My support for the death penalty solidified in 1962.  I think it was the now extinct Look magazine that published a full-page photo of the lifeless body of Adolf Eichmann hanging by his neck in Jerusalem.  The photo was a relief.  I didn’t want to live on the same planet as a person who actually bragged that he was responsible for the murder of five million people.  There was no contrition.

The following year, Hannah Arendt coined an important phrase when she wrote Eichmann in Jerusalem:  A Report On The Banality of Evil.  She believed Eichmann was not inherently evil.  In fact, he was inherently normal.  She found he was not very smart nor very socially adjusted — but was still very ambitious.  The face of a monster can be very ordinary, indeed.

I just watched the HBO movie Conspiracy about an actual meeting that took place on January 20, 1942 in a magnificent villa outside Berlin.  The surroundings were elegant, with fine china, fine food, and expensive wine.  It was organized by Eichmann but not attended by the most senior Nazi leaders — only by the next level down.  The actual transcript of the meeting has been found, so we have an unfiltered account of the language used.  They went to great lengths to use the right “soft” words for extermination or murder, such as evacuation or resettlement.  Everybody was on their best behavior.  Manners were expected.  Everybody spoke with respect, even when they spoke about murdering millions of people.  It was simply banal.

It is a pity, because, like minds, civility is a terrible thing to waste!