Frighteningly normal

About the banality of evil

Abstract

Thinking about the Second World War implies thinking about two types of war. The former mainly implies the sovereignty of outer space. In terms of the “other” war, the needs were different and it was well within the limits of the conquered space or even the German space that such a war would become effective. These wars had two distinct objectives: on the one hand, German imperialism wanted space; on the other hand, anti-Semitism, which intended (in addition to the confiscation of goods – and therefore wealth) the physical elimination of specific populations (not only Jews but gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally ill, the terminally elderly, etc.).

The Auschwitz concentration camp acquired a symbolic capacity, being considered the greatest example of moral evil, as Lisbon (the Lisbon earthquake) had been of natural evil. Contrary to what we often want to admit, Hitler and all those who participated in the Shoah were ordinary men. They had the same qualities and defects as us. And more than inhumanity, what is expressed there is a facet of humanity that we often like not to see.

There are countless examples of ordinary men: like Franz Stangl, who participates in so many murders of Jews, and the forms of justification he raises for himself and those around him are also commonplace; or the authentic puzzle of the Eichmann trial; or even Hoess, the builder of Auschwitz. They held themselves in that low regard.