"Dear Hannah Arendt..."
Correspondence between Leni Yahil and Hannah Arendt, 1961-1971
When Hannah Arendt went to Jerusalem in the spring of 1961 to observe the Eichmann trial, she befriended Leni Yahil, a German-born historian and Holocaust researcher. They began a correspondence that alternates between personal, philosophical and political issues. In 1963, after the publication of Arendt’s articles on the Eichmann trials, it ended abruptly. Yahil’s attempt to revive the correspondence eight years later failed: their friendship did not withstand the “Arendt controversy”.
