Eichmann in Jerusalem

The Verdict

The most argued-over book ever written about the Holocaust, and the source of a phrase the whole world now uses. Reporting on the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann, Hannah Arendt advanced a thesis that has never stopped provoking: that the man who organised the deportations was not a snarling monster but a thoughtless functionary, and that this 'banality of evil' was the more terrifying truth. The book also condemned aspects of Jewish leadership under the Nazis, igniting a furious controversy that still burns. Essential, infuriating, and far more nuanced than the slogan it spawned.

Who Should Read It

Why We Rated It 4.5

Historical Context

Hannah Arendt covered the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem for The New Yorker; the book appeared in 1963. Its central idea — the 'banality of evil' — and its critical remarks on the wartime Jewish Councils made it among the most controversial works on the Holocaust ever published.

Criticisms & Debates

The book drew fierce criticism on two fronts: that Arendt was taken in by Eichmann's self-presentation as a mere bureaucrat — later scholarship, notably Bettina Stangneth's, argued he was a far more committed antisemite — and that her treatment of the Jewish Councils was unjust. Defenders maintain her larger point about bureaucratic complicity stands. The argument is unresolved and ongoing.

Events Covered

Editions & Reading Notes

Read It Alongside

Ordinary Men Christopher Browning · 1992 · ★ 4.8

Academic

Into That Darkness Gitta Sereny · 1974 · ★ 4.7

Academic

KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps Nikolaus Wachsmann · 2015 · ★ 4.6

Academic

Collector's Corner

Where to Buy

ISBN: 978-0143039884

Read This Against

The same events seen from a different vantage point. The fullest understanding often lives in the space between accounts that don't agree.

Ordinary Men Christopher Browning · 1992 · German

Academic

Hitler Ian Kershaw · 2008 · German

The Third Reich at War Richard J. Evans · 2008 · German

Academic

Other Books About the Same Events

The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank · 1947

Memoir

If This Is a Man Primo Levi · 1947

Memoir

Night Elie Wiesel · 1960

Memoir

Man's Search for Meaning Viktor Frankl · 1946

Memoir

The Pianist Władysław Szpilman · 1946

Memoir

Maus Art Spiegelman · 1991

Memoir

More by Hannah Arendt

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 'the banality of evil' mean?

Arendt's idea that Eichmann's monstrous acts came not from fanatical hatred but from thoughtless, careerist obedience — making the evil, in her view, all the more chilling.

Why is the book so controversial?

Both for its portrait of Eichmann, which later scholars challenged, and for its criticism of the wartime Jewish Councils, which many found deeply unfair.