The Banality of Evil: The Eichmann Trial

Student Edition

Prepared by:

Dr. Caroline (Kay) Picart

Assistant Professor of English

Courtesy Asst. Professor of Law

Aims:

To formulate collective answers to the following questions:

1. What was unique about the Eichmann trial?

2. What have been some past and contemporary challenges to the promotion and protection of international human rights, and how has the individual body, in relation to the national and international bodies politic, been envisaged in relation to these challenges?

Aims (2):

To examine Sival’s The Specialist alongside Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem

To compare Eichmann’s portrayal in the “documentary” The Specialist with the docu-drama interpretations in Wannsee Conference and Conspiracy

Estimated Timeline:

Chapters 4-6 of The Memory of Judgment: legal and cinematic legacies: 15 minutes

Sival’s The Specialist compared with Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem: 30 mins. (15 minutes each)

Estimated Timeline (2)

Clips from The Specialist—5 mins.

Clip from Wannsee Conference—5 mins.

Clip from Conspiracy—5 mins.

Conclusions—15 mins.

The Eichmann Trial: Unique Properties

Nazi Concentration Camps was next shown again on June 8, 1961, within the context of the Eichmann Trial.

What was unique about how this film was edited and received?

What else is unique about the Eichmann Trial?

Discussion Question:

What have been some past and contemporary challenges to the promotion and protection of international human rights, and how has the individual body, in relation to the national and international bodies politic, been envisaged in relation to these challenges?

Discussion Question:

Do you agree or disagree with Arendt’s negative appraisal of the trial? Why or why not?

Discussion Question:

Do you think this depiction of the Jewish-resister-as hero has triumphed over the stereotype of the Jewish-victim-as-defenceless-sheep? Justify your answer carefully.

Sivan’s The Specialist

Discussion Question:

Is The Specialist a “documentary”? Why or why not? Talk about film form as you justify your answers.

Discussion Question:

Discuss the ending of The Specialist. What is it supposed to “mean”? Is the film still functioning as a documentary? Discuss film form alongside thematic elements.

Discussion Question

How is Eichmann characterized in Wannsee Conference?

Discussion Question:

Compare Eichmann’s characterization in Conspiracy with that in Wannsee Conference. Which do you find more convincing? Why?

References:

Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem (NY: Penguin, 1992).

Douglas, Lawrence. The Memory of Judgment. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, Chapters 4-6.

Reuter, Bernard. “Historical Discourse as Aesthetic Object in Eyal Sivan’s The Specialist . . .” inThe Holocaust Film Sourcebook, Caroline (Kay) Picart, Ed. (CT and London: Greenwood, forthcoming, 2004).

Photos from: “Eichmann Photo Gallery” and the “Internet Movie Data Base.” Online. Internet. Downloaded September 3, 2003. Available at: http://www.pbs.org/eichmann/gallery.htm and http://www.imdb.com/