The Alchemist

Thoughts of `VII - The Wannsee Conference, or Pontius Pilate`

To make available evidence that does not support the case for the prosecution is usually the job of the defense, and the question why Dr Servatius, who perceived some minor inconsistencies in the testimony, did not avail himself of such easily obtainable and widely known documentation is difficult to answer. He could have pointed to the fact that Eichmann, immediately upon being transformed from an expert in emigration into an expert in ‘evacuation,’ appointed his old Jewish associates in the emigration business – Dr Paul Eppstein, who had been in charge of emigration in Berlin, and Rabbi Benjamin Murmelstein, who had held the same job in Vienna – as ‘Jewish Elders’ in Theresienstadt. This would have done more to demonstrate the atmosphere in which Eichmann worked than all the unpleasant and often downright offensive talk about oaths, loyalty, and the virtues of unquestioning obedience.

Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (Penguin Classics) (p. 118). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

这本书读了三分之一，刷新我认知的是，一场世纪大审判的控辩双方的律师可以犯下多少显而易见的策略性的错误。在巨大的历史洪流中，顶尖的专业人士，在处理他们一生中最可能最重要的事务时，也是会频频犯错的。 更别提身处这场审判所讨论的事件中的人们了。非纳粹提拔的各级官员积极参与the final solution，犹太领袖参与屠杀自己的同胞，被屠杀的犹太人自己全程配合。当然，前两者的“错误”并不是因为人类理性的渺小，而是因为“the easing or the extinguishing of conscience”。

I have dwelt on this chapter of the story, which the Jerusalem trial failed to put before the eyes of the world in its true dimensions, because it offers the most striking insight into the totality of the moral collapse the Nazis caused in respectable European society – not only in Germany but in almost all countries, not only among the persecutors but also among the victims.

Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (Penguin Classics) (p. 123). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

这里作者把上述第三种情况--被屠杀的犹太人自己配合--也视为道德崩坏。我的理解是这样的，犹太社区本身也是有层级和架构的，每一个被屠杀的人都是有上级的。被投进毒气室的人在进去的前一刻对自己即将死亡可能是不知情的，而组织他进入集中营的犹太警察或者社区工作者在那一刻是知情的，只是他们可能不知道自己可能会是下一批。因此犹太人自己的道德崩坏在于知情人的道德崩坏。

But if the Jewish and Gentile pleaders of ‘special cases’ were unaware of their involuntary complicity, this implicit recognition of the rule, which spelled death for all non-special cases, must have been very obvious to those who were engaged in the business of murder. They must have felt, at least, that by being asked to make exceptions, and by occasionally granting them, and thus earning gratitude, they had convinced their opponents of the lawfulness of what they were doing.

Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (Penguin Classics) (p. 130). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

这里提到犹太人自己合谋的另一种情况，那些申请‘special cases’的犹太人，had their "involuntary complicity, this implicit recognition of the rule."

We need mention here only in passing the so-called ‘inner emigration’ in Germany – those people who frequently had held positions, even high ones, in the Third Reich and who, after the end of the war, told themselves and the world at large that they had always been ‘inwardly opposed’ to the regime. The question here is not whether or not they are telling the truth; the point is, rather, that no secret in the secret-ridden atmosphere of the Hitler regime was better kept than such ‘inward opposition.’

Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (Penguin Classics) (p. 124). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

这里说的是，在希特勒那种高压的充满了秘密氛围的统治中，几乎人人都在内心里不同程度地反希特勒。 然而，在当今中国，大部分人拥护中共的体制，大部分的粉红是发自内心地爱国。造成这种分歧的可能有三个因素：

第一个因素不太可能。这么多人集体撒谎的可能性有多少？我相信大多数人在面对自己内心的时候还是真诚的。 第二个因素也不太站得住脚。二战结束快80年了，人类社会整体的文明程度已经比当时提高了很多很多。八十年代大部分中国人受到了不同程度的民主启蒙，知道外面有一个更加文明的世界。纳粹在八十年前对于当时的社会的暴行，之于中共在今天对这个全球化的更加文明的社会的所作所为，真的有很大差距吗？ 那为什么它对德国社会良心的冲击大于今天的中国呢？最重要的原因应该还是第三点，中国的宣传和洗脑实在太成功了。