Hannah arendt the banality of evil meaning

Hannah Arendt was one of the most influential political theorists. Her works reveal how important it is to stand up for democracy and human rights. His trial made headlines around the world. Hannah Arendt, born to secular Jewish parents in Hanover on 14 October , grew up in a family of intellectuals.

Banality of evil examples

Her father, an engineer and amateur scholar, had a library full of classical works of Greek and Latin literature, while her mother had studied French and music in Paris. Her father died in In her autobiographical work, Hannah Arendt recalls how she often felt abandoned during this time - including by her mother, who in her grief would undertake long journeys and leave Hannah with her grandparents.

At the same time, her mother taught Hannah to stand up for herself: if anti-Semitic remarks were made in the classroom, Hannah was to get up, leave the room and tell her mother all about it at home. In , Hannah Arendt began studying philosophy. On the evening of 27 February , one month before Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of the Reich, the Reichstag building in Berlin went up in flames - an arson attack that played into the hands of the Nazi party.

She herself was arrested by the Gestapo in Berlin in the summer of for her efforts to help the politically persecuted.