Many people, including me, found Arendt’s conclusions disturbing,
even infuriating. How could normal people commit such heinous, immoral
acts? Somehow, it was felt that the horrific deeds carried out by
Eichmann required a brutal, sadistic personality. It required irrational,
anti-Semitic hatred. From a Jewish viewpoint, it felt like Arendt was belittling
the horrific nature of the deed: the mass killings of innocent Jewish
victims. The extraordinary nature of the deed, it was felt, required an
extraordinary explanation. The conclusion that Eichmann’s unjust acts
were “banal,” that they grew out of mundane causes, felt deficient.