Eichmann

English

Etymology

After Otto Adolf Eichmann (1906–1962), "the architect of the Holocaust".

Noun

Eichmann (plural Eichmanns)

1. One who willingly participates in immoral or destructive actions without ethical qualms because the actions are acceptable to society.
   • 1968, William Phillips, A sense of the present:

     Hence, no special moral or political perversion is required to produce an Eichmann; it might be said that there are thousands of potential Eichmanns.

   • 1992, Ian Shapiro, Political Criticism:

     Their arguments usually involve holding variants of the claim that the life of an Eichmann or a Stalin could not have been an integrated one...

   • 1996, Lenore Langsdorf, Stephen H Watson, E Marya Bower, Phenomenology, interpretation, and community:

     One can imagine an Eichmann who was capable of questioning the meaning of this or that defense for his actions that he might give...

   • 2004, Alan P. Lightman, Daniel R Sarewitz, Christina Desser, Living with the Genie: essays on technology and the quest for human mastery:

     Does the notion of a scientific gaze and the impersonality of method allow for an Eichmann in the scientist in all of us?

   • 2005, Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi, The worlds of Herman Kahn: the intuitive science of thermonuclear war:

     "I've been accused of playing an Eichmann-like role in supporting an evil policy."

See also

• little Eichmann

Anagrams

• Chinamen, chainmen, chinamen, menachin