Hannah Ardent was a writer writing in post holocaust society, in a time where Stalin was allegedly still sending immigrants, Jews, Slovaks etc to essentially die in Serbia. This was part of the Communist movement in Russia still being run by Stalin who, like Hitler, wanted to destroy entire races and cultures that he considered to be inferior. The communist’s ultimate triumph was the defeat of Nazi Germany in the 40’s. The left wing socialist movement of the 60’s was seen as the right thing to do and is often referred to as ‘The popular front’. This was also the time where anti-communist views were very popular; the cold war between America and Russia was very strong this followed a movement for individual rights and liberation of; blacks, disabled, Jews and so on. The 60’s movement of freedom and love was very much an American Ideal that revolved around liberation and individual prosperity (such as the idea of the American dream).
Hannah Ardents main point was that she believes the Nazi holocaust and Stalin’s killings were ultimately down to society’s participation. She does not see Hitler or Stalin as dictators who simply hypnotised people and made them do things without consciously knowing what they are doing. She says that the people who were involved in the whole Nazi ‘final solution’ are as much if not more to blame than Hitler or Stalin respectively. From the people that made the maps and designed buildings to house people, or helped run the transport they are the people systematically wiping out entire cultures. She argues that people should not simply obey authority just for the sake that they have to, they should think before they obey. Mass submission was the reason for the extermination of the Jews due to the large amount of collaborators.
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