Grew up ignorant of her Jewishness until she heard anti-semiticism on the street in Berlin. Studied philosophy, loved the ancient Greeks. Had an affair with Heidegger, starting from when she was his student, but he was more existential (and later a Nazi supporter) whereas she became politically active as the Nazis gained power. She also rejected the label of philosopher, preferring to be called a political theorist.
About totalitarianism, she wrote that it was the first time terror had been used to subjugate whole populations, rather than just political enemies. The focus on Jews was almost incidental.
In “The Human Condition”, she looks at how political action arises in societies. She sees it as different from work and labour, which are essentially social, rather it is existential and aesthetic.
“Banality of evil” was her phrase – she argued against the idea that Nazi criminals were manifestly psychopathic or different. She initially wound people up because they thought she was trivializing it. She described Adolf Eichmann as “thoughtless” – but in a specific meaning, that he seemed to lack any kind of internal dialogue. He would have a kind of principle or rule and he would just follow it without any moral reflection. Similarly, he always found it necessary to join groups, as if he lacked any sense of self, and his defence was full of jargon and euphemism, that made the implentation of Hitler’s policies palatable. A series of psychologists failed to find any mental health disorder in Eichmann.
But she insists that ordinary people do not run the risk of committing horrendous crimes – moral choice remains, even under totalitarianism.