This book began with a question asked by Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich to Marie Louise Knot, a renowned German expert on Arendt's intellectual heritage, at the Cologne International Literature Festival in 2022. “Can you tell me what Hannah Arendt thought about collective guilt, or is there a German guilt?” Svetlana asked. She was interested in the concept of “organized guilt,” that is, the fact that the Nazis made Germans co-authors of the crime or passive accomplices.

Since they did not have the opportunity to discuss this issue in detail, Svetlana suggested that Marie Louise include a book of Arendt essays for publication by the Pflaumbaum publishing house. The result is the famous thinker's first book in Belarusian.

The essays were translated by Elena Petrovich, Olga Gronskaya, Elena Talapila, and Kateryna Teves.