There comes a point in the
film, Eichmann
(2007), which is based on Avner Less’s series of interviews with Adolf
Eichmann in an Israeli jail, when the man who was in charge of transport to the
Nazi death camps realizes that he will lose the upcoming trial and be hanged;
the hitherto unemotional Eichmann instantly tears up in front of Avner Less in
the small, windowless room and laments never being able to see his children again.
Less points out that Eichmann has sent many children to their deaths, “but they
were Jews,” Eichmann counters. The inroads into the psyche that Nazi propaganda
reached was suddenly obvious, even odd. Ideology with the machinery of state as
a proponent and enforcer can short-circuit the human mind without the
mind being aware of its own cognitive distortions. Eichmann states, “but they
were Jews” as if anyone would understand because he takes the validity of the
statement as a given. Translation: Jews were not only enemies of the
state; they were also subhuman. In an earlier interview, Eichmann disclaimed
being antisemitic with a tone that conveys to the audience that he really
believes his statement. At the very least, the mental pathology of
disassociation seems to have been caused by the earlier Nazi propaganda. State
ideology can indeed be mentally invasive, and this may say as much about the
vulnerabilities of the human brain as the danger latent in political power than
can manifest in massive states as not only war crimes, but also the more severe
crimes against humanity.
The full essay is at "Eichmann."
