The trouble with Eichmann was precisely that so many were like him, and that the many were neither perverted nor sadistic, that they were, and still are, terribly and terrifyingly normal. From the viewpoint of our legal institutions and of our moral standards of judgment, this normality was much more terrifying than all the atrocities put together.

Summary

This quote is condemning the terrifying normality of people like Adolf Eichmann, who participated in the Holocaust. It suggests that what makes Eichmann's actions so alarming is that he was not an aberration or an inherently evil person. Instead, he was a seemingly ordinary individual who carried out extraordinary atrocities. The quote points out that this kind of normalcy is more horrifying than the actual crimes committed because it challenges our understanding of morality and calls into question the effectiveness of our legal systems to prevent such atrocities from happening again.

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