Moral reversal
Person is only creature who can take responsibilities for his actions. Responsibility is when person fulfills his duties on time and without any mistakes. Hannah Arendt in her book, “Personal Responsibility under Dictatorship” explains behavior of people and tries to describe what morality is under dictatorship. The problem of people during the regime of Nazi is that they didn’t have own concept of moral. There was moral reversal. Moral reversal is when illegal becomes suddenly legal and even the highest virtue that everybody accepts and performs. Therefore, people confused on changes and fulfilled only what the law requested. But contrary to this, people could analyze and make moral decisions. Arendt tries to understand their situations and to explain why they did such crimes. During the regime of Nazi, cogs had to fulfill their duties by killing, since killing the Jewish people became legal.
Members of cog were must to execute the Hitler’s killing program, since it was their duty. The problem is that the people couldn’t think morally and haven’t own opinion. Even the chairmen, who participated in killing operations did not know what they are doing and for what. All branches of government participated in killing operations by fulfilling the certain part of the tasks. Every person in government, no matter in high position or low was one cog that couldn’t invent any laws or make decisions, but only fulfilled orders. There was only one man who did and could make decisions and therefore was politically fully responsible. That was Hitler himself who, therefore, not in a fit of megalomania but quite correctly described himself as the only man in all Germany who was irreplaceable. (30) Cogs executed their legal duties, satisfying wishes of their head, but forgot about their moral or personal duties. Therefore, Arendt tries to understand the circumstances of defendants, especially Adolf Eichmann’s. She says: “Trying to...