Monday 7 October 2013

"...They hanged Eichmann yesterday..."

                                                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                             8 Rue de la Chaise
                                                                                                             Paris
                                                                                                             June 1, 1962
Dearest Hannah

....They hanged Eichmann yesterday, my reaction was curious, rather shrugging, "Well, one more life - what difference does it make?" This cannot be the reaction the Israelis desired, yet short of rejoicing in his death, on the one hand, or being angry at it on the other, what else can the ordinary person feel? To execute a man and excite a reaction of indifference is to bring people too close to the way the Nazis felt about human life - "One more gone"....Anyway, how is your piece coming?....
....All my love to you and love to Heinrich and write fairly soon.
                                                                                                                               
    Mary


                                                                                                                             

                                                                                                                         New York
                                                                                                                         June 7, 1962
Dearest Mary - 

.....I am still in Eichmann, have the portrait part almost finished- or so I hope. It is much longer than i thought, about 80 pages now. If I am lucky, it will not be over 160 pages. I am still glad I did it, despite the staggering amount of sheer labor that has to go into it. My room looks like a battlefield with papers and the mimeographed sheets of the trial transcripts strewn all over the place...

                                                                                                           Love and yours,
                                               
                                                                                                                         Hannah

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