Blog: Remembering the ‘ banality of evil ’ is of vital importance

By Joshua Garfield and Izzy Lenga Hannah Arendt wrote about the “banality of evil,” as a countenance to the often ubiquitous belief that evil is exceptional; that uniquely evil deeds are committed by uniquely evil individuals. Offering up a thesis that evil is banal begs the question of whether we need to work harder to fight hate, because it is far more common than we are willing to admit. The theme for this year’s international Holocaust Memorial Day, which falls on 27 January, is Ordinary People. Ordinary people were victims of the Holocaust, ordinary people perpetuated the Holocaust, and ordinary people did heroic things to rescue ordinary victims from the atrocities of the Holocaust. Liberated on 27 January in 1945, Auschwitz Birkenau was the Nazis’ largest concentration camp, where 1.1 million people were murdered – a million of them Jews. The Nazis and their collaborators murdered six million Jews during the Holocaust – more than two-thirds of the Jewish population of Europe. Without the banality of evil and without collaborators across the continent, the Holocaust could not have claimed so many innocent lives. This year’s theme for Holocaust Memorial Day also serves as a reminder that ordinary people can save lives and stop evil when they display extraordinary bravery. Atrocities committed in the last century were all enabled by bystanders and onlookers. The ordinary people who failed to prevent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur all made c...
Source: UNISON Health care news - Category: UK Health Authors: Tags: Article News anti-fascism anti-racism holocaust memorial day Source Type: news