In Plain Sight: the Ethics of Proximity in the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide

Sarah Gendron

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Chapter 3 In Plain Sight: the Ethics of Proximity in the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide

In: Perspectives on Evil

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Sarah Gendron

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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 55–73

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004409262_005

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Abstract

In Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, Arendt describes Eichmann’s demeanour as incongruous with his monstrous reputation as a pivotal player in the deportation and extermination of Jews. Defending his actions as those of a career-minded worker with limited knowledge of everything outside of his purview, Eichmann declared his innocence. Eichmann’s claim to guiltlessness was further bolstered by the temporal, spatial, and cognitive distance he claimed to have from the killings themselves. The distance-defence was not an anomaly in Holocaust war-crimes trials. The compartmentalization of duties, coded language, and scarcity of incriminating documentation – employed to keep the victims, general public, and international community at a distance – allowed perpetrators the possibility of claiming ignorance regarding the ‘Final Solution.’ The introduction of remote technologies used in extermination permitted even those responsible for the killings a physical distance from which to later plead their innocence. In contrast stands the extraordinary proximity involved in the Rwandan genocide. The killings were intimate and public affairs. Victims were identified on the radio and were sought out at road blocks and in their homes. The perpetrators were often co-workers, neighbours, or local representatives. Rarely did they kill from a distance. More frequently, victims were slaughtered by nail-studded clubs and machetes, and left to bleed out in the streets in plain sight. Looking to the Holocaust and Rwanda as case studies, this chapter explores the changing face of evil in philosophic thought and its cataclysmic results in the latter half of the 20th century.¹

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Perspectives on Evil

From Banality to Genocide

Series: At the Interface / Probing the Boundaries, Volume: 103

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004409262

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 30 Sep 2019

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Chapter 3 In Plain Sight: the Ethics of Proximity in the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide

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Perspectives on Evil

From Banality to Genocide

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