The Banality of Evil: The Eichmann Trial Student Edition

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The Banality of Evil The Eichmann
TrialStudent Edition

• Prepared by
• Dr. Caroline (Kay) Picart
• Assistant Professor of English
• Courtesy Asst. Professor of Law

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Aims

• To formulate collective answers to the following
  questions
• What was unique about the Eichmann trial?
• 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?

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Aims (2)

• To examine Sivals The Specialist alongside
  Arendts Eichmann in Jerusalem
• To compare Eichmanns portrayal in the
  documentary The Specialist with the docu-drama
  interpretations in Wannsee Conference and
  Conspiracy

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Estimated Timeline

• Chapters 4-6 of The Memory of Judgment legal and
  cinematic legacies 15 minutes
• Sivals The Specialist compared with Arendts
  Eichmann in Jerusalem 30 mins. (15 minutes each)

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Estimated Timeline (2)

• Clips from The Specialist5 mins.
• Clip from Wannsee Conference5 mins.
• Clip from Conspiracy5 mins.
• Conclusions15 mins.

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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?

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What else is unique about the Eichmann Trial?
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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?

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Discussion Question

• Do you agree or disagree with Arendts negative
  appraisal of the trial? Why or why not?

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Discussion Question

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

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Sivans The Specialist

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

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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.

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Discussion Question

• How is Eichmann characterized in Wannsee
  Conference?

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Discussion Question

• Compare Eichmanns characterization in Conspiracy
  with that in Wannsee Conference. Which do you
  find more convincing? Why?

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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 Sivans 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/