A woman sits in a bathtub, holding a flannel to the back of her neck. The bathroom is almost entirely normal. There are tiles, a sink, a dressing cabinet and a stool.. But there is one shocking addition - a picture of Adolf HitlerA dictator, and the leader of Nazi Germany during World War Two. .

The woman in the picture is Lee Miller, an American photographer. She is now the subject of Lee, an acclaimed new film starring Kate Winslet as the rebellious photographer. 

Miller was photographed by her friend and mentor David E Scherman. The pair had accompanied the US Army's 45th division through the battlefields of World War TwoA global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945 and included all of the great powers. .

In April 1945, they entered Hitler's private apartment in MunichA city in southern Germany.. Miller decided to take a long overdue bath. The same day, the dictator committed suicide in Berlin. By using his bathtub - and leaving her filthy boots on his bath mat - Miller is declaring victory.

This infamous photo of an apparently ordinary  bathroom also illustrates an important concept: the banality of evil. 

This phrase was coined by the German-American political philosopher Hannah Arendt in her 1963 book Eichmann in Jerusalem.

In it, Arendt attends the trial of NaziA German political party of the twentieth century, led by Adolf Hitler. The Nazis controlled Germany from the early 1930s until the end of World War II. official Adolf Eichmann, one of the architects of the Holocaust. She found that Eichmann felt no guilt for his actions. He claimed he had no murderous hatred of Jews.

Instead he performed evil deeds thoughtlessly. He believed that he had just been following orders and doing his job. 

Arendt found him "terrifyingly normal." Many of Eichmann's fellow Nazis might have been the same. Anyone could do evil in this way.

Not everyone shares this view of the Nazis. Some far-right have come to regard the Nazis as exceptional, heroic and glamorous.

A Sky News investigation found at least 73,524 TikTok posts soundtracked by Nazi hate speech or music associated with the regime.¹  Many of them feature Hitler's anti-semitic speeches set to propulsive electronic music.

The bathtub photo and these TikTok videos present two different views of Nazi evil. One shows it as insidious, pathetic and mundane, something that lurks in the most unsuspecting places. The other suggests that it is purposeful.. Evil comes from deliberate thoughts and acts.

Thinkers remain divided on the best way to see and treat evil. If we believe evil acts are premeditated, we risk ignoring the evil that comes from inaction and unintended consequences.

The idea of evil as banal, on the other hand, might be too forgiving. New Scientist says Arendt's theory "simultaneously offered an explanation for the worst crimes of the century while absolving the vast majority of the perpetrators." If a war criminalA participant in war crimes - violations of the laws of war which fighters and individuals must follow. claims they were simply following orders, do we let them escape punishment?

Others caution against the idea of explaining evil altogether. As Rollo Romig writes in The New Yorker, doing so "suggests that evil is part of the natural order of things". But to think of evil in this way makes it hard for us to trust people at all.

Should we treat evil as banal?

Yes: Let's face it - everyone has the potential to do evil. And yet most people appear normal. If we regard evil as some horrifying, unthinkable anomaly, we risk letting evil spread undercover. 

No: There is plenty of evidence that there are people ideologically and emotionally driven to perform evil. Arendt's idea of banality is flawed, based on observing one man in one situation.

Or... Evil is a convenient device. We use it to separate the worst human words and deeds from the mainstream of humanity. But actually it is part of an extreme within us.