I am old enough that my education included the history of WWI and WWII, but this particular book was not part of my education. As a youth, these trials were a current event and one I was shielded from, so reading the first few chapters left me shaken and in tears.
America itself, has indeed forgotten and the danger while seemingly distant really isn't that far off. I often wondered how Germany felt just before WWII, why the Jews didn't fight back, but went to their deaths with great meekness?
Some of what I've read so far has made me consider John Boehner and John Roberts and the chronic capitulations of the GOP. How they, like the Jews, would negotiate with the Nazi and never consider that the Nazi is viewing them as the problem. Consider how often we now hear about the threat and problem of the conservative right in the GOP, the problem with Christians, Catholics, and even Patriots.
The link provided to Open Culture provides a brief description and links to the first of the articles Ardent wrote for the New Yorker.
I’m a great fan of Hannah Arendt, especially Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (which you cite), and The Origins of Totalitarianism.
I hinted as much
"America itself, has indeed forgotten and the danger while seemingly distant really isn't that far off. I often wondered how Germany felt just before WWII, why the Jews didn't fight back, but went to their deaths with great meekness?"
in my post that America has NOT kept up with history , probably by design
News, events and technology move with such speed, it is easy to get engulfed with our own momentum
Alexander Solzhenitsyn made many of these same observations in his classic “The Gulag Archipelago”
And when the white bitter clingers are rounded up or killed for not turning in their guns foolishly thinking "It can't happen here." right up until it does, and wonder why 99.999% of the police who phony motto "to protect and servr" they believed in for years could do such a thing without a qualm of conscience here is the answer.
In 1968, when I was in the eighth grade, our history teacher showed us a film about WWII era Germany that still stays with me. I don’t think kids today are being taught that. I don’t think the powers that be want them to know.
“entirely more prosaic combination of careerism and obedience.”
Different time, different culture and different place. In our bloated egotistical culture, egoism will trump careerism and blind obedience. The preservation of “I” will rise above all else. The egoists are the ultimate self-preservationists and will not obey if it means the possible destruction and obliteration of “I.” The grossly overfed, fat ego will not allow it.
This is why I admire the Christian culture. The individuals that make up Christianity think of others before themselves and are willing to sacrifice. They are not simpleton egoists but reflect a transcendent body of spirituality that left wing egoists can never hope to achieve.
It tells the story of Goldsmith's parents and their escape from Nazi Germany just before the war started. Both his parents were musicians. His mother was a violist who played with the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell. She and Martin's father were Jewish, and played in an orchestra in Germany during the 1930s in a federation called the Judische Kulterbund. The Kulterbund was set up by the Nazis to provide cultural entertainment by and for Jews. No one but Jews could perform in it, and no one but Jews could attend performances. It was basically a way of isolating the Jews from "pure" Germans and keeping them entertained until they could deport them all and kill them.
What is frightening about the book is how gradually the Nazi menace creeps up on everything. It starts with people being dismissive of Hitler, then come the Nuremburg Laws, and the the horror of Kristallnacht. As the reality of what was happening became apparent, some of the Jews in the organization start making plans to leave Europe. Some were in denial about what was happening even after Kristallnacht. Ther's a story of a guy chiding fellow Jews for leaving everything behind. He tells them "you'll be sorry. I'll still be here when you return!". Needless to say, he was never seen again.
Earlier this year I read the Manchester/Reid biography of Churchill. I was frankly stunned just how far Baldwin and Chamberlain went in their "peace at all costs" approach to appeasing Hitler. I think the appeasement of the 1930s is different from what we are seeing today. In the 30's no one wanted to repeat the stalemate of WWI. Today, I think the left and the Islamists are actually on the same side. their enemy is the Judeo/Christian culture . Too bad most of us won't be around to see what happens when they turn on each other after we're gone.