About the Book
A total and groundbreaking reassessment of the life of Adolf Eichmann a superb work of scholarship that reveals his activities and notoriety among a global network of National Socialists following the collapse of the Third Reich and that permanently challenges Hannah Arendt s notion of the banality of evil.
Smuggled out of Europe after the collapse of Germany, Eichmann managed to live a peaceful and active exile in Argentina for years before his capture by the Mossad. Though once widely known by nicknames such as Manager of the Holocaust, in 1961 he was able to portray himself, from the defendant s box in Jerusalem, as an overworked bureaucrat following orders no more, he said, than just a small cog in Adolf Hitler s extermination machine. How was this carefully crafted obfuscation possible? How did a central architect of the Final Solution manage to disappear? And what had he done with his time while in hiding?
Bettina Stangneth, the first to comprehensively analyze more than 1,300 pages of Eichmann s own recently discovered written notes as well as seventy-three extensive audio reel recordings of a crowded Nazi salon held weekly during the 1950s in a popular district of Buenos Aires draws a chilling portrait, not of a reclusive, taciturn war criminal on the run, but of a highly skilled social manipulator with an inexhaustible ability to reinvent himself, an unrepentant murderer eager for acolytes with whom to discuss past glories while vigorously planning future goals with other like-minded fugitives.
A work that continues to garner immense international attention and acclaim, Eichmann Before Jerusalem maps out the astonishing links between innumerable past Nazis from ace Luftwaffe pilots to SS henchmen both in exile and in Germany, and reconstructs in detail the postwar life of one of the Holocaust s principal organizers as no other book has done"
About the Author :
Bettina Stangneth wrote her dissertation on Immanuel Kant and the concept of radical evil. Ever since then she has been researching a theory of the lie and has written widely on anti-Semitism in eighteenth-century and National Socialist philosophy. In 2000 she was awarded first prize by the Philosophical-Political Academy, Cologne, and she received the German NDR nonfiction book award for Eichmann Before Jerusalem in 2011. Bettina Stangneth is an independent philosopher and lives in Hamburg, Germany.
Translated from the German by Ruth Martin"
Review :
A New York Times Notable Book and a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award.
Shortlisted for the Cundill Prize in historical literature.
[Stangneth s] comprehensive research brings the man and his circumstances firmly back into focus. . . . no future discussion will be able to confront the Eichmann phenomenon and its wider political implications without reference to this book. Steven Aschheim, The New York Times Book Review
Ms. Stangneth, acting more like an investigative journalist than an academic philosopher, does an excellent job in tracing the odyssey of these archival records, which are scattered across various continents . . . . With her well-written and impressively well-researched book, Ms. Stangneth not only adds many new, surprising details to our picture of Eichmann before the trial but also prepares the stage for follow-on research. Wall Street Journal
Extraordinary . . . . At each stage, the meticulous quality of [Stangneth s] research and her distinctive moral outrage make the journey enthralling . . . . Stangneth s book has the flavor of a detective story . . . . [A] fine, important book. Michael Signer, The Daily Beast
Stangneth has combined the talents of rigorous academic research with investigative journalism in tracking down and sifting through the mounds of archival data located in diffuse venues. Her efforts at comparing, collating and interpreting the wealth of material in the hall of mirrors and blind alleys that Eichmann erected are nothing less than prodigious. Jack Schwartz, Haaretz
It is impossible to overestimate the meticulous care Stengneth has taken in documenting everything she says. If there is a misspelling or typographical error, she notes it . . . . This has been called a disturbing book well worth reading. Yes, it is disturbing, and yes, it is well worth reading, even more than once. Stephanie Shapiro, Buffalo News
Thrilling in its purpose .there is no doubt of its importance: Stangneth s research, full of forgotten papers, lost interviews, and buried evidence, turns the conventional wisdom about Eichmann on its head. Publishers Weekly
A riveting reconstruction of a fanatical National Socialist s obdurate journey in exile and appalling second career in Argentina . Stangneth masterfully sifts through the information . A rigorously documented, essential work not only about Eichmann s masterly masquerade, but also about how we come to accept appearances as truth. Kirkus (*starred review*)
"Fascinating." Efraim Zuroff, The Jerusalem Report
Meticulously researched, compellingly argued, engagingly written.Bettina Stangneth confronts Hannah Arendt s notion of the banality of evil with important new evidence and nuanced insight, permitting a fresh and informed reassessment of this riven debate. Arendt would surely have applauded the Stangneth challenge. Timothy Ryback
"
A "New York Times" Notable Book and a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award.
Shortlisted for the Cundill Prize in historical literature.
[Stangneth s] comprehensive research brings the man and his circumstances firmly back into focus. . . . no future discussion will be able to confront the Eichmann phenomenon and its wider political implications without reference to this book. Steven Aschheim, "The New York Times Book Review"
"
" Ms. Stangneth, acting more like an investigative journalist than an academic philosopher, does an excellent job in tracing the odyssey of these archival records, which are scattered across various continents . . . . With her well-written and impressively well-researched book, Ms. Stangneth not only adds many new, surprising details to our picture of Eichmann before the trial but also prepares the stage for follow-on research. "Wall Street Journal"
Extraordinary . . . . At each stage, the meticulous quality of [Stangneth s] research and her distinctive moral outrage make the journey enthralling . . . . Stangneth s book has the flavor of a detective story . . . . [A] fine, important book. Michael Signer, "The Daily Beast"
Stangneth has combined the talents of rigorous academic research with investigative journalism in tracking down and sifting through the mounds of archival data located in diffuse venues. Her efforts at comparing, collating and interpreting the wealth of material in the hall of mirrors and blind alleys that Eichmann erected are nothing less than prodigious. Jack Schwartz, "Haaretz"
It is impossible to overestimate the meticulous care Stengneth has taken in documenting everything she says. If there is a misspelling or typographical error, she notes it . . . . This has been called a disturbing book well worth reading. Yes, it is disturbing, and yes, it is well worth reading, even more than once. Stephanie Shapiro, "Buffalo News"
Thrilling in its purpose .there is no doubt of its importance: Stangneth s research, full of forgotten papers, lost interviews, and buried evidence, turns the conventional wisdom about Eichmann on its head. "Publishers Weekly
"
A riveting reconstruction of a fanatical National Socialist s obdurate journey in exile and appalling second career in Argentina . Stangneth masterfully sifts through the information . A rigorously documented, essential work not only about Eichmann s masterly masquerade, but also about how we come to accept appearances as truth. "Kirkus" (*starred review*)
"Fascinating." Efraim Zuroff, "The Jerusalem Report"
" "Meticulously researched, compellingly argued, engagingly written.Bettina Stangneth confronts Hannah Arendt s notion of the banality of evil with important new evidence and nuanced insight, permitting a fresh and informed reassessment of this riven debate. Arendt would surely have applauded the Stangneth challenge. Timothy Ryback"
A "New York Times" Notable Book
"[Stangneth's] comprehensive research brings the man and his circumstances firmly back into focus. . . . no future discussion will be able to confront the Eichmann phenomenon and its wider political implications without reference to this book."--Steven Aschheim, "The New York Times Book Review"
" "
"Extraordinary . . . . At each stage, the meticulous quality of [Stangneth's] research and her distinctive moral outrage make the journey enthralling . . . . Stangneth's book has the flavor of a detective story . . . . [A] fine, important book."--Michael Signer, "The Daily Beast"
"Stangneth has combined the talents of rigorous academic research with investigative journalism in tracking down and sifting through the mounds of archival data located in diffuse venues. Her efforts at comparing, collating and interpreting the wealth of material in the hall of mirrors and blind alleys that Eichmann erected are nothing less than prodigious." --Jack Schwartz, "Haaretz"
"It is impossible to overestimate the meticulous care Stengneth has taken in documenting everything she says. If there is a misspelling or typographical error, she notes it . . . . This has been called 'a disturbing book well worth reading.' Yes, it is disturbing, and yes, it is well worth reading, even more than once." --Stephanie Shapiro, "Buffalo News"
"Thrilling in its purpose....there is no doubt of its importance: Stangneth's research, full of forgotten papers, lost interviews, and buried evidence, turns the conventional wisdom about Eichmann on its head." --"Publishers Weekly"
"A riveting reconstruction of a fanatical National Socialist's obdurate journey in exile and appalling second career in Argentina.... Stangneth masterfully sifts through the information.... A rigorously documented, essential work not only about Eichmann's masterly masquerade, but also about how we come to accept appearances as truth." --"Kirkus" (*starred review*)
"""Meticulously researched, compellingly argued, engagingly written. Bettina Stangneth confronts Hannah Arendt's notion of the "banality of evil" with important new evidence and nuanced insight, permitting a fresh and informed reassessment of this riven debate. Arendt would surely have applauded the Stangneth challenge." --Timothy Ryback
"""Meticulously researched, compellingly argued, engagingly written. Bettina Stangneth confronts Hannah Arendt's notion of the 'banality of evil' with important new evidence and nuanced insight, permitting a fresh and informed reassessment of this riven debate. Arendt would surely have applauded the Stangneth challenge." --Timothy Ryback
"Thrilling in its purpose. . . . there is no doubt of its importance: Stangneth's research, full of forgotten papers, lost interviews, and buried evidence, turns the conventional wisdom about Eichmann on its head." --"Publishers Weekly
"
"A riveting reconstruction of a fanatical National Socialist's obdurate journey in exile and appalling second career in Argentina. . . . Stangneth masterfully sifts through the information. . . . A rigorously documented, essential work not only about Eichmann's masterly masquerade, but also about how we come to accept appearances as truth." --"Kirkus" (*starred review*)
