I find this passage especially interesting. When I read it I come under the impression that Eichmann is looking at himself as a hero in this situation. He believes that he was there to help and alleviate the suffering of the Jews. However, if you look closer at the whole situation Eichmann is incredibly contradictory. Many of the Jews do not want to move, but they are being forced out of Germany. However, many of them end up returning to Germany because they realize that they are also not wanted in surrounding European countries and they feel living in their homeland would be more beneficial. They believed that if they kept to themselves they could live without being molested. Eichmann is viewing himself as a savior, transporting Jews out of the country in order so they won’t have to be sent to concentration camps. In reality, however, the Jews granted rights to emigrate were left “without any money, without any rights, with only a passport on which it says ‘You must leave the country within a fortnight. Otherwise you will go to a concentration camp” (46). The only money given to the Jews was a small amount of money that was necessary in order to obtain a visa to enter another country. It is true that the Jews who were able to emigrate had a better life than many of those who were not able to and sent to concentration and death camps. In that case Eichmann may truly be a savior. He had discovered during his new job in the SS that he could do two things well: organize and negotiate. In only eight months he had helped forty five thousand Jews leave Austria compared to only nineteen thousand from leaving Germany. In eighteen months he had helped “cleanse” Austria of roughly 60% of their Jewish population. This goes back to my first blog statement where I said Eichmann needs to be motivated by an outside force. In this instance that outside force is coming from his new job and his desire to succeed. He even claims that his time in Vienna was his “happiest and most successful period” (44).

Eichmann says himself that he is not an anti-Semite and has no hatred and never has towards Jews. He admitted to having plenty of friends who were Jew-haters but he claimed that he himself had private reasons for not hating the Jews. He was also not affiliated with Christianity, he declared himself to be a Glottglaubiger, breaking away from Christianity, and therefore refused to take his oath on the bible. Some of his reasons for not hating the Jews was because he had family members who were Jewish. He even granted these family members permission to emigrate to Switzerland at the beginning of the war. This opposite view towards Jews was due to his mother instiling different thoughts than the SS circles into his mind. He also had a Jewish lover, which was the highest crime a member of the SS could commit. Although this was common on the front lines during the war, it was extremely rare and never seen that a higher SS officer would commit such an act of ‘treason.’ All  this coming from a man who believed himself to be a law abiding citizen. Clearly to him there was nothing wrong with Jewish people and he was not on board with the whole extermination process. He himself  had “never thought of… such a solution through violence.” I believe Eichmann sincerely felt bad about sending the victims to their death.

On the other hand I believe Eichmann’s life would not have been complete had he not been a part of the SS. It seems as if Eichmann is not very self-motivated, considering he could not finish high school or vocational school, and had trouble holding jobs. He had jumped around jobs throughout his life, many of them only becoming available because of family and friend connections. Eichmann needed a clear set of rules and someone to give him orders in order to function. He was always a rule abiding citizen and throughout his whole life, up until the end of the war, he had been a member of a group, the SS being the last one. He joined the SS because he was already viewed as a failure in the eyes of his social class and this provided an opportunity for him to start from scratch. Eichmann was a good worker by deffinition, following all rules and completing his tasks on time and in an orderly fashion. Eichmann was in charge in shipping prisoners to camps where they were most likely to be killed. He does not believe he should be tried for murder because he himself never killed a Jew or “any human being” for that matter. Although he supposedly did not kill anyone himself, he still feels guilty in the eyes of God, but not before the law. He was performing a duty and had he not done that he would have been tried in court for not completing assigned actions. The only way he would of have a bad conscience would have been if “he had not done what he had been ordered to.” Just because Eichmann was in the Nazi party did not mean he was fully behind all the propositions. He had never read Mein Kampf and did not even know the party program and did not agree with the proposed ‘Final Solution.’ Without the SS Eichman would have been lost in life. He says himself  that “without being a member of something or other…I would have to live a leaderless and difficult life.” This quote shows just how much Eichmann needed someone to tell him what to do, and it was ufortunate for him that that someone was Adolf Hitler

In the first part of the book, he bases his whole day on allotting time to go over to see and have sex with Hanna. He always tells the reader just how much he loves Hanna and wants to know more about her past and what their future could be like. He loves her so much that he is willing to take all the blame for everything, even things he did not do. They go on a bike trip together, for which he had to sell his stamp collection for a highly depreciated value so he can pay for them. However, when he sees Hanna at the pool he does not go up and say hi. This is weird to me because it shows he is almost ashamed of what he is doing. He also does not tell any of his friends about Hanna, keeping everything that happens with them a secret from the world.  Then in the second part of the book when he sees Hanna on trial he says he could not feel any emotion toward her. He wants her to be free, but cannot feel anything else for her. He does not talk to her either, even though he has valuable information that may have helped her reduce her prison sentence. It seems to me if you saw a person who you had so much emotional connection with just a few years ago, that you can feel no emotion towards them.

There is a saying that  says it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, and a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them. Michael eventually becomes obsessed with Hanna in part 3. He can’t do anything without thinking about her and every relationship he has he feels as if something is wrong and missing. He begins sending tapes of him reading stories to Hanna so she can have something to listen to while in jail. He does this for years, and then he finally gets a note from Hanna, showing she is trying to become literate. The joy Michael feels for Hanna is incredible. Even with all this wordless connection, he avoids going to see Hanna, until a week before she is to be released from jail. The warden of the prison informs Michael that he is the only contact from the outside world with Hanna. She asks Michael to find Hanna a job and an apartment to help her ease back into life. Michael of course does this and goes to pick up Hanna.

Another thing that I  wonder about is why Hanna still calls Michael ‘kid’. Michael is a grown man with a daughter, a job, and his own house. He is certainly a man. I simply do not understand why Hanna refuses to call Michael by his name.

Throughout the whole book Michael is always downplaying all of Hanna’s bad attributes, violent attacks, and demeaning behavior. This is the first time in the book where Michael truly is beginning to see Hanna as a perpetrator. After going to a concentration camp for the first time himself, imagining all the people cramped into the small areas and the gas chambers, the picture of this outfit of Hanna solidifies his thought that Hanna is indeed a perpetrator. Michael also goes on to describe how the spectators of the court case have become outraged with the attire chosen by Hanna. They feel as if she is making fun of the court case. As a reader, throughout the trial I had gained some sympathy for Hanna and began to see her more as a person. However, this image of her showing up to hear the verdict in a SS uniform look alike instantly makes me feel as if she is a perpetrator and has always been a perpetrator, and has been deceiving everyone around her. Also very interesting is the description of how Hanna listened to her verdict and how she walked out of the courtroom. Michael says Hanna stood up “straight backed, and motionless.” This depiction sounds exactly what guards do when on duty and when they are taking her orders. I believe that Hanna truly believed in what she was doing and followed every order she was given precisely. Her walk out of the courtroom is eerily similar to how soldiers march into battle. They look straight ahead and through everything, only concentrated on one thing. Throughout the whole trial Hanna was being portrayed as a possible victim of the courtroom and that she was being targeted due to the fact that she was illiterate. Now there is no further doubt in my mind, and probably any readers’ minds that she is indeed a perpetrator.

This quote sums up the fact that Michael and Hanna are involved in an unreal relationship. During this reading there were many parts that proved this point. Their relationship is only about bathing and sex. Whenever Michael tries to talk about Hanna’s day at work or what she does in her free time she just ask him why he asks all those silly questions. The boy is 15 and cannot possibly be in love. This is the only girl he has been with and she is twice his age and he knows very little about her personality. This quote symbolizes their sexual relationship going well but there will be one event that causes a slow downfall. Michael is getting annoyed that he continually has to take the blame and submit to Hanna every time she gets angry and upset. He even says at one point that he is beginning to resent her. Add in the fact that Michael is more comfortable in his classroom and has met Sophie and there is room for trouble. This all comes to the forefront when Michael sees Hanna for the first unplanned time at the pool. When Michael is confused about whether he should ignore her or run to her, Hanna disappears and moves out of her apartment, leaving Michael without a path to follow. The engine blew when Michael began to hang out with his friends from school and did not want to leave them to go see Hanna, but neither he nor her was expecting the relationship to end in one moment.

2. I find it very interesting that Michael thinks that when he has sex with a women he needs to try to love them and feels he owes them something in return. I was also intrigued when Michael referred to his family as pets for his father. He believed that because his father was an intellectual, everyone else around him is not up to par. It was very creepy about how this 36 year old women is teaching this young boy how to scrub each other down in the shower and continuing to have sex with him daily. I am very curious as to why Hanna acted so aggressive when Michael called his schoolwork idiotic. Every high school kid hates ding homework and for some reason she takes personal offense to this. Michael admits that now when he sees a fifteen year old boy he sees a child. Instead of thinking what happened was creepy he links it to confidence. He claims without Hanna his confidence would not be remotely close to the level it was at. Michael is a complete pushover. He gives in and apologizes to Hanna for everything, even if he didn’t do anything. All he cares about is continuing to have sex with her. I also wonder why Hanna is obsessed with baths? Every time they are having sex they bathe first. At first I thought this relationship was all about the sex. While I still think the boy’s raging hormones have something to do with it, I also believe the two have real feelings for each other. This build up of feelings and the talk about how he was so happy and how things end badly can only mean that this relationship is doomed.

2. After the first few chapters i caught myself wondering where this book was heading. However, that quickly changed in the sixth chapter. In my opinion I do not believe it is realistic that a woman would at least twice the age of a 15 year old boy would feel any sexual emotions towards. At the beginning of chapter six, I thought that Frau was a Jew and had been taken away by the Nazis and the boy would learn of this and forever despise Germany. I also felt a connection to the boy about his thought process and decision to go back to visit Frau a second time. This has happened to me numerous times in my life and there are many occurrences in which I wish i could go back and act differently. The book leaves me feeling a need for more information. I find it hard to believe how the two characters have come together to be lovers, but there may be something else that we do not know that may have further sparked interest. I also feel that this ‘strange’ love affair could end badly, in my opinion for the boy, there may be a reason why the woman is choosing this boy as her lover. I want to read further on and find out where the plot goes from here.