Hannah Arendt (2012) Movie Script
1
But, Hannah,
how can you defend him?
But I'm not defending him.
You can hardly forget that your
husband is my friend because of you.
And I don't throw
my friends away so quickly.
No matter what happens, even if Jim
were killed in an airplane crash,
I would never, ever
go back to Bowden.
That's clear.
And poor Bowden knows absolutely that he
cannot prevent you from loving another man.
He is not stupid.
Then why is he trying
to prevent our divorce?
Because, under such circumstances,
it's only natural...
that people imagine-
or at least hope-
to have some possibility of power.
Hans Jonas is on the phone.
Not now, later. I'll call him back.
Oh, Mary, they are beautiful.
Thank you.
I don't know how you can
believe anything he says these days.
Well, you trusted him enough
to be married with him for 15 years.
I never trusted him.
It's Professor Miller calling from Connecticut.
He said it's urgent.
He has some questions about your syllabus.
Phone appointment-
tomorrow, please.
And unplug that phone.
Look, Mary, either you are willing to take
men as they are, or you must live alone.
- You won't change Jim either.
- I don't want to change Jim. He's perfect.
Perfect?
The men in your novels
are not perfect.
Why do you expect the real ones
to be any better?
That was Heinrich.
Oh, no.
That's the one phone call
I would have taken.
He said not to disturb you
when your darling Mary is here.
- When will he be home?
- He's spending the night up there.
He has to meet a student
early in the morning.
Thanks, Lotte.
No student meets early in the morning.
Mary, don't start. I would be far too
jealous for your charming Heinrich.
It's fine. Well, I suppose we can't
all be wild Berliners like you.
Wild because we don't marry
all our lovers?
Oh, I didn't marry all of them.
But almost.
I couldn't sleep at all last night.
We don't have to talk about it
right away.
Haven't you read the newspaper?
From beginning to end, Frau Professor.
They want his trial to be in Jerusalem!
Why else would the Mossad
have kidnapped him?
You think that's right?
They should have shot him
on the spot in Buenos Aires.
But then of course...
You forgot to say hello.
Hello.
The investigation has revealed...
that Adolf Eichmann's escape
from Germany to South America...
was made possible with a Red Cross passport
that the Vatican helped him obtain.
No! The pope would never help
a Nazi escape.
No, he helped him because he
was such a good Catholic.
But God didn't let him get away.
God didn't.
But the Germans did.
You'll see.
They won't try to extradite him.
The former SS officer...
followed what was secretly known in
espionage circles as the ratline.
Eichmann received his forged
identification and passport in Genoa,
and then he boarded an Italian
ship to Buenos Aires.
"You will perhaps understand
why I want to attend Eichmann's trial.
I left Germany in 1933,
and I missed Nuremberg.
I never saw a Nazi"-
Um-Oh, wait.
"I never saw 'these people'
in the flesh"?
"People in the flesh."
I think that's better.
Better, yes.
Isn't it incredible that the Hannah
Arendt is offering to report for us?
It would be a privilege to have a German-Jewish
migr of such high standing cover the trial.
There's no doubt about that.
Who is she to be offering?
She should be begging to write for
the New Yorker, like everyone else.
Frances, she wrote
The Origins of Totalitarianism.
Catchy title.
One of the most important books
of the 20th century.
Read it.
Uh-oh.
She's not one of those
European philosophers, is she?
She was the first person to write about the Third
Reich in the context of Western civilization.
It was brilliant, but abstract.
I understand why she wants to go.
Philosophers don't make deadlines.
Call now.
Do it.
Do you really have to do this?
You remember how shocked we were
when we heard
the awful news from Europe...
How destroyed you were?
I'd never forgive myself
if I didn't take this opportunity.
You told everyone how smart and
brave I was to escape from Gurs.
And so you were, my love.
Many women stayed for fear
their husbands wouldn't find them
if they left the camp.
I'd have found you anywhere.
Maybe not.
While it was still summer and warm...
we hoped it would soon be over.
But then...
The waiting...
More and more women let themselves
go, stopped combing their hair...
Stopped washing themselves.
Just lay there on their straw sacks.
I tried to encourage them.
Sometimes I was strict,
sometimes friendly.
But then, one evening...
it had rained all day
and the straw sacks were falling apart.
I suddenly lost my courage.
I was so tired.
So tired...
that I wanted to leave
the world
that I so loved.
And in that instant...
I saw you in front of me.
How you'd look for me, and...
not find me.
Now do you understand
why I don't want you to go?
Summis cum gratulationibus.
Hannah... great!
You asked them?
And they just said yes?
Yes. Simple as that.
Everything's simple for a genius.
Don't exaggerate.
I hope you're still teaching next term.
You will hear all about that
when the tribe comes over.
You know,
I almost dread this trip.
I wish I could accompany you.
Oh Hans, that would be so nice.
Need a light, Mrs. Arendt?
Oh. Thank you.
You're very welcome.
Nixon's usually an unrepentant
bulldog, but he's lost his nerve.
He's like a frightened schoolboy
wanting to be liked.
He's even trying to get
Kennedy's approval.
Nixon is a liar. It's a strategy.
He only cares about his career.
- That's why he's going to win.
- No. Nixon calculates.
But Kennedy is young and
handsome and inspiring,
and that is what matters
when the ships are down.
"Chips."
Hannah, "chips," not "ships."
Oh, that must be Hans and Lore.
"chips."
English can only be
a second-rate fiddle for us.
If you want to hear Hannah play her
Stradivarius, you should learn German.
- She asked me to correct her.
- Ah, at last!
Impossible.
Must have been someone else.
Our train was late.
Of course.
We know that excuse.
Coats off.
Everyone's here.
Great that you made it.
Meet the latest member of the tribe.
Professor Miller, Hans and Lore Jonas.
Such a pleasure to finally meet you.
Professor Miller, it's an honor.
Hannah tells me you're her oldest
and dearest friend.
The oldest for sure,
but not the dearest.
Oh, Heinrich is much older than me.
And much better looking.
Did you already know
each other back in Germany?
Thomas, I said "old friend." In Europe that
means we met more than 10 minutes ago.
They met in the '20s as students of
Heidegger, the Hosenmatz philosopher.
Don't say my name
in the same breath as that Nazi.
Not here, Hans!
So, you were all students
of the confounding Martin Heidegger.
Oh, I didn't even finish high school.
But aren't you
a professor at Bard?
Original thinkers don't need degrees, Professor Miller.
To Hannah,
in honor of her trip
to Jerusalem.
Oh, thank you, Hans.
It's not a vacation, Hans.
Lotte, champagne.
So I heard so much about you.
I am honored that a
colleague from my university...
has this great opportunity
to be an eyewitness to history.
We'll miss you.
Oh, thank you.
- Yes, really.
- Thank you.
It is just wonderful, Hannah,
that you,
one of us,
will be present for this great trial.
This is not a grand trial. It's illegal.
The kidnapping by the Israeli
secret service was illegal!
Israel has a sacred right to try a Nazi
for crimes against the Jewish people.
Sacred right?
Hans, you're meshugga.
- But most of the survivors live there.
- Precisely.
And they want to see this criminal
face to face.
Face to face!
Excuse me.
They'll all be dragged into court!
They'll be witnesses.
It'll take years.
This trial...
So much smoke!
Do you understand anything? I thought
you were the German speaker.
Well, I can read it perfectly,
but they're speaking so fast.
The State of Israel
didn't even exist back then.
Unfortunately.
Or they'd have declared war
on Hitler like England and France.
But nevertheless, we were there!
We did our duty and volunteered
for the British Army to fight the Nazis.
We were in the Jewish Brigade in '44.
- Me and many brave men from Israel.
- They know that.
Heinrich doesn't know what it means
to take up arms
to defend his convictions.
He had to emigrate because of them!
So did many others.
Doesn't mean much.
No one doubts your bravery, Hans.
Hannah always says
she admired you as a soldier.
Not just as a soldier.
Lotte!
Eichmann should have been tried
in Nuremberg, but he escaped.
That makes him an outlaw, a pirate.
Tell us what they're saying.
I'm sure you'd prefer to hear it
from Hannah.
So he should be tried
by an international court.
- No such thing.
- Precisely!
If the case proceeds as you predict...
He's just one of those passionate
ex-communists from Berlin.
Jewish?
No.
But he followed
Rosa Luxemburg to the end.
Oh, so of course that's better than a PhD.
You can't put history on trial.
You can only try one man.
Indeed. One man on trial. For murder.
Strange pair.
Yes. For murder.
They're fantastic. The happiest
married couple in the world.
And that has to be proven...
Whatever you're saying,
I agree with all of you.
Everybody, English now. Please.
Sorry, Mary.
Good health.
See you soon.
- Adieu, Charlotte.
- Adieu.
Thank you, dear.
See you soon.
We were too hard on Hans.
Tell him I'm sorry.
- You say that every time.
- I know.
- See you on campus.
- Oh, it was great having you, Thomas. Bye.
Bye...
Take care now in that awful storm.
It's terrible.
It's so much fun
to light a fire
under Hans' sacred little behind.
Especially as he's so happy
to send you to hell!
Oh... you.
Hannah!
Here:
In his inaugural speech,
he thanked the Fhrer.
PARTY MEMBER HEIDEGGER...
Then they sang the Horst-Wessel-Lied.
Hello, "Klaps."
Hello, "Stups."
Are you coming with me?
Hannah!
My Hannah!
Oh!
Jerusalem...
your love.
Yes.
And how's my Heinrich?
Is he good to you?
Yes.
Sometimes too good.
I miss arguing with him.
I can no longer see my way
through the maze of modern life.
He argued with me about this trip.
He's afraid it will send me back
to the "dark times."
This trial is very important for us.
And you're strong, my Hannah.
You always were.
And brave.
Very brave.
Tell me how you are.
- How's your heart?
- Not too good.
It's never gotten used
to the world we live in.
Israel has aged faster than you,
my little Hannah.
I always thought
you'd have many children.
Oh, Jenny. At first we were too poor,
and when we had the money,
we were too old.
Many people here are poor
but they still have children.
Children are important
for such a young country.
It was about time
you visited us.
- She's not visiting.
- You see?
He's throwing me out already!
I'm only sorry that your visit
is thanks to this wild predator.
That's why
he's being displayed in a cage.
A cage?
Made of glass.
To protect him from us.
The high court!
When I stand
before you here, judges of Israel,
to bring charges
against Adolf Eichmann,
I am not standing alone.
With me are six million accusers.
But they cannot rise
or point towards him
in the dock.
They cannot cry, "I accuse him!"
For their ashes have been scattered
over the hills of Auschwitz
and in the fields of Treblinka,
and thrown
into the rivers of Poland.
Their graves are to be found
throughout Europe.
Their blood cries to heaven,
but we cannot hear their voices.
And Hausner parades around
as if he's competing with Eichmann
for the leading role in a play.
His opening speech
was bound to be dramatic.
In the spirit of Ben-Gurion?
He's behind all this, isn't he?
Israel has to be very careful
that this doesn't become a show trial.
That's my Hannah!
Just wait a bit.
And try to understand Ben-Gurion.
Our young people refuse to confront
what you call the "dark times."
Either they're ashamed of their parents
who didn't fight or protect themselves,
or they accuse them
of having behaved dishonorably.
They think only criminals or whores
could have survived the camps.
And you believe
Hausner can make them understand
what their parents have suffered?
Be a little patient with us.
Yes, I read here
that during the transport
15people died.
I can only say that these records
were not the responsibility
of department 4B-4.
They are from the local authorities,
according to their guidelines.
It says here
that the order was given by the Reichsfhrer.
But tell me, why do you have the officer-to
be the officer transferring this order?
Why Eichmann?
Does the Reichsfhrer
have no other way of contacting but Eichmann?
The document makes it clear
that the local police,
or headquarters thereof,
made the request to Section 4B-4.
Thus I received the matter
for its continued processing
and dealt with it
in an intermediate capacity.
As I was ordered to do.
I had to follow orders.
But it was you who decided
how many people were to be put
into each railway car, no?
I had orders.
Whether people were killed or not,
orders had to be executed.
In line with administrative procedure.
I was only responsible
for a small part of this.
The other parts that were necessary
until one of these trains rolled out
were carried out by another department.
Mr. Chairman, I have the feeling
I'm being grilled here
until the steak is done.
Because of charges...
that are impossible to substantiate.
Now you've finally heard the predator.
Are you all right?
Yes, I'm fine.
Good.
Good.
Well...
He's so different than I imagined.
He was with the SS.
They're scary creatures.
But he's not.
That's precisely it.
He sits in his glass box
like a ghost...
A ghost who happens to have a cold.
He's not spooky at all.
He's a nobody.
He speaks in this awful
bureaucratic language.
He suddenly says things like:
"I feel like a rump steak
that's being grilled..."
Incredible!
Waiter!
I assume you don't want a steak now.
Trying to cheer me up?
"One notices the intention
and is displeased."
"One feels the intention
and is displeased."
"What pleases you is permitted..."
Also from Tasso.
"What behooves you is permitted..."
"If you would like to learn
what behooves one,
you have only to ask a noble lady..."
My father was a tailor in Berlin.
He always quoted Faust as he shaved.
Mephistopheles was his favorite.
"Blood is a very special juice."
Eichmann.
Eichmann is no Mephistopheles.
My father was 58.
My mother-she was 43.
My brother, who was 22.
I was 21.
My sister was 19.
My brother was 16.
My other brother was 14.
Sister was eight.
And the little brother was five.
We trying to keep together
and go along on the road,
what have been told by this brave SS.
And who remains
of your family members?
Only myself.
When we were counted later on,
200 or 210 of us remained
of the 1200 who'd been transported.
The next ones were all gassed.
Those who arrived just after us,
they were all gassed.
It was...
Excuse me...
Please try...
Please try...
And this was power-
the unnatural power above nature,
which sustained me.
So that after the period of Auschwitz-
two years in Auschwitz-
when I was a Muslim,
to withstand-
Mr. De-Nur. Please. Please listen to Mr. Hausner.
Be calm, please.
Please remain where you are.
Everyone remain where they are.
Madam, your phone call to
America has gone through.
Oh, thank you.
If you could see how
they try to stay calm while testifying...
Most of the stories have nothing to do
with Eichmann as an individual.
But we both knew from the start
that the trial would be more about history
than the deeds of one man.
But it's still dreadful.
Oh, my little girl from far away.
Three minutes are over.
Three minutes already.
This is costing a fortune!
I've got to go.
Yes. See you soon.
Oh, they wanted a
central organization,
which would be the spokesman
of Hungarian Jewry.
Well, it doesn't matter
at what meeting this was,
but did they say how many members
such a committee should have,
which would be responsible
to the Germans?
They told us...
that about four or five persons should
constitute that representative body.
They didn't call it Judenrat.
And, uh, this also calmed us down,
because we knew already...
what was the purpose
of the Judenrat.
To what extent...
did you report about the situation to
the communities and the provinces,
those who were deported?
There was no such possibility,
because by the time I obtained
this information,
and by the time we realized
what Auschwitz was,
uh, the eastern part of Hungary...
and the northeastern part-
this comprised these 300, 000 people-
they had received news from us.
They had known the fate,
but what could we have done?
What could we have done?
Remove him
from the courtroom. Quickly!
You are a cowardly dog. A dog!
Remain seated if you want to stay here.
An officer swears an oath of allegiance.
If he breaks this oath,
then he is a rogue.
I still hold this view.
I have taken an oath here
to tell the truth.
That was how I viewed things then, too:
An oath is an oath.
Do you believe that anyone
who swore allegiance would,
after Hitler's death,
be released
from his oath of allegiance?
After Hitler's death?
Of course. Everyone would
automatically be released.
When interrogated by the police you said
that if the Fhrer had told you
your father was a traitor,
you would have shot him yourself.
- If he had been a traitor, yes...
- No, if the Fhrer had told you so.
Would you have shot your own father?
Assuming he had proven this.
Had he proven it,
I'd have been obliged by my oath.
Was it proven to you
that the Jews had to be exterminated?
I didn't exterminate them.
Did you never feel any conflict
between your duty and your conscience?
One could call it
a state of being split.
Split?
Yes...
A conscious split state
where one could flee
from one side to the other.
- One's conscience was to be abandoned?
- Sorry?
One's personal conscience
was to be abandoned?
You could say that.
If there had been more civil courage,
things could have been different.
Am I right? Answer...
If civil courage...
had been hierarchically organized,
then yes, absolutely.
So this was not destiny.
It was not inevitable.
It was a question of human behavior.
A question of human behavior.
And of course it was...
It was wartime, upheaval...
Everyone thought,
"It's useless to resist..."
Yes.
A drop on a hot stone that evaporates
without purpose or success or...
or failure or anything.
It was connected
to the times, I think.
To the times,
how children were raised,
with ideological education,
rigid discipline, that sort of thing.
Eichmann not an anti-Semite?
That's nonsense!
You heard him.
He was obeying the law.
He'd have obeyed any law.
Oh, please! Anyone in the Party,
let alone the SS,
was a committed and vicious anti-Semite.
He swears
he never personally harmed a Jew.
So he claims!
Isn't it interesting
that a man who did everything
a murderous system asked of him,
who even seems eager
to give precise details
of his fine work,
that this man insists
he personally
has nothing against Jews?
He's lying!
False. He is not.
You're falling for this?
He claims he didn't know
where the trains were going.
- You believe that too?
- Knowing that was irrelevant for him.
He transported people to their deaths,
but didn't feel responsible for it.
Once the trains were in motion
his work was done.
So he can say he's free of guilt
despite what happened
to the people he transported?
Yes. That's how he sees it.
He's a bureaucrat.
Your quest for truth is admirable,
but this time you've gone too far!
But Kurt,
you can't deny the huge difference
between
the unspeakable horror of the deeds
and the mediocrity of the man.
Don't worry, Rahel.
Hannah and I always argued like this.
I'm just afraid
she'll make a lot of people angry.
That's her nature.
But after finishing our bloody duels...
We always found a way to make up.
Hey. Kurt, no!
Think of your heart.
I know. I'm not getting any younger.
That's why I wish you wouldn't
leave me so quickly.
I'm never very far from you.
Never.
What's in there?
Transcripts of the trial.
Six tapes of Eichmann's questioning.
I could have them
shipped to New York.
I have to start reading at once.
Bring Heinrich along next time.
You're home!
Oh!
What about your classes?
Canceled!
I said it's an emergency.
Thank you, Freddy.
Thank you.
How good to be home.
Four pounds.
Can't you see it?
I starved myself for you.
Look at my homework over there.
You're taking a few days off.
Stups, I have 2000 pages to read
before the semester starts.
Don't exaggerate, Frau Professor.
From Mary?
No.
From me.
Stups! That's the wrong pile.
Miller begged me
to take over another class.
Someone's ill or getting a divorce or
something typically American like that.
My head's spinning as it is.
You have to learn to say no.
But only to others, of course.
Hannah.
Yes?
Ah. Here.
Hello, Mr. Shawn.
Uh, she's not in right now.
She should be back soon.
Yes, certainly.
I will give her the message.
Well?
That polite Mr. Shawn
didn't say as much,
but I guess he's curious to know
when you'll deliver the articles.
There's not even a verdict yet.
Yes...
How dare that Mr. Shawn call you at all?
I don't think he can imagine
that so celebrated a writer as you
is so busy fighting her papers
and hasn't written a word.
But Monsieur here would have finished
the articles long ago.
Without a doubt.
Thank you.
Frau Professor.
You can also use my office.
You are too kind, sir!
You just have to move my pipe-stand.
Your doctor will like that.
People in glass houses...
How can you leave me like that?
No hug, no kiss?
Never disturb a great philosopher
when they're thinking.
But they can't think without kisses.
You can put it here.
Thank you, Freddy.
You're welcome.
From Israel.
At least 500 new pages from the court.
I'll sort them for you later.
I'm so lucky to have you, Lotte.
I'd never be such good friends
with my own daughter.
My father always says
God gave us family,
but thank God we can choose our friends.
Well...
Interesting theory.
- You think I'd have chosen Charlotte?
- Oh, I forgot. She called earlier.
She wanted Heinrich's
new number at Bard.
Did you give it to her?
Unfortunately, I couldn't find it.
Careful, Lotte. She's a psychoanalyst
and can probably read your mind...
Should I take these away again?
Please.
Thanks.
They slept as if dead.
Someone came in and called out:
Quick now, the SS are coming back.
I had two friends beside me.
Once a week the infamous
Dr. Mengele selection was held.
The rumor
that Dr. Mengele had arrived was enough
to spread fear and terror
throughout the camp.
...confess his guilt...
If there had been more
of what I term civil courage,
then some things
would have turned out differently.
PHILOSOPHY FACULTY
PROF. DR. M. HEIDEGGER
Miss Arendt.
You say you want me
to teach you how to think.
Thinking
is a lonely business.
Every time I even write a sex
scene, I have you horribly on my conscience,
as if you're tugging at
my elbow saying, "Stop."
I have no problem with sex. I'm afraid you'll
think I'm an exhibitionist or something.
Well, you are.
But you've written your first book
without a hint of memoir.
It's pure fiction, is it?
Is that a left-handed compliment
or just straight criticism? No!
I think you've written
beautifully balanced sentences,
and I think at times
it's hilariously funny.
You have never been this positive. Did
you hate all my other books? Mary!
Well!
You can't take a compliment.
No.
Hannah!
You are my heroine!
I thank you. The
German Department thanks you.
We all thank you.
Oh, God. Ask him for a raise.
You see,
Western tradition
mistakenly assumes
that the greatest evils of mankind
arise from selfishness.
But in our century,
evil has proven to be more radical
than was previously thought.
And we now know
that the truest evil,
the radical evil,
has nothing to do
with selfishness or any such
understandable, sinful motives.
Instead, it is based
on the following phenomenon:
making human beings
superfluous as human beings.
The entire concentration camp system
was designed
to convince the prisoners
they were unnecessary
before they were murdered.
In the concentration camps
men were taught
that punishment
was not connected to a crime,
that exploitation wouldn't profit anyone,
and that work produced no results.
The camp is a place
where every activity and human impulse
is senseless.
Where, in other words, senselessness
is daily produced anew.
So, to summarize:
If it is true
that in the final stage
of totalitarianism,
an absolute evil emerges,
absolute as it no longer relates
to human motives,
then it is equally true
that without it,
without totalitarianism,
we would never have known
the truly radical nature of evil.
What time is it?
Ah.
The second hour has begun.
You know what that means.
Thank you.
- Thank you.
- May I ask you a personal question?
You can try.
Were you in a camp?
I had the opportunity
to spend some time in
a French detention camp called Gurs.
But weren't the French on your side?
In the beginning.
They took us in.
But when the Germans
invaded France on May 10, 1940,
our French friends
put us into detention camps.
We became
a new kind of human being,
put into concentration camps
by our enemies
and into detention camps
by our friends.
How did you escape?
My husband and I were
lucky to receive a visa to America.
A visa. Not a passport.
We were stateless for 18 years.
And what was your first impression
of America?
Paradise.
Do you understand?
Hannah!
Just a moment, please.
How did you find-
Who found-
Charlotte.
My class.
They are waiting.
I'll take over.
No, but, Mary, it's-
It's advanced German class.
They will be delighted to speak
English again. Go. Go. Go.
Dearest.
Don't cry.
I spoke to the doctor.
He said you only have
a fifty percent chance.
Don't forget the other fifty percent.
What were you speaking
to your students about?
About us.
I understand.
Thank you for the message.
Yes.
Hannah?
Yes.
They're hanging Eichmann.
And so they should.
They should?
But that's not justice.
The punishment's not enough?
The punishment can only give
an appearance of justice.
There are no real punishments
for his deeds.
That's why it'd be braver
to let him live.
Now the verdict's in,
you can stop avoiding
your New Yorker friends.
Not until you've recovered.
You haven't written a line
since my slight collapse.
Wrong. I've made some notes.
A brain aneurysm
isn't a "slight collapse" either.
You could have died.
But Eichmann is a monster.
And when I say monster,
I don't mean Satan.
You don't need to be smart or powerful
to behave like a monster.
You're being too simplistic.
What's new
about the Eichmann phenomenon
is that there are so many just like him.
He's a terrifyingly normal human being.
Not all normal people
were head of department 4B-4
at the Reich Security Office
charged with the extermination
of Europe's Jews.
You're right there.
But he considered himself
an obedient servant of Germany
who had to obey the Fhrer's orders.
"My loyalty is my honor."
The Fhrer's orders became the law.
He didn't feel guilty
in the sense of the indictment.
He behaved according to the law.
It's been proven
that Eichmann pursued the Final Solution
even after Himmler
had long since forbidden it.
And why?
He wanted to finish his work.
Don't you see that every law,
every commandment
was turned upside down.
It was not "Thou shalt not kill,"
but "Thou must kill."
To do your duty, goodness
was a temptation you had to resist.
Great.
So no one is responsible or guilty.
Every sane person
knows murder is wrong.
Then most Europeans,
including many of our friends,
went insane overnight.
Heidegger was your friend.
- Hans!
- He wasn't our only disappointment.
You can't write like this
for the New Yorker.
- You cannot!
- Hans, the glass door!
It's all too abstract.
And confusing.
They don't want
a philosophy lesson.
They have to know
what the Nazi Eichmann did.
Oh, Hemingway was just
an ambulance driver, Thomas.
As a writer, he was nothing more than the
premature ejaculator of the 20th century.
Oh, you just hate him
because he wrote like a real man.
Do you want to forgive him?
That's absurd.
I'm glad he'll be hanged.
So, here's to Heinrich's recovery.
Well, come on.
Yeah. To Heinrich.
Come over, please. To his health.
We drink to his health.
A very good idea. Here, Hans. To Heinrich.
Cheers.
Stups, here's to you.
No more kissing.
Except for me.
Why was Hans
so furious with me?
He's in love with you. Has been ever
since he was a student.
Nonsense.
He hates Heidegger more for stealing
your heart than for joining the Party.
Then he should hate you even more.
Maybe he does.
Celebrating my health
is exhausting.
I'm off to bed.
Thinking
does not bring knowledge,
as do the sciences.
Thinking
does not produce usable,
practical wisdom.
Thinking...
does not solve
the riddles of the universe.
Thinking does not
endow us with the power to act.
We live
because we are alive.
And we think...
because we are thinking beings.
We are so used to considering
reason and passion as opposites,
that the idea of passionate thinking,
where thinking and being alive
are one and the same,
is terrifying for me.
Excuse me.
No. Hannah!
Tolstoy wrote War and Peace
in less time.
- Hello?
- Mrs. Arendt.
Bill Shawn here.
Is this a good time to talk?
I mean, are you busy?
Yes. Why?
Can I be of any help?
How?
Perhaps if you've finished
the first article, I could have a look.
Mr. Shawn, I don't deliver in pieces.
O-Of course. I do realize what
an enormous task this is...
and wanted to let you know how much
we're looking forward to the results.
Well, then perhaps I should get back to
it instead of chatting on the phone.
Or did you want to pressure me
with a deadline?
No, of course not.
Take as long as you need.
Thank you.
Bye.
What's the matter with you? Have you
fallen in love with her, or what?
Oh, God, no.
You claim you
weren't a normal recipient of orders.
You thought about
what you were doing.
Didn't you say that?
I don't believe so, no.
You didn't think about it?
Sorry? You
didn't think about it?
You were an imbecile?
You didn't think at all?
Think?
Yes.
Of course I thought about
what I was doing.
You were not an imbecile?
Are you sure you can go?
You've got everyone so worried,
they'll have a wheelchair waiting.
I'm sure some
lovely women will be very eager
to push you around.
No one can
push me around like you.
Lotte...
Take good care of her.
Thanks.
Listen to this.
I've changed the paragraph.
"Evil is supposed to be
something demonic.
Its incarnation is Satan.
But in the case of Eichmann,
one could find
no such trace of satanic 'greatness.'
He was simply unable to think."
That's great.
It's better, right?
Yes...
Voil, monsieur.
"From a humdrum life without
significance and consequence,
the wind had blown
Adolf Eichmann into history."
Fascinating choice.
It begins so poetically.
A bit over the top.
"A leaf in the whirlwind of time,
he was blown into the marching
columns of the 1,000-year Reich."
Twice in a row
with a wind metaphor?
But listen to this.
"It was sheer thoughtlessness.
Something by no means
identical with stupidity...
that predisposed him to become...
one of the greatest
criminals of the 20th century.
He was simply unable to think."
That's original.
This here is also quite original.
They'll have our heads for this:
"Wherever Jews lived,
there were recognized
Jewish leaders,
and this leadership,
almost without exception,
cooperated in one way or another,
for one reason or another,
with the Nazis.
The whole truth is...
that if the Jewish people had really been
unorganized and leaderless,
there would have been chaos
and plenty of misery,
but the total number of victims
would hardly have been...
between four and a half
and six million people."
Jewish leaders testified at the trial.
It had to be mentioned.
She's blaming the victims.
That's not true, Fran.
She clearly makes a distinction between
the powerlessness of the victims...
and the dubious choices
of some of their leaders.
"Clearly"?
Don't exaggerate.
The whole section is only
10 pages out of almost 300.
Them's fighting words, Bill.
You better make sure
she's got her facts straight,
or we'll be needing bodyguards-
for her and for us.
She doesn't strike me as someone
who's off on the facts.
But as for the grammar-
What you have written
is simply brilliant.
I suggest that it be broken up
into five articles.
Five?
If I give it that much space,
it will entail very few changes.
I spoke with your editor, and he told me the
book will come out directly afterwards.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
Shall we?
Sure.
This is Greek, right?
"Einai." It means "to be,"
in the sense of existence.
But, of course, you realize that most
of our readers don't understand Greek.
They should learn.
There is really only one section...
that, um,
worries us a bit.
Oh, today you say "us," and not "me"?
Invoking your army,
Mr. Shawn?
Yes.
Maybe I am.
It's this description
of the Jewish leaders.
Their relationship with Eichmann's
office was very important.
I think I made that quite clear.
Yes, of course,
but you do offer a kind of
interpretation of your own...
that might be-that might disturb just a bit.
That is incorrect.
I purposely
did not attempt to analyze...
or to explain their behavior.
"To a Jew,
this role of the Jewish leaders in the
destruction of their own people...
is undoubtedly the darkest chapter
of the whole dark story."
Now that could count
as a kind of interpretation.
But it's a fact.
Finally.
I can't wait to read it.
How do you like it?
"How"?
"How" is an assumption.
You should ask me if I like it.
You have no right to bring
these issues out in public.
You don't know what you're talking about.
I will cancel-
"Only 10 pages."
That makes
a hundred phone calls per page.
So far.
...is crap!
Just ignore them...
You'll drive yourself crazy.
But Shawn's response in
the New Yorker is very convincing.
- Should I send it to you?
- What response?
To that vicious article
in The New York Times.
Oh, you mean that!
Forget it.
Tell me how Heinrich is doing.
Charlotte cooks for him every evening.
Please tell her that Heinrich
can only eat meat twice a week.
Yes.
Hello...
My darling.
You're all the rage around here.
Hello, Stups.
Let's not waste time on that.
The Israeli prosecutor is flying here
to speak to survivors in New York.
Listen to the Daily News headline:
"Prosecutor Answers...
Hannah Arendt's
Bizarre Defense of Eichmann."
On the frontpage! All
just a tempest in a tea cup.
This is no tempest.
It's a hurricane, Hannah.
Tell me what's for dinner.
Spinach,
whole wheat bread and water.
It's good youre not here in New York.
They are all accusing you
of having defended Eichmann,
Hannah.
Stups, it's just a few articles
in a magazine.
My dear,
you are really naive.
She thinks her sarcasm
will protect her.
It only shows me her vulnerability.
She tries to detach herself
from the story
but ends up bringing it closer to her.
Wrong, completely wrong.
It's not about her.
But where is she...
when she writes about
this Nazi and his crimes?
She has the right to feel pain,
and to show it.
That would be shameless.
And quite out of character.
You have to be aware
that if she represses so much pain,
it will eventually overwhelm her.
And you too.
Professor Heidegger
is here for you.
Thanks.
Time is mysterious:
it can return
and transform everything.
As I saw you again and you stood
there in your beautiful dress
I knew that this would be the
beginning of something new for us.
Please stop a moment.
I wasn't sure if I should come.
There is no greater invitation to love
than to love first:
"Nulla est enim maior
ad amorem invitatio
quam prevenire amando."
St. Augustine.
Your last letter grieved me.
How could you believe
all that slander?
After I read your first rector's speech
I was sick to my stomach.
I couldn't believe it.
The man who'd taught me to think
was behaving like a fool.
I know they were bitter years for you,
full of misery, hardship and helplessness.
But they weren't easy for me either.
Martin, I came here
because I want to understand.
Hannah...
I'm like the lad who dreams
and knows not what he does.
I have no talent nor
experience with politics,
but now I have learned
and in the future
I want to learn even more.
Then why not bring this to an end
and explain yourself in public?
You're the toast of the town.
Mary. Hello.
Oh, my goodness,
it's good to see you. Here.
Oh. Beautiful.
They're from Jim.
He sends his love.
He can't wait to meet you.
Well, when will I finally meet him?
Well, we'll sort something out.
How was the trip? Oh, my goodness.
It was great, but I'm starving.
You should come to the talk.
Oh-You can't do that.
- You have to follow the rules.
- Oh, why? Nobody else does.
But what do you want me to discuss?
There has not been one single
critique of what I actually wrote.
Did you really have no idea there
would be such a furious reaction?
Oh, Hannah. Not even a little?
You did take a certain tone,
not the usual one.
Untrue.
The tone is quite normal for me.
Well, for you, yes, but no one's ever dared to
be the least bit ironic about the situation.
You are trying to distract me.
Never.
- Oh. - See?
I'm telling you, it is useless.
I'm sure half of them
haven't even read the book.
Exactly. And that is why
you should speak publicly about it.
No. Yes. Expose their hypocrisy.
Force them to a real discussion.
I refuse to explain myself
to these dimwits.
In the silent dialogue with myself...
I am alone.
You have a very good memory.
Ja.
Terrible accent.
If I win, do you promise to answer
me a terribly personal question?
You won't win-
Mm-hmm.
If I can promise you anything.
So-
Was he the greatest
love of your life?
Who?
You know.
Your secret king of thinking.
No. He was not.
That is Heinrich.
All right then.
Uh, fill in the blank.
"Heidegger was the greatest-
in my entire life."
Oh, come on.
I won't tell anybody.
There are some things...
that are stronger than
a single human being.
And did you read the book? You read it? I
can't believe it. I bet she doesn't even show up.
The worst mistake
was to criticize the Jews...
while the mass murderer
was sitting there in the dock.
Yeah, and to describe
this murderer as a clown.
A foolish little servant of Hitler
who didn't have a mind of his own.
And yet she says he's normal.
That's Hannah Arendt.
All cleverness and no feeling.
I love that line
in your article, Norman.
I trust you've all read
Norman's incisive rebuttal.
What's it called?
"The Perversity of Brilliance."
"The Perversity of Brilliance." You were
more fair than she had any right to expect.
Now, of course, she's shocked.
Oh, nonsense. She lives for
such intellectual sensations.
And she's far too smart not to realize
the scandal she would provoke...
by attacking the Jewish leaders.
- Exactly.
- Last time we met, you were begging her to teach at your department.
Well, won't make that mistake again.
You're all treating Hannah Arendt
like a suspect in a police court...
instead of a respected
political thinker.
Please, Bill, no one has attacked
Hannah Eichmann's character.
Your review of Hannah's work
proves that you're too hysterical...
to write a single coherent sentence.
And that charming little slip of the tongue proves
that Lionel has lost his power of speech as well.
You're so smitten
with Arendt's European pretensions.
She could defend Himmler himself,
and you'd go along.
Oh, down, Norman. Down.
Your fangs are showing.
Almost no one here
has even read the articles.
Some of us tried,
but couldn't bear to go on.
Well, of course you couldn't.
Hannah doesn't write soap operas.
And, of course, it would
be too much to expect Ms. Arendt...
to report on Eichmann's actual trial.
She had to come up with
something more interesting than that.
Who does she think she is?
Aristotle?
Unlike all of you, Hannah was
actually forced into exile.
She was held in a brutal
detention camp.
Isn't it admirable
that she is the only one...
who can discuss this subject
without beating her breast?
And why do you think that is? Because
she's smarter than people with feelings?
Well, in your case, Norman,
being smarter is easy.
She's more courageous than you are.
Ladies and gentlemen,
there will be plenty of time for discussion
after our speakers have presented.
Settle down so we can begin.
Ms. Arendt?
Siegfried!
You remember me? Of course.
You were in Kurt Blumenfeld's
Zionist group in Berlin.
It's hard to believe
that you were once a Zionist.
The Israeli secret service didn't send
you to discuss my youthful folly.
I'm here to request that you stop the
publication of your book about Adolf Eichmann.
The State of Israel bought
four plane tickets to tell me that?
You must have money to burn
to waste it like that.
It's incomprehensible that you, a Jew,
could tell such lies about your people.
You describe a book I never wrote.
A book that will never
be allowed in Israel.
And won't appear anywhere else either
if you have any decency left.
You ban books,
and lecture me about decency!
I'm warning you.
Wrong. You're threatening me.
We wanted to ask Kurt Blumenfeld
to reason with you,
but his doctor said he's dying.
And we didn't
want to be that cruel.
I thought you knew.
Rivka, why
didn't you let me know sooner?
Kurt didn't want that.
Kurt.
What are you doing to me, my dear!
This time you've gone too far.
Let's not argue today.
The cruelty...
and ruthlessness you show.
You won't think that
when you've read it.
I tried to.
Since when did you listen to others
about me?
You have no love for Israel?
No love for your own people?
I can't laugh with you anymore.
But Kurt, you know me.
I've never loved any people.
Why should I love the Jews?
I only love my friends.
That's the only love
I'm capable of.
Kurt...
I love you.
These think your articles are terrific.
These think you're absolutely wrong
and should never have written a word.
Anyone I know?
Yes. A few friends.
And these want you dead.
Some of them are quite colorful.
I'll get it.
Oh, Lotte...
Come in.
Am I too late?
No.
Good.
Oh, Hannah, I didn't know...
Lore, how nice to see you.
I came to help Lotte.
No, no, first come
and sit with me.
Here.
You were here yesterday?
I didn't want to
leave Lotte here alone.
Thanks.
It goes without saying.
- How's Hans?
- He...
Why didn't he come?
He doesn't feel well.
Oh, God!
What does it say?
Oh, nothing.
Come here, Lotte.
Read it to us.
"Your picture
is of a face hard as rock...
and cold as ice
in the North Pole.
Contempt hovers on the lips, and an
iron brutality is seen in the eyes.
I felt that that page
on which your picture is on...
contaminated
the whole of the review.
I put on a glove. I felt it revolting
to put my bare hand on that page.
Ripped it out from the review,
and not wanting to give it the...
dignity of burning it,
I threw it in the garbage can.
I do not carry hatred
in my heart,
nor do I take delight in vengeance,
but this I know:
that the souls of our six million
martyrs, whom you desecrated,
will swarm about you
day and night.
They will give you no rest.
It cannot be otherwise."
It's sweet of you...
to stay with me this evening.
You had such a bad day.
When I was a child
my father was very sick.
He died when I was seven.
After a long fight.
I only knew him as a sick man.
And in the dream where he appears
he is healthy.
He's handsome.
I love you.
What are you doing with the letters?
Answering them.
No, you will not.
If you start, this will never end.
I've hurt these people badly.
I have to take that seriously.
We've been here 20 years and I'm
not packing my bags ever again.
They won't kick you out
because of a few articles!
Are you so sure about that?
The nice, old man on the 10th floor said to give
you this right away.
Thank you, Freddy.
DAMN YOU TO HELL,
YOU NAZI WHORE
We've discussed it at length
and arrived at a unanimous decision.
We respectfully advise you
to relinquish your teaching obligations.
Under no circumstances
will I give up my classes.
You may not have enough students
who are willing to study with you.
Perhaps you have not been in
communication with your own students,
but I'm entirely
oversubscribed at the moment.
And because of the extraordinary
support of the students,
I've decided to accept their invitation,
and I will speak publicly...
about the hysterical reactions
to my report.
That's Hannah Arendt,
all arrogance and no feeling.
Perhaps just for today
you will allow me to smoke immediately.
When the New Yorker sent me...
to report on the trial
of Adolf Eichmann,
I assumed...
that a courtroom
had only one interest-
to fulfill the demands of justice.
This was not a simple task,
because the court that tried Eichmann
was confronted with a crime...
it could not find in the law books...
and a criminal whose like was unknown in
any court prior to the Nuremberg trials.
But still, the court...
had to define Eichmann as a
man on trial for his deeds.
There was no system on trial,
no history, no ism,
not even anti-Semitism,
but only a person.
The trouble with a Nazi criminal
like Eichmann...
was that he insisted
on renouncing all personal qualities...
as if there was nobody left to
be either punished or forgiven.
He protested time and again,
contrary to
the prosecution's assertions,
that he had never done anything
out of his own initiative,
that he had no intentions whatsoever,
good or bad,
that he had only obeyed orders.
This... typical Nazi plea...
makes it clear that the greatest
evil in the world...
is the evil committed by nobodies-
evil committed by men without motive,
without convictions, without
wicked hearts or demonic wills.
By human beings
who refuse to be persons.
And it is this phenomenon...
that I have called the banality of evil.
Ms. Arendt.
You're avoiding the most important part
of the controversy.
You claimed that less Jews
would have died...
if their leaders hadn't cooperated.
This issue came up in the trial.
I reported on it,
and I had to clarify
the role of those Jewish leaders...
who participated directly
in Eichmann's activities.
You blame the Jewish people
for their own destruction.
I never blamed the Jewish people!
Resistance was impossible.
But perhaps...
there is something in between resistance...
and cooperation.
And only in that sense
do I say...
that maybe some of the Jewish leaders
might have behaved differently.
It is profoundly important...
to ask these questions,
because the role of the Jewish leaders...
gives the most striking insight...
into the totality of the moral collapse...
that the Nazis caused
in respectable European society.
And not only in Germany,
but in almost all countries.
Not only among the persecutors.
But also among the victims.
Yes?
The persecution was aimed at the Jews.
Why do you describe Eichmann's
offenses as crimes against humanity?
Because Jews are human,
the very status
the Nazis tried to deny them.
A crime against them is by
definition a crime against humanity.
I am, of course,
as you know, a Jew.
And I've been attacked
for being a self-hating Jew...
who defends Nazis
and scorns her own people.
This is not an argument.
That is a character assassination.
I wrote no defense of Eichmann.
But I did try to reconcile...
the shocking mediocrity of the man...
with his staggering deeds.
Trying to understand
is not the same as forgiveness.
I see it as my responsibility
to understand.
It is the responsibility of anyone who
dares to put pen to paper on the subject.
Since Socrates and Plato,
we usually call thinking...
"to be engaged in that silent dialogue
between me and myself."
In refusing to be a person,
Eichmann utterly surrendered...
that single most defining human quality:
that of being able to think.
And consequently, he was no longer
capable of making moral judgments.
This inability to think...
created the possibility
for many ordinary men...
to commit evil deeds
on a gigantic scale,
the like of which
one had never seen before.
It is true.
I have considered these questions
in a philosophical way.
The manifestation
of the wind of thought...
is not knowledge,
but the ability
to tell right from wrong,
beautiful from ugly.
And I hope...
that thinking gives people
the strength...
to prevent catastrophes
in these rare moments...
when the chips are down.
Thank you.
Ms. Arendt.
Could we please-
Hans, if I'd known you were here...
I came...
in the insane hope
you would listen to reason.
But you will never change.
Hannah, between your arrogance
and your ignorance, your hopeless
ignorance about Jewish affairs,
you turn a court trial
into a philosophy lesson.
Hans, not now. I'm exhausted.
You behave like a superior German
intellectual who looks down on us Jews.
And you accuse us
of being accomplices to the Shoah.
You never accepted that the Germans
shamefully betrayed you.
They kicked you out and would
have killed you if they could.
Your friend Eichmann was responsible
for the transports from Gurs.
If you hadn't been lucky enough
to escape on time...
you'd have shared the same fate
as the women who stayed.
Stop!
They were all deported.
All deported to...
Stop it, Hans.
As of today...
I am finished
with Heidegger's favorite student.
Everyone is trying to prove me wrong.
But no one noticed my one real mistake.
Evil cannot be
both banal and radical at once.
Evil is only ever extreme.
It's never radical.
Only good can be profound and radical.
Would you have written about the trial
if you'd known what would happen?
Yes.
I would have written about it.
Maybe I had to find out
who my real friends were.
Kurt was your friend.
He still would be.
Kurt was my family.
But, Hannah,
how can you defend him?
But I'm not defending him.
You can hardly forget that your
husband is my friend because of you.
And I don't throw
my friends away so quickly.
No matter what happens, even if Jim
were killed in an airplane crash,
I would never, ever
go back to Bowden.
That's clear.
And poor Bowden knows absolutely that he
cannot prevent you from loving another man.
He is not stupid.
Then why is he trying
to prevent our divorce?
Because, under such circumstances,
it's only natural...
that people imagine-
or at least hope-
to have some possibility of power.
Hans Jonas is on the phone.
Not now, later. I'll call him back.
Oh, Mary, they are beautiful.
Thank you.
I don't know how you can
believe anything he says these days.
Well, you trusted him enough
to be married with him for 15 years.
I never trusted him.
It's Professor Miller calling from Connecticut.
He said it's urgent.
He has some questions about your syllabus.
Phone appointment-
tomorrow, please.
And unplug that phone.
Look, Mary, either you are willing to take
men as they are, or you must live alone.
- You won't change Jim either.
- I don't want to change Jim. He's perfect.
Perfect?
The men in your novels
are not perfect.
Why do you expect the real ones
to be any better?
That was Heinrich.
Oh, no.
That's the one phone call
I would have taken.
He said not to disturb you
when your darling Mary is here.
- When will he be home?
- He's spending the night up there.
He has to meet a student
early in the morning.
Thanks, Lotte.
No student meets early in the morning.
Mary, don't start. I would be far too
jealous for your charming Heinrich.
It's fine. Well, I suppose we can't
all be wild Berliners like you.
Wild because we don't marry
all our lovers?
Oh, I didn't marry all of them.
But almost.
I couldn't sleep at all last night.
We don't have to talk about it
right away.
Haven't you read the newspaper?
From beginning to end, Frau Professor.
They want his trial to be in Jerusalem!
Why else would the Mossad
have kidnapped him?
You think that's right?
They should have shot him
on the spot in Buenos Aires.
But then of course...
You forgot to say hello.
Hello.
The investigation has revealed...
that Adolf Eichmann's escape
from Germany to South America...
was made possible with a Red Cross passport
that the Vatican helped him obtain.
No! The pope would never help
a Nazi escape.
No, he helped him because he
was such a good Catholic.
But God didn't let him get away.
God didn't.
But the Germans did.
You'll see.
They won't try to extradite him.
The former SS officer...
followed what was secretly known in
espionage circles as the ratline.
Eichmann received his forged
identification and passport in Genoa,
and then he boarded an Italian
ship to Buenos Aires.
"You will perhaps understand
why I want to attend Eichmann's trial.
I left Germany in 1933,
and I missed Nuremberg.
I never saw a Nazi"-
Um-Oh, wait.
"I never saw 'these people'
in the flesh"?
"People in the flesh."
I think that's better.
Better, yes.
Isn't it incredible that the Hannah
Arendt is offering to report for us?
It would be a privilege to have a German-Jewish
migr of such high standing cover the trial.
There's no doubt about that.
Who is she to be offering?
She should be begging to write for
the New Yorker, like everyone else.
Frances, she wrote
The Origins of Totalitarianism.
Catchy title.
One of the most important books
of the 20th century.
Read it.
Uh-oh.
She's not one of those
European philosophers, is she?
She was the first person to write about the Third
Reich in the context of Western civilization.
It was brilliant, but abstract.
I understand why she wants to go.
Philosophers don't make deadlines.
Call now.
Do it.
Do you really have to do this?
You remember how shocked we were
when we heard
the awful news from Europe...
How destroyed you were?
I'd never forgive myself
if I didn't take this opportunity.
You told everyone how smart and
brave I was to escape from Gurs.
And so you were, my love.
Many women stayed for fear
their husbands wouldn't find them
if they left the camp.
I'd have found you anywhere.
Maybe not.
While it was still summer and warm...
we hoped it would soon be over.
But then...
The waiting...
More and more women let themselves
go, stopped combing their hair...
Stopped washing themselves.
Just lay there on their straw sacks.
I tried to encourage them.
Sometimes I was strict,
sometimes friendly.
But then, one evening...
it had rained all day
and the straw sacks were falling apart.
I suddenly lost my courage.
I was so tired.
So tired...
that I wanted to leave
the world
that I so loved.
And in that instant...
I saw you in front of me.
How you'd look for me, and...
not find me.
Now do you understand
why I don't want you to go?
Summis cum gratulationibus.
Hannah... great!
You asked them?
And they just said yes?
Yes. Simple as that.
Everything's simple for a genius.
Don't exaggerate.
I hope you're still teaching next term.
You will hear all about that
when the tribe comes over.
You know,
I almost dread this trip.
I wish I could accompany you.
Oh Hans, that would be so nice.
Need a light, Mrs. Arendt?
Oh. Thank you.
You're very welcome.
Nixon's usually an unrepentant
bulldog, but he's lost his nerve.
He's like a frightened schoolboy
wanting to be liked.
He's even trying to get
Kennedy's approval.
Nixon is a liar. It's a strategy.
He only cares about his career.
- That's why he's going to win.
- No. Nixon calculates.
But Kennedy is young and
handsome and inspiring,
and that is what matters
when the ships are down.
"Chips."
Hannah, "chips," not "ships."
Oh, that must be Hans and Lore.
"chips."
English can only be
a second-rate fiddle for us.
If you want to hear Hannah play her
Stradivarius, you should learn German.
- She asked me to correct her.
- Ah, at last!
Impossible.
Must have been someone else.
Our train was late.
Of course.
We know that excuse.
Coats off.
Everyone's here.
Great that you made it.
Meet the latest member of the tribe.
Professor Miller, Hans and Lore Jonas.
Such a pleasure to finally meet you.
Professor Miller, it's an honor.
Hannah tells me you're her oldest
and dearest friend.
The oldest for sure,
but not the dearest.
Oh, Heinrich is much older than me.
And much better looking.
Did you already know
each other back in Germany?
Thomas, I said "old friend." In Europe that
means we met more than 10 minutes ago.
They met in the '20s as students of
Heidegger, the Hosenmatz philosopher.
Don't say my name
in the same breath as that Nazi.
Not here, Hans!
So, you were all students
of the confounding Martin Heidegger.
Oh, I didn't even finish high school.
But aren't you
a professor at Bard?
Original thinkers don't need degrees, Professor Miller.
To Hannah,
in honor of her trip
to Jerusalem.
Oh, thank you, Hans.
It's not a vacation, Hans.
Lotte, champagne.
So I heard so much about you.
I am honored that a
colleague from my university...
has this great opportunity
to be an eyewitness to history.
We'll miss you.
Oh, thank you.
- Yes, really.
- Thank you.
It is just wonderful, Hannah,
that you,
one of us,
will be present for this great trial.
This is not a grand trial. It's illegal.
The kidnapping by the Israeli
secret service was illegal!
Israel has a sacred right to try a Nazi
for crimes against the Jewish people.
Sacred right?
Hans, you're meshugga.
- But most of the survivors live there.
- Precisely.
And they want to see this criminal
face to face.
Face to face!
Excuse me.
They'll all be dragged into court!
They'll be witnesses.
It'll take years.
This trial...
So much smoke!
Do you understand anything? I thought
you were the German speaker.
Well, I can read it perfectly,
but they're speaking so fast.
The State of Israel
didn't even exist back then.
Unfortunately.
Or they'd have declared war
on Hitler like England and France.
But nevertheless, we were there!
We did our duty and volunteered
for the British Army to fight the Nazis.
We were in the Jewish Brigade in '44.
- Me and many brave men from Israel.
- They know that.
Heinrich doesn't know what it means
to take up arms
to defend his convictions.
He had to emigrate because of them!
So did many others.
Doesn't mean much.
No one doubts your bravery, Hans.
Hannah always says
she admired you as a soldier.
Not just as a soldier.
Lotte!
Eichmann should have been tried
in Nuremberg, but he escaped.
That makes him an outlaw, a pirate.
Tell us what they're saying.
I'm sure you'd prefer to hear it
from Hannah.
So he should be tried
by an international court.
- No such thing.
- Precisely!
If the case proceeds as you predict...
He's just one of those passionate
ex-communists from Berlin.
Jewish?
No.
But he followed
Rosa Luxemburg to the end.
Oh, so of course that's better than a PhD.
You can't put history on trial.
You can only try one man.
Indeed. One man on trial. For murder.
Strange pair.
Yes. For murder.
They're fantastic. The happiest
married couple in the world.
And that has to be proven...
Whatever you're saying,
I agree with all of you.
Everybody, English now. Please.
Sorry, Mary.
Good health.
See you soon.
- Adieu, Charlotte.
- Adieu.
Thank you, dear.
See you soon.
We were too hard on Hans.
Tell him I'm sorry.
- You say that every time.
- I know.
- See you on campus.
- Oh, it was great having you, Thomas. Bye.
Bye...
Take care now in that awful storm.
It's terrible.
It's so much fun
to light a fire
under Hans' sacred little behind.
Especially as he's so happy
to send you to hell!
Oh... you.
Hannah!
Here:
In his inaugural speech,
he thanked the Fhrer.
PARTY MEMBER HEIDEGGER...
Then they sang the Horst-Wessel-Lied.
Hello, "Klaps."
Hello, "Stups."
Are you coming with me?
Hannah!
My Hannah!
Oh!
Jerusalem...
your love.
Yes.
And how's my Heinrich?
Is he good to you?
Yes.
Sometimes too good.
I miss arguing with him.
I can no longer see my way
through the maze of modern life.
He argued with me about this trip.
He's afraid it will send me back
to the "dark times."
This trial is very important for us.
And you're strong, my Hannah.
You always were.
And brave.
Very brave.
Tell me how you are.
- How's your heart?
- Not too good.
It's never gotten used
to the world we live in.
Israel has aged faster than you,
my little Hannah.
I always thought
you'd have many children.
Oh, Jenny. At first we were too poor,
and when we had the money,
we were too old.
Many people here are poor
but they still have children.
Children are important
for such a young country.
It was about time
you visited us.
- She's not visiting.
- You see?
He's throwing me out already!
I'm only sorry that your visit
is thanks to this wild predator.
That's why
he's being displayed in a cage.
A cage?
Made of glass.
To protect him from us.
The high court!
When I stand
before you here, judges of Israel,
to bring charges
against Adolf Eichmann,
I am not standing alone.
With me are six million accusers.
But they cannot rise
or point towards him
in the dock.
They cannot cry, "I accuse him!"
For their ashes have been scattered
over the hills of Auschwitz
and in the fields of Treblinka,
and thrown
into the rivers of Poland.
Their graves are to be found
throughout Europe.
Their blood cries to heaven,
but we cannot hear their voices.
And Hausner parades around
as if he's competing with Eichmann
for the leading role in a play.
His opening speech
was bound to be dramatic.
In the spirit of Ben-Gurion?
He's behind all this, isn't he?
Israel has to be very careful
that this doesn't become a show trial.
That's my Hannah!
Just wait a bit.
And try to understand Ben-Gurion.
Our young people refuse to confront
what you call the "dark times."
Either they're ashamed of their parents
who didn't fight or protect themselves,
or they accuse them
of having behaved dishonorably.
They think only criminals or whores
could have survived the camps.
And you believe
Hausner can make them understand
what their parents have suffered?
Be a little patient with us.
Yes, I read here
that during the transport
15people died.
I can only say that these records
were not the responsibility
of department 4B-4.
They are from the local authorities,
according to their guidelines.
It says here
that the order was given by the Reichsfhrer.
But tell me, why do you have the officer-to
be the officer transferring this order?
Why Eichmann?
Does the Reichsfhrer
have no other way of contacting but Eichmann?
The document makes it clear
that the local police,
or headquarters thereof,
made the request to Section 4B-4.
Thus I received the matter
for its continued processing
and dealt with it
in an intermediate capacity.
As I was ordered to do.
I had to follow orders.
But it was you who decided
how many people were to be put
into each railway car, no?
I had orders.
Whether people were killed or not,
orders had to be executed.
In line with administrative procedure.
I was only responsible
for a small part of this.
The other parts that were necessary
until one of these trains rolled out
were carried out by another department.
Mr. Chairman, I have the feeling
I'm being grilled here
until the steak is done.
Because of charges...
that are impossible to substantiate.
Now you've finally heard the predator.
Are you all right?
Yes, I'm fine.
Good.
Good.
Well...
He's so different than I imagined.
He was with the SS.
They're scary creatures.
But he's not.
That's precisely it.
He sits in his glass box
like a ghost...
A ghost who happens to have a cold.
He's not spooky at all.
He's a nobody.
He speaks in this awful
bureaucratic language.
He suddenly says things like:
"I feel like a rump steak
that's being grilled..."
Incredible!
Waiter!
I assume you don't want a steak now.
Trying to cheer me up?
"One notices the intention
and is displeased."
"One feels the intention
and is displeased."
"What pleases you is permitted..."
Also from Tasso.
"What behooves you is permitted..."
"If you would like to learn
what behooves one,
you have only to ask a noble lady..."
My father was a tailor in Berlin.
He always quoted Faust as he shaved.
Mephistopheles was his favorite.
"Blood is a very special juice."
Eichmann.
Eichmann is no Mephistopheles.
My father was 58.
My mother-she was 43.
My brother, who was 22.
I was 21.
My sister was 19.
My brother was 16.
My other brother was 14.
Sister was eight.
And the little brother was five.
We trying to keep together
and go along on the road,
what have been told by this brave SS.
And who remains
of your family members?
Only myself.
When we were counted later on,
200 or 210 of us remained
of the 1200 who'd been transported.
The next ones were all gassed.
Those who arrived just after us,
they were all gassed.
It was...
Excuse me...
Please try...
Please try...
And this was power-
the unnatural power above nature,
which sustained me.
So that after the period of Auschwitz-
two years in Auschwitz-
when I was a Muslim,
to withstand-
Mr. De-Nur. Please. Please listen to Mr. Hausner.
Be calm, please.
Please remain where you are.
Everyone remain where they are.
Madam, your phone call to
America has gone through.
Oh, thank you.
If you could see how
they try to stay calm while testifying...
Most of the stories have nothing to do
with Eichmann as an individual.
But we both knew from the start
that the trial would be more about history
than the deeds of one man.
But it's still dreadful.
Oh, my little girl from far away.
Three minutes are over.
Three minutes already.
This is costing a fortune!
I've got to go.
Yes. See you soon.
Oh, they wanted a
central organization,
which would be the spokesman
of Hungarian Jewry.
Well, it doesn't matter
at what meeting this was,
but did they say how many members
such a committee should have,
which would be responsible
to the Germans?
They told us...
that about four or five persons should
constitute that representative body.
They didn't call it Judenrat.
And, uh, this also calmed us down,
because we knew already...
what was the purpose
of the Judenrat.
To what extent...
did you report about the situation to
the communities and the provinces,
those who were deported?
There was no such possibility,
because by the time I obtained
this information,
and by the time we realized
what Auschwitz was,
uh, the eastern part of Hungary...
and the northeastern part-
this comprised these 300, 000 people-
they had received news from us.
They had known the fate,
but what could we have done?
What could we have done?
Remove him
from the courtroom. Quickly!
You are a cowardly dog. A dog!
Remain seated if you want to stay here.
An officer swears an oath of allegiance.
If he breaks this oath,
then he is a rogue.
I still hold this view.
I have taken an oath here
to tell the truth.
That was how I viewed things then, too:
An oath is an oath.
Do you believe that anyone
who swore allegiance would,
after Hitler's death,
be released
from his oath of allegiance?
After Hitler's death?
Of course. Everyone would
automatically be released.
When interrogated by the police you said
that if the Fhrer had told you
your father was a traitor,
you would have shot him yourself.
- If he had been a traitor, yes...
- No, if the Fhrer had told you so.
Would you have shot your own father?
Assuming he had proven this.
Had he proven it,
I'd have been obliged by my oath.
Was it proven to you
that the Jews had to be exterminated?
I didn't exterminate them.
Did you never feel any conflict
between your duty and your conscience?
One could call it
a state of being split.
Split?
Yes...
A conscious split state
where one could flee
from one side to the other.
- One's conscience was to be abandoned?
- Sorry?
One's personal conscience
was to be abandoned?
You could say that.
If there had been more civil courage,
things could have been different.
Am I right? Answer...
If civil courage...
had been hierarchically organized,
then yes, absolutely.
So this was not destiny.
It was not inevitable.
It was a question of human behavior.
A question of human behavior.
And of course it was...
It was wartime, upheaval...
Everyone thought,
"It's useless to resist..."
Yes.
A drop on a hot stone that evaporates
without purpose or success or...
or failure or anything.
It was connected
to the times, I think.
To the times,
how children were raised,
with ideological education,
rigid discipline, that sort of thing.
Eichmann not an anti-Semite?
That's nonsense!
You heard him.
He was obeying the law.
He'd have obeyed any law.
Oh, please! Anyone in the Party,
let alone the SS,
was a committed and vicious anti-Semite.
He swears
he never personally harmed a Jew.
So he claims!
Isn't it interesting
that a man who did everything
a murderous system asked of him,
who even seems eager
to give precise details
of his fine work,
that this man insists
he personally
has nothing against Jews?
He's lying!
False. He is not.
You're falling for this?
He claims he didn't know
where the trains were going.
- You believe that too?
- Knowing that was irrelevant for him.
He transported people to their deaths,
but didn't feel responsible for it.
Once the trains were in motion
his work was done.
So he can say he's free of guilt
despite what happened
to the people he transported?
Yes. That's how he sees it.
He's a bureaucrat.
Your quest for truth is admirable,
but this time you've gone too far!
But Kurt,
you can't deny the huge difference
between
the unspeakable horror of the deeds
and the mediocrity of the man.
Don't worry, Rahel.
Hannah and I always argued like this.
I'm just afraid
she'll make a lot of people angry.
That's her nature.
But after finishing our bloody duels...
We always found a way to make up.
Hey. Kurt, no!
Think of your heart.
I know. I'm not getting any younger.
That's why I wish you wouldn't
leave me so quickly.
I'm never very far from you.
Never.
What's in there?
Transcripts of the trial.
Six tapes of Eichmann's questioning.
I could have them
shipped to New York.
I have to start reading at once.
Bring Heinrich along next time.
You're home!
Oh!
What about your classes?
Canceled!
I said it's an emergency.
Thank you, Freddy.
Thank you.
How good to be home.
Four pounds.
Can't you see it?
I starved myself for you.
Look at my homework over there.
You're taking a few days off.
Stups, I have 2000 pages to read
before the semester starts.
Don't exaggerate, Frau Professor.
From Mary?
No.
From me.
Stups! That's the wrong pile.
Miller begged me
to take over another class.
Someone's ill or getting a divorce or
something typically American like that.
My head's spinning as it is.
You have to learn to say no.
But only to others, of course.
Hannah.
Yes?
Ah. Here.
Hello, Mr. Shawn.
Uh, she's not in right now.
She should be back soon.
Yes, certainly.
I will give her the message.
Well?
That polite Mr. Shawn
didn't say as much,
but I guess he's curious to know
when you'll deliver the articles.
There's not even a verdict yet.
Yes...
How dare that Mr. Shawn call you at all?
I don't think he can imagine
that so celebrated a writer as you
is so busy fighting her papers
and hasn't written a word.
But Monsieur here would have finished
the articles long ago.
Without a doubt.
Thank you.
Frau Professor.
You can also use my office.
You are too kind, sir!
You just have to move my pipe-stand.
Your doctor will like that.
People in glass houses...
How can you leave me like that?
No hug, no kiss?
Never disturb a great philosopher
when they're thinking.
But they can't think without kisses.
You can put it here.
Thank you, Freddy.
You're welcome.
From Israel.
At least 500 new pages from the court.
I'll sort them for you later.
I'm so lucky to have you, Lotte.
I'd never be such good friends
with my own daughter.
My father always says
God gave us family,
but thank God we can choose our friends.
Well...
Interesting theory.
- You think I'd have chosen Charlotte?
- Oh, I forgot. She called earlier.
She wanted Heinrich's
new number at Bard.
Did you give it to her?
Unfortunately, I couldn't find it.
Careful, Lotte. She's a psychoanalyst
and can probably read your mind...
Should I take these away again?
Please.
Thanks.
They slept as if dead.
Someone came in and called out:
Quick now, the SS are coming back.
I had two friends beside me.
Once a week the infamous
Dr. Mengele selection was held.
The rumor
that Dr. Mengele had arrived was enough
to spread fear and terror
throughout the camp.
...confess his guilt...
If there had been more
of what I term civil courage,
then some things
would have turned out differently.
PHILOSOPHY FACULTY
PROF. DR. M. HEIDEGGER
Miss Arendt.
You say you want me
to teach you how to think.
Thinking
is a lonely business.
Every time I even write a sex
scene, I have you horribly on my conscience,
as if you're tugging at
my elbow saying, "Stop."
I have no problem with sex. I'm afraid you'll
think I'm an exhibitionist or something.
Well, you are.
But you've written your first book
without a hint of memoir.
It's pure fiction, is it?
Is that a left-handed compliment
or just straight criticism? No!
I think you've written
beautifully balanced sentences,
and I think at times
it's hilariously funny.
You have never been this positive. Did
you hate all my other books? Mary!
Well!
You can't take a compliment.
No.
Hannah!
You are my heroine!
I thank you. The
German Department thanks you.
We all thank you.
Oh, God. Ask him for a raise.
You see,
Western tradition
mistakenly assumes
that the greatest evils of mankind
arise from selfishness.
But in our century,
evil has proven to be more radical
than was previously thought.
And we now know
that the truest evil,
the radical evil,
has nothing to do
with selfishness or any such
understandable, sinful motives.
Instead, it is based
on the following phenomenon:
making human beings
superfluous as human beings.
The entire concentration camp system
was designed
to convince the prisoners
they were unnecessary
before they were murdered.
In the concentration camps
men were taught
that punishment
was not connected to a crime,
that exploitation wouldn't profit anyone,
and that work produced no results.
The camp is a place
where every activity and human impulse
is senseless.
Where, in other words, senselessness
is daily produced anew.
So, to summarize:
If it is true
that in the final stage
of totalitarianism,
an absolute evil emerges,
absolute as it no longer relates
to human motives,
then it is equally true
that without it,
without totalitarianism,
we would never have known
the truly radical nature of evil.
What time is it?
Ah.
The second hour has begun.
You know what that means.
Thank you.
- Thank you.
- May I ask you a personal question?
You can try.
Were you in a camp?
I had the opportunity
to spend some time in
a French detention camp called Gurs.
But weren't the French on your side?
In the beginning.
They took us in.
But when the Germans
invaded France on May 10, 1940,
our French friends
put us into detention camps.
We became
a new kind of human being,
put into concentration camps
by our enemies
and into detention camps
by our friends.
How did you escape?
My husband and I were
lucky to receive a visa to America.
A visa. Not a passport.
We were stateless for 18 years.
And what was your first impression
of America?
Paradise.
Do you understand?
Hannah!
Just a moment, please.
How did you find-
Who found-
Charlotte.
My class.
They are waiting.
I'll take over.
No, but, Mary, it's-
It's advanced German class.
They will be delighted to speak
English again. Go. Go. Go.
Dearest.
Don't cry.
I spoke to the doctor.
He said you only have
a fifty percent chance.
Don't forget the other fifty percent.
What were you speaking
to your students about?
About us.
I understand.
Thank you for the message.
Yes.
Hannah?
Yes.
They're hanging Eichmann.
And so they should.
They should?
But that's not justice.
The punishment's not enough?
The punishment can only give
an appearance of justice.
There are no real punishments
for his deeds.
That's why it'd be braver
to let him live.
Now the verdict's in,
you can stop avoiding
your New Yorker friends.
Not until you've recovered.
You haven't written a line
since my slight collapse.
Wrong. I've made some notes.
A brain aneurysm
isn't a "slight collapse" either.
You could have died.
But Eichmann is a monster.
And when I say monster,
I don't mean Satan.
You don't need to be smart or powerful
to behave like a monster.
You're being too simplistic.
What's new
about the Eichmann phenomenon
is that there are so many just like him.
He's a terrifyingly normal human being.
Not all normal people
were head of department 4B-4
at the Reich Security Office
charged with the extermination
of Europe's Jews.
You're right there.
But he considered himself
an obedient servant of Germany
who had to obey the Fhrer's orders.
"My loyalty is my honor."
The Fhrer's orders became the law.
He didn't feel guilty
in the sense of the indictment.
He behaved according to the law.
It's been proven
that Eichmann pursued the Final Solution
even after Himmler
had long since forbidden it.
And why?
He wanted to finish his work.
Don't you see that every law,
every commandment
was turned upside down.
It was not "Thou shalt not kill,"
but "Thou must kill."
To do your duty, goodness
was a temptation you had to resist.
Great.
So no one is responsible or guilty.
Every sane person
knows murder is wrong.
Then most Europeans,
including many of our friends,
went insane overnight.
Heidegger was your friend.
- Hans!
- He wasn't our only disappointment.
You can't write like this
for the New Yorker.
- You cannot!
- Hans, the glass door!
It's all too abstract.
And confusing.
They don't want
a philosophy lesson.
They have to know
what the Nazi Eichmann did.
Oh, Hemingway was just
an ambulance driver, Thomas.
As a writer, he was nothing more than the
premature ejaculator of the 20th century.
Oh, you just hate him
because he wrote like a real man.
Do you want to forgive him?
That's absurd.
I'm glad he'll be hanged.
So, here's to Heinrich's recovery.
Well, come on.
Yeah. To Heinrich.
Come over, please. To his health.
We drink to his health.
A very good idea. Here, Hans. To Heinrich.
Cheers.
Stups, here's to you.
No more kissing.
Except for me.
Why was Hans
so furious with me?
He's in love with you. Has been ever
since he was a student.
Nonsense.
He hates Heidegger more for stealing
your heart than for joining the Party.
Then he should hate you even more.
Maybe he does.
Celebrating my health
is exhausting.
I'm off to bed.
Thinking
does not bring knowledge,
as do the sciences.
Thinking
does not produce usable,
practical wisdom.
Thinking...
does not solve
the riddles of the universe.
Thinking does not
endow us with the power to act.
We live
because we are alive.
And we think...
because we are thinking beings.
We are so used to considering
reason and passion as opposites,
that the idea of passionate thinking,
where thinking and being alive
are one and the same,
is terrifying for me.
Excuse me.
No. Hannah!
Tolstoy wrote War and Peace
in less time.
- Hello?
- Mrs. Arendt.
Bill Shawn here.
Is this a good time to talk?
I mean, are you busy?
Yes. Why?
Can I be of any help?
How?
Perhaps if you've finished
the first article, I could have a look.
Mr. Shawn, I don't deliver in pieces.
O-Of course. I do realize what
an enormous task this is...
and wanted to let you know how much
we're looking forward to the results.
Well, then perhaps I should get back to
it instead of chatting on the phone.
Or did you want to pressure me
with a deadline?
No, of course not.
Take as long as you need.
Thank you.
Bye.
What's the matter with you? Have you
fallen in love with her, or what?
Oh, God, no.
You claim you
weren't a normal recipient of orders.
You thought about
what you were doing.
Didn't you say that?
I don't believe so, no.
You didn't think about it?
Sorry? You
didn't think about it?
You were an imbecile?
You didn't think at all?
Think?
Yes.
Of course I thought about
what I was doing.
You were not an imbecile?
Are you sure you can go?
You've got everyone so worried,
they'll have a wheelchair waiting.
I'm sure some
lovely women will be very eager
to push you around.
No one can
push me around like you.
Lotte...
Take good care of her.
Thanks.
Listen to this.
I've changed the paragraph.
"Evil is supposed to be
something demonic.
Its incarnation is Satan.
But in the case of Eichmann,
one could find
no such trace of satanic 'greatness.'
He was simply unable to think."
That's great.
It's better, right?
Yes...
Voil, monsieur.
"From a humdrum life without
significance and consequence,
the wind had blown
Adolf Eichmann into history."
Fascinating choice.
It begins so poetically.
A bit over the top.
"A leaf in the whirlwind of time,
he was blown into the marching
columns of the 1,000-year Reich."
Twice in a row
with a wind metaphor?
But listen to this.
"It was sheer thoughtlessness.
Something by no means
identical with stupidity...
that predisposed him to become...
one of the greatest
criminals of the 20th century.
He was simply unable to think."
That's original.
This here is also quite original.
They'll have our heads for this:
"Wherever Jews lived,
there were recognized
Jewish leaders,
and this leadership,
almost without exception,
cooperated in one way or another,
for one reason or another,
with the Nazis.
The whole truth is...
that if the Jewish people had really been
unorganized and leaderless,
there would have been chaos
and plenty of misery,
but the total number of victims
would hardly have been...
between four and a half
and six million people."
Jewish leaders testified at the trial.
It had to be mentioned.
She's blaming the victims.
That's not true, Fran.
She clearly makes a distinction between
the powerlessness of the victims...
and the dubious choices
of some of their leaders.
"Clearly"?
Don't exaggerate.
The whole section is only
10 pages out of almost 300.
Them's fighting words, Bill.
You better make sure
she's got her facts straight,
or we'll be needing bodyguards-
for her and for us.
She doesn't strike me as someone
who's off on the facts.
But as for the grammar-
What you have written
is simply brilliant.
I suggest that it be broken up
into five articles.
Five?
If I give it that much space,
it will entail very few changes.
I spoke with your editor, and he told me the
book will come out directly afterwards.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
Shall we?
Sure.
This is Greek, right?
"Einai." It means "to be,"
in the sense of existence.
But, of course, you realize that most
of our readers don't understand Greek.
They should learn.
There is really only one section...
that, um,
worries us a bit.
Oh, today you say "us," and not "me"?
Invoking your army,
Mr. Shawn?
Yes.
Maybe I am.
It's this description
of the Jewish leaders.
Their relationship with Eichmann's
office was very important.
I think I made that quite clear.
Yes, of course,
but you do offer a kind of
interpretation of your own...
that might be-that might disturb just a bit.
That is incorrect.
I purposely
did not attempt to analyze...
or to explain their behavior.
"To a Jew,
this role of the Jewish leaders in the
destruction of their own people...
is undoubtedly the darkest chapter
of the whole dark story."
Now that could count
as a kind of interpretation.
But it's a fact.
Finally.
I can't wait to read it.
How do you like it?
"How"?
"How" is an assumption.
You should ask me if I like it.
You have no right to bring
these issues out in public.
You don't know what you're talking about.
I will cancel-
"Only 10 pages."
That makes
a hundred phone calls per page.
So far.
...is crap!
Just ignore them...
You'll drive yourself crazy.
But Shawn's response in
the New Yorker is very convincing.
- Should I send it to you?
- What response?
To that vicious article
in The New York Times.
Oh, you mean that!
Forget it.
Tell me how Heinrich is doing.
Charlotte cooks for him every evening.
Please tell her that Heinrich
can only eat meat twice a week.
Yes.
Hello...
My darling.
You're all the rage around here.
Hello, Stups.
Let's not waste time on that.
The Israeli prosecutor is flying here
to speak to survivors in New York.
Listen to the Daily News headline:
"Prosecutor Answers...
Hannah Arendt's
Bizarre Defense of Eichmann."
On the frontpage! All
just a tempest in a tea cup.
This is no tempest.
It's a hurricane, Hannah.
Tell me what's for dinner.
Spinach,
whole wheat bread and water.
It's good youre not here in New York.
They are all accusing you
of having defended Eichmann,
Hannah.
Stups, it's just a few articles
in a magazine.
My dear,
you are really naive.
She thinks her sarcasm
will protect her.
It only shows me her vulnerability.
She tries to detach herself
from the story
but ends up bringing it closer to her.
Wrong, completely wrong.
It's not about her.
But where is she...
when she writes about
this Nazi and his crimes?
She has the right to feel pain,
and to show it.
That would be shameless.
And quite out of character.
You have to be aware
that if she represses so much pain,
it will eventually overwhelm her.
And you too.
Professor Heidegger
is here for you.
Thanks.
Time is mysterious:
it can return
and transform everything.
As I saw you again and you stood
there in your beautiful dress
I knew that this would be the
beginning of something new for us.
Please stop a moment.
I wasn't sure if I should come.
There is no greater invitation to love
than to love first:
"Nulla est enim maior
ad amorem invitatio
quam prevenire amando."
St. Augustine.
Your last letter grieved me.
How could you believe
all that slander?
After I read your first rector's speech
I was sick to my stomach.
I couldn't believe it.
The man who'd taught me to think
was behaving like a fool.
I know they were bitter years for you,
full of misery, hardship and helplessness.
But they weren't easy for me either.
Martin, I came here
because I want to understand.
Hannah...
I'm like the lad who dreams
and knows not what he does.
I have no talent nor
experience with politics,
but now I have learned
and in the future
I want to learn even more.
Then why not bring this to an end
and explain yourself in public?
You're the toast of the town.
Mary. Hello.
Oh, my goodness,
it's good to see you. Here.
Oh. Beautiful.
They're from Jim.
He sends his love.
He can't wait to meet you.
Well, when will I finally meet him?
Well, we'll sort something out.
How was the trip? Oh, my goodness.
It was great, but I'm starving.
You should come to the talk.
Oh-You can't do that.
- You have to follow the rules.
- Oh, why? Nobody else does.
But what do you want me to discuss?
There has not been one single
critique of what I actually wrote.
Did you really have no idea there
would be such a furious reaction?
Oh, Hannah. Not even a little?
You did take a certain tone,
not the usual one.
Untrue.
The tone is quite normal for me.
Well, for you, yes, but no one's ever dared to
be the least bit ironic about the situation.
You are trying to distract me.
Never.
- Oh. - See?
I'm telling you, it is useless.
I'm sure half of them
haven't even read the book.
Exactly. And that is why
you should speak publicly about it.
No. Yes. Expose their hypocrisy.
Force them to a real discussion.
I refuse to explain myself
to these dimwits.
In the silent dialogue with myself...
I am alone.
You have a very good memory.
Ja.
Terrible accent.
If I win, do you promise to answer
me a terribly personal question?
You won't win-
Mm-hmm.
If I can promise you anything.
So-
Was he the greatest
love of your life?
Who?
You know.
Your secret king of thinking.
No. He was not.
That is Heinrich.
All right then.
Uh, fill in the blank.
"Heidegger was the greatest-
in my entire life."
Oh, come on.
I won't tell anybody.
There are some things...
that are stronger than
a single human being.
And did you read the book? You read it? I
can't believe it. I bet she doesn't even show up.
The worst mistake
was to criticize the Jews...
while the mass murderer
was sitting there in the dock.
Yeah, and to describe
this murderer as a clown.
A foolish little servant of Hitler
who didn't have a mind of his own.
And yet she says he's normal.
That's Hannah Arendt.
All cleverness and no feeling.
I love that line
in your article, Norman.
I trust you've all read
Norman's incisive rebuttal.
What's it called?
"The Perversity of Brilliance."
"The Perversity of Brilliance." You were
more fair than she had any right to expect.
Now, of course, she's shocked.
Oh, nonsense. She lives for
such intellectual sensations.
And she's far too smart not to realize
the scandal she would provoke...
by attacking the Jewish leaders.
- Exactly.
- Last time we met, you were begging her to teach at your department.
Well, won't make that mistake again.
You're all treating Hannah Arendt
like a suspect in a police court...
instead of a respected
political thinker.
Please, Bill, no one has attacked
Hannah Eichmann's character.
Your review of Hannah's work
proves that you're too hysterical...
to write a single coherent sentence.
And that charming little slip of the tongue proves
that Lionel has lost his power of speech as well.
You're so smitten
with Arendt's European pretensions.
She could defend Himmler himself,
and you'd go along.
Oh, down, Norman. Down.
Your fangs are showing.
Almost no one here
has even read the articles.
Some of us tried,
but couldn't bear to go on.
Well, of course you couldn't.
Hannah doesn't write soap operas.
And, of course, it would
be too much to expect Ms. Arendt...
to report on Eichmann's actual trial.
She had to come up with
something more interesting than that.
Who does she think she is?
Aristotle?
Unlike all of you, Hannah was
actually forced into exile.
She was held in a brutal
detention camp.
Isn't it admirable
that she is the only one...
who can discuss this subject
without beating her breast?
And why do you think that is? Because
she's smarter than people with feelings?
Well, in your case, Norman,
being smarter is easy.
She's more courageous than you are.
Ladies and gentlemen,
there will be plenty of time for discussion
after our speakers have presented.
Settle down so we can begin.
Ms. Arendt?
Siegfried!
You remember me? Of course.
You were in Kurt Blumenfeld's
Zionist group in Berlin.
It's hard to believe
that you were once a Zionist.
The Israeli secret service didn't send
you to discuss my youthful folly.
I'm here to request that you stop the
publication of your book about Adolf Eichmann.
The State of Israel bought
four plane tickets to tell me that?
You must have money to burn
to waste it like that.
It's incomprehensible that you, a Jew,
could tell such lies about your people.
You describe a book I never wrote.
A book that will never
be allowed in Israel.
And won't appear anywhere else either
if you have any decency left.
You ban books,
and lecture me about decency!
I'm warning you.
Wrong. You're threatening me.
We wanted to ask Kurt Blumenfeld
to reason with you,
but his doctor said he's dying.
And we didn't
want to be that cruel.
I thought you knew.
Rivka, why
didn't you let me know sooner?
Kurt didn't want that.
Kurt.
What are you doing to me, my dear!
This time you've gone too far.
Let's not argue today.
The cruelty...
and ruthlessness you show.
You won't think that
when you've read it.
I tried to.
Since when did you listen to others
about me?
You have no love for Israel?
No love for your own people?
I can't laugh with you anymore.
But Kurt, you know me.
I've never loved any people.
Why should I love the Jews?
I only love my friends.
That's the only love
I'm capable of.
Kurt...
I love you.
These think your articles are terrific.
These think you're absolutely wrong
and should never have written a word.
Anyone I know?
Yes. A few friends.
And these want you dead.
Some of them are quite colorful.
I'll get it.
Oh, Lotte...
Come in.
Am I too late?
No.
Good.
Oh, Hannah, I didn't know...
Lore, how nice to see you.
I came to help Lotte.
No, no, first come
and sit with me.
Here.
You were here yesterday?
I didn't want to
leave Lotte here alone.
Thanks.
It goes without saying.
- How's Hans?
- He...
Why didn't he come?
He doesn't feel well.
Oh, God!
What does it say?
Oh, nothing.
Come here, Lotte.
Read it to us.
"Your picture
is of a face hard as rock...
and cold as ice
in the North Pole.
Contempt hovers on the lips, and an
iron brutality is seen in the eyes.
I felt that that page
on which your picture is on...
contaminated
the whole of the review.
I put on a glove. I felt it revolting
to put my bare hand on that page.
Ripped it out from the review,
and not wanting to give it the...
dignity of burning it,
I threw it in the garbage can.
I do not carry hatred
in my heart,
nor do I take delight in vengeance,
but this I know:
that the souls of our six million
martyrs, whom you desecrated,
will swarm about you
day and night.
They will give you no rest.
It cannot be otherwise."
It's sweet of you...
to stay with me this evening.
You had such a bad day.
When I was a child
my father was very sick.
He died when I was seven.
After a long fight.
I only knew him as a sick man.
And in the dream where he appears
he is healthy.
He's handsome.
I love you.
What are you doing with the letters?
Answering them.
No, you will not.
If you start, this will never end.
I've hurt these people badly.
I have to take that seriously.
We've been here 20 years and I'm
not packing my bags ever again.
They won't kick you out
because of a few articles!
Are you so sure about that?
The nice, old man on the 10th floor said to give
you this right away.
Thank you, Freddy.
DAMN YOU TO HELL,
YOU NAZI WHORE
We've discussed it at length
and arrived at a unanimous decision.
We respectfully advise you
to relinquish your teaching obligations.
Under no circumstances
will I give up my classes.
You may not have enough students
who are willing to study with you.
Perhaps you have not been in
communication with your own students,
but I'm entirely
oversubscribed at the moment.
And because of the extraordinary
support of the students,
I've decided to accept their invitation,
and I will speak publicly...
about the hysterical reactions
to my report.
That's Hannah Arendt,
all arrogance and no feeling.
Perhaps just for today
you will allow me to smoke immediately.
When the New Yorker sent me...
to report on the trial
of Adolf Eichmann,
I assumed...
that a courtroom
had only one interest-
to fulfill the demands of justice.
This was not a simple task,
because the court that tried Eichmann
was confronted with a crime...
it could not find in the law books...
and a criminal whose like was unknown in
any court prior to the Nuremberg trials.
But still, the court...
had to define Eichmann as a
man on trial for his deeds.
There was no system on trial,
no history, no ism,
not even anti-Semitism,
but only a person.
The trouble with a Nazi criminal
like Eichmann...
was that he insisted
on renouncing all personal qualities...
as if there was nobody left to
be either punished or forgiven.
He protested time and again,
contrary to
the prosecution's assertions,
that he had never done anything
out of his own initiative,
that he had no intentions whatsoever,
good or bad,
that he had only obeyed orders.
This... typical Nazi plea...
makes it clear that the greatest
evil in the world...
is the evil committed by nobodies-
evil committed by men without motive,
without convictions, without
wicked hearts or demonic wills.
By human beings
who refuse to be persons.
And it is this phenomenon...
that I have called the banality of evil.
Ms. Arendt.
You're avoiding the most important part
of the controversy.
You claimed that less Jews
would have died...
if their leaders hadn't cooperated.
This issue came up in the trial.
I reported on it,
and I had to clarify
the role of those Jewish leaders...
who participated directly
in Eichmann's activities.
You blame the Jewish people
for their own destruction.
I never blamed the Jewish people!
Resistance was impossible.
But perhaps...
there is something in between resistance...
and cooperation.
And only in that sense
do I say...
that maybe some of the Jewish leaders
might have behaved differently.
It is profoundly important...
to ask these questions,
because the role of the Jewish leaders...
gives the most striking insight...
into the totality of the moral collapse...
that the Nazis caused
in respectable European society.
And not only in Germany,
but in almost all countries.
Not only among the persecutors.
But also among the victims.
Yes?
The persecution was aimed at the Jews.
Why do you describe Eichmann's
offenses as crimes against humanity?
Because Jews are human,
the very status
the Nazis tried to deny them.
A crime against them is by
definition a crime against humanity.
I am, of course,
as you know, a Jew.
And I've been attacked
for being a self-hating Jew...
who defends Nazis
and scorns her own people.
This is not an argument.
That is a character assassination.
I wrote no defense of Eichmann.
But I did try to reconcile...
the shocking mediocrity of the man...
with his staggering deeds.
Trying to understand
is not the same as forgiveness.
I see it as my responsibility
to understand.
It is the responsibility of anyone who
dares to put pen to paper on the subject.
Since Socrates and Plato,
we usually call thinking...
"to be engaged in that silent dialogue
between me and myself."
In refusing to be a person,
Eichmann utterly surrendered...
that single most defining human quality:
that of being able to think.
And consequently, he was no longer
capable of making moral judgments.
This inability to think...
created the possibility
for many ordinary men...
to commit evil deeds
on a gigantic scale,
the like of which
one had never seen before.
It is true.
I have considered these questions
in a philosophical way.
The manifestation
of the wind of thought...
is not knowledge,
but the ability
to tell right from wrong,
beautiful from ugly.
And I hope...
that thinking gives people
the strength...
to prevent catastrophes
in these rare moments...
when the chips are down.
Thank you.
Ms. Arendt.
Could we please-
Hans, if I'd known you were here...
I came...
in the insane hope
you would listen to reason.
But you will never change.
Hannah, between your arrogance
and your ignorance, your hopeless
ignorance about Jewish affairs,
you turn a court trial
into a philosophy lesson.
Hans, not now. I'm exhausted.
You behave like a superior German
intellectual who looks down on us Jews.
And you accuse us
of being accomplices to the Shoah.
You never accepted that the Germans
shamefully betrayed you.
They kicked you out and would
have killed you if they could.
Your friend Eichmann was responsible
for the transports from Gurs.
If you hadn't been lucky enough
to escape on time...
you'd have shared the same fate
as the women who stayed.
Stop!
They were all deported.
All deported to...
Stop it, Hans.
As of today...
I am finished
with Heidegger's favorite student.
Everyone is trying to prove me wrong.
But no one noticed my one real mistake.
Evil cannot be
both banal and radical at once.
Evil is only ever extreme.
It's never radical.
Only good can be profound and radical.
Would you have written about the trial
if you'd known what would happen?
Yes.
I would have written about it.
Maybe I had to find out
who my real friends were.
Kurt was your friend.
He still would be.
Kurt was my family.