despertó el sueño del señorío que, no sólo les sus-pendía, sino que les arrancaba de la realidad para adentrarles en una ficción virtual, más tarde, manifiesta. Nuestra intención es mostrar, aunque sucintamente, que la verdadera concepción 1. Tomo la palabra "Auschwitz" como sinónimo de "Holocausto", "Barbarie", "Shoah", no sólo como de-signación del campo de exterminio concreto al que hace referencia dicho nombre. 2. En las víctimas la humanidad desaparecía incluso de la apariencia. 3. No trato la cuestión de las víctimas que se convirtieron voluntariamente en verdugos. ESPIRITU LVI (2007) 307-315

My unpublished essay on legal issues of the case of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem was supervised in 2007 by Prof. Dr. iur. Gerhard Werle at the Faculty of Law of the Humboldt University in Berlin/Germany. For writing this Staatsexamenshausarbeit / Essay, I analyzed material and procedural legal issues of the trial. Being a former anti-terrorism investigator with the criminal police of a German city-sub-state, especially the interrogation of Eichmann prior to the trial by Avner W. Less was very interesting from a criminological point of view. Having analyzed the juridical problems of the Eichmann-trial and the protocols of his interrogation in 2007, helps me today working on my criminological doctoral thesis that analyzes the state crimes of the North Korean State Security Department by interviewing its former officers, victims and experts.

Dois dias após o presidente Jair Bolsonaro ter pronunciado numa simples churrascaria a mais escatológica de suas manifestações em dois anos de mandato, um general da reserva recém-nomeado como assessor especializado do Ministério da Saúde fez uma declaração imprópria, que entreabre a falta de compaixão pelo próximo. Falando na Câmara dos Deputados sobre a crise sanitária de Manaus, ele a rmou que havia quase 600 pacientes de Covid-19 na la de atendimento e disse que, se a situação se agravar, eles morreriam "na rua". A pasta, vale lembrar, é che ada por um general da ativa especializado em logística. O gargalo da crise sanitária de Manaus está no oxigênio-explicou o general, com frieza e incapacidade de comiseração. "Abre o leito, bota o paciente e ele vai morrer as xiado no leito. E aí, vai adiantar abrir o leito?" Também confessou que o governo Bolsonaro, apesar de saber da tragédia que se desenhava no Estado do Amazonas desde o nal de dezembro, preferiu esperar "alguns dias" por causa da transição dos prefeitos. "Ficaria muito ruim irmos para Manaus e encontrar uma administração municipal que dois dias depois estaria toda sendo substituída. Haveria prejuízo [sic] muito signi cativo a qualquer atividade que fosse feita", concluiu. Essas duas manifestações, a do presidente e a do general-assessor de um general-ministro soi disant especialista em logística, suscitam uma indagação sobre a formação técnica e intelectual dos quadros militares do país. Que existem o ciais de alta patente sérios, preparados e competentes, não há dúvida. Mas o que explica o fato de as exceções serem tão aberrantes? O que justi ca serem tão agrantemente ineptos aqueles que foram levados a integrar o governo para sinalizar que o país está em guerra contra a pandemia? O que explica a catalisação, na cúpula do poder, do que há de mais medíocre nas corporações militares? E qual é o ethos desse pessoal? O comportamento do presidente só pode ser devidamente analisado por psiquiatras. Já a análise da fala do general-assessor e a atuação do general-ministro especialista em logística, todos à primeira vista indiferentes ao sofrimento alheio, pode ser feita por quem conhece loso a, sociologia, ciência política e que, apesar de não ser especialista em assuntos militares, já leu alguns livros clássicos na área, como por exemplo, "O soldado pro ssional", do sociólogo Morris Janowitz (1919-1988), e "O soldado e o Estado", do cientista político Samuel Huntington (1927-2008).

Assassination has always been part of war and in recent years it has played increasingly important roles in United States military policy. The assassination of Osama bin Laden offers itself as an example of an assassination that nevertheless claims to be just. Comparing the bin Laden assassination with the assassination of Simon Petlura by Sholom Schwartzbard in 1927 and the kidnapping and trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961, this article argues that assassinations, which under certain conditions are justified under international law, can also be just, but only when they are accompanied by the risk of a jury trial.

«E la tagliarono in dodici pessi - E il più lungo era lungo così». Pessi, con doppia esse: così bisognava cantare la tragedia di Ferrero Michele «che sua moglie, e da viva, masò». Era l’autunno del 1942, a Milano. I sette ragazzi e ragazze venuti ad abitare in un appartamento in via San Martino erano tutti ebrei (notare la dicitura «di razza ebraica» che sporge nel documento d’identità), e tutti venivano da Torino. Le canzoni che cantavano di sera le avevano imparate da amici valdesi; e il dottore in chimica pura Levi Primo, di anni ventitré, tecnico nelle industrie farmaceutiche Wander, aveva l’incarico di mimare il dettaglio più truce di quella storia.
Guardiamocelo un po’ per bene, nella caricatura disegnata da Eugenio Gentili Tedeschi. Magrissimo, la chioma frisée, il grugno e l’occhiolino da duro, le dita tese a forbice, un primolevi così non ce lo aspettavamo proprio. Ed è il Primo Levi che invece ci presenterà – per trecento e passa pagine, per quattrocento e rotti immagini a colori, per un numero non ben calcolato di testi suoi rari o inediti – l’Album Primo Levi che martedì 7 esce nella collana «Saggi» di Einaudi, a cura di Roberta Mori e di chi scrive. Ideato e realizzato dal Centro internazionale di studi Primo Levi di Torino (www.primolevi.it), l’Album è un prototipo editoriale, un volume di grande formato che non ha paragoni. Un libro che non somiglia a nessuna delle tante biografie per immagini disponibili sul mercato. Che non segue in maniera lineare la cronologia della vita di Levi, anche se sempre consentirà al lettore di orientarsi. Che non entra nelle vicende di Levi dal cancello di Auschwitz, benché al Lager dedichi la più folta delle sue sei sezioni. Che ha riservato un intero capitolo pittografico, realizzato da Yosuke Taki, al racconto «Carbonio». E che fin da questa anteprima ci presenta, con assonanze non solo fra le lettere iniziali, un Levi scalatore e scultore e scacchista.
L’Album, insomma, è un’opera informata e vivace che racconta la vita di Primo Levi dividendola in sei pessi: in sei sezioni tematiche, più un’appendice che ci presenta i suoi luoghi a Torino e nel Piemonte-Valle d’Aosta, più una essenziale cronologia illustrata. Il Levi sempre giovane e con chioma appena un po’ meno elettrica, seduto alla sua scrivania di direttore tecnico della fabbrica di vernici Siva di Settimo Torinese, poco prima della sua assunzione aveva scritto una lettera al direttore del mensile «La Chimica e l’Industria». Datata novembre 1947, inedita in volume, stesa poche settimane dopo la pubblicazione di Se questo è un uomo, essa descrive sotto il profilo tecnico la fabbrica di gomma sintetica impiantata in quel sottocampo di Auschwitz III-Monowitz dove Levi trascorse undici mesi. Questa lettera ci consente di osservare la Buna con occhi nuovi, come per una prima volta: e lo stesso avviene, nell’Album, con ciascuno dei reperti che scandiscono il suo itinerario molteplice, a cominciare dalle radici di Levi, dai suoi antenati ebrei piemontesi, dei quali si narra nel primo racconto del libro Il sistema periodico: spicca fra loro Nona Màlia, «che sopravvive in figura di agghindata minuscola ammaliatrice in alcune pose di studio eseguite verso il 1870, e come una vecchietta grinzosa, stizzosa, sciatta e favolosamente sorda nei miei ricordi d’infanzia più lontani». Qui la vediamo nella sua prima incarnazione.
Chi era Primo Levi? Che cosa è stato, prima e dopo e a prescindere da ciò che i nazisti gli hanno fatto? L’immagine della scacchiera appartenente alla famiglia Levi, con una partita già configurata, e lì accanto il classico manuale di Miliani sul giuoco degli scacchi, ci offre una chiave possibile. Leggiamo un brano verso la fine di La tregua, il libro del ritorno da Auschwitz. Siamo a Monaco, su suolo germanico, e il treno degli ex-deportati si ferma in quella stazione: «Ci sembrava di avere qualcosa da dire, enormi cose da dire, ad ogni singolo tedesco, e che ogni tedesco avesse da dirne a noi: sentivamo l’urgenza di tirare le somme, di domandare, spiegare e commentare, come i giocatori di scacchi al termine della partita».
Di generazione in generazione, racconta Levi, «ogni mio antenato ha insegnato le regole al figlio, lo ha vinto per qualche anno, poi ne ha tacitamente ammesso la superiorità». Sarà capitato lo stesso non troppi anni dopo che, nel 1959, venne scattata a Gressoney la foto inedita che ci mostra Levi con il suo secondogenito Renzo sopra le spalle. Il gioco, il laboratorio intellettuale del gioco, il «pensare con le mani», sono state le attività quotidiane e imprescindibili di uno scrittore che, di là dai temi gravi che tanto spesso affrontava, amò giocare con le parole – con i loro suoni, con le loro etimologie – e che curava il reciproco tenersi in esercizio fra gli organi di senso e il pensiero. Alla Siva, per trent’anni, Levi andò inventando e sperimentando vernici, soprattutto rivestimenti per cavi metallici. Anche gli scarti di produzione venivano buoni, per farci sculture di filo di rame intrecciato. Un altro sapere di famiglia si poteva tramandare: nel 1974, in Liguria, Levi sta insegnando a sua nipote Ada come s’intreccia il filo, e chissà se quell’«istrice spettinato» lo avranno fatto poi insieme.
È così, è in questi modi sorprendenti, che l’Album Primo Levi vuole mostrare ai lettori le molte vite di uno scrittore dai molti talenti: un Levi inaspettato, un Levi che amava la montagna e per il quale lo scalare le Grigne o il Disgrazia era trasgressione, cioè scuola di pericolo e di resistenza. Lo possiamo guardare così nell’ultima immagine. Val di Cogne, aprile 1940: Levi a vent’anni, sul tetto del rifugio «Vittorio Stella», a cavalcioni del camino. È un Levi attento, allenato, con lo sguardo panoramico e che si sta divertendo. È un Levi più vivo che mai.

Domenico Scarpa

¿Cuál es nuestra comprensión de los responsables de secuestros, tor-turas y asesinatos que sirvieron al sistema de desaparición de la última dicta-dura militar? ¿Cómo los concebimos, con qué categorías los pensamos y, por añadidura, de qué manera, sobre esa base de comprensión, entablamos rela-ciones con ellos? Esta pregunta que atañe a investigadores y juristas, a educa-dores y funcionarios públicos, a periodistas y víctimas, en fin, a la sociedad argentina en su conjunto, será abordada desde el ángulo que ofrece la litera-tura especializada en el análisis del pasado reciente y del tratamiento de su legado criminal. En particular, nos enfocaremos en el uso destacado, dentro de esa literatura, de un trabajo, un libro, al cual se suele recurrir en virtud de que parecería hallarse allí una suerte de arquetipo del moderno perpetrador de crímenes de masas. Eichmann en Jerusalén. Reporte sobre la banalidad del mal, escrito por Hannah Arendt en 1963, de este libro se trata, funciona como emblema o ilustración para caracterizar a ese tipo de criminales. Nuestro propósito consiste entonces en revisar los usos del Eichmann de Arendt en la literatura sobre la última dictadura y su legado en vistas de contribuir a la comprensión de nuestros propios perpetradores. No se trata-rá en estas páginas, por cierto, de oponer la correcta interpretación de un texto a los usos que de él se hacen. Pero sí importa señalar que, en la medida en que existió una fuerte controversia en torno de la crónica que Arendt hiciera del juicio de Jerusalén desde el mismo momento en que el libro fue publicado en 1963-y en verdad, antes de eso, desde que la crónica viera la luz en los artículos del New Yorker, medio para el cual Arendt realizaba la POSTData 22, Nº2, Oct./