AND THE CROOKED SHALL BE MADE STRAIGHT

An indictment of Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in JerusaLem, delivered more in anger than in sorrow, takes up item by item that author's outlook and documentation. Mr. Robinson first sets out to reveal how she ignored evidence concerning Eichmann and ""ended up with a portrait of the man in no way resembling reality."" He repaints the picture: the real Eichmann, whose intelligence she belittled and whose veracity she upheld, and a man of extraordinary drive, cunning, shrewdness with organizing capacity and other qualities that made him the man to head the Nazi program for exterminating the Jews. On the question of the legality of the nature of his trial in relation to the War Crimes and international law, he claims that Miss Arendt displays unfamiliarity with her subject; the trial itself he finds in strict accordance with the principles of justice ""as interpreted by the most advanced legal systems."" He goes on to assail with indignation her condemnation of the Jews as participating in their own extinction, with extraordinary, moving witness from those involved. Finally, he pursues the fate of the Jews in specific areas and periods, again contradicting Miss Arendt. At times, his documentary arsenal offers more ammunition than at others, a fact which does not restrain Mr. Robinson from battling on every point, but this is an important effort to set the record straight.