Hannah Arendt (2012)

Michael Degen: Kurt Blumenfeld

Quotes 

• Hannah Arendt : He swears he never personally harmed a Jew.

  Kurt Blumenfeld : So he claims!

  Hannah Arendt : Isn't it interesting that a man who did everything a murderous system asked of him, who even seems eager to give precise details of his fine work, that this man insists the personally has nothing against Jews.

• Hannah Arendt : He transported people to their deaths, but didn't feel responsible for it. Once the trains were in motion his work was done.

  Kurt Blumenfeld : So he can say he's free of guilt despite what happened to the people he transported?

  Hannah Arendt : Yes! That's how he see's it. He's a bureaucrat!

• Kurt Blumenfeld : And how's my Heinrich? Is he good to you?

  Hannah Arendt : Yes. Sometimes too good.

  Kurt Blumenfeld : I miss arguing with him. I can no longer see my way through the maze of modern life.

• Hannah Arendt : Israel has to be very careful that this doesn't become a show trial.

  Kurt Blumenfeld : That's my Hannah! Just wait a bit. And try to understand Ben Gurion. Our young people refuse to confront what you call the "dark times." Either they're ashamed of their parents who didn't fight or protect themselves, or they accuse them of having behaved dishonorably. They think only criminals or whores could have survived the camps.

• Kurt Blumenfeld : Israel has aged faster than you, my little Hannah.

• Hannah Arendt : Tell me how you are. How's your heart?

  Kurt Blumenfeld : Not too good. It's never gotten used to the world we live in.

• Hannah Arendt : He's so different than I imagined.

  Kurt Blumenfeld : He was with the SS. They're scary creatures.

  Hannah Arendt : But he's not. That's precisely it. He sits in his glass box like a ghost. A ghost who happens to have a cold. He's not spooky at all. He's a nobody.

• Kurt Blumenfeld : I'm not getting any younger. That's why I wish you wouldn't leave me so quickly.

  Hannah Arendt : I'm never very far from you. Never.

• Kurt Blumenfeld : You have no love for Israel? No love for your own people? I can't laugh with you anymore.

  Hannah Arendt : But Kurt, you know me. I've never loved any people. Why should I love the Jews? I only love my friends. That's the only love I'm capable of.