Lawyers Without Rights: The fate of Jewish Lawyers in Berlin after 1933
The release of the book, Lawyers Without Rights: Jewish Lawyers in Germany under the Third Reich, marks an important milestone. The American Bar Association and the German Federal Bar, as an expansion of its Lawyers Without Rights project, teamed to publish an English translation of this important book detailing the degradation and removal of Jewish lawyers and jurists in Berlin under the Third Reich. This English version of the book was supported by the Anne and Ronald Abramson Family Foundation, now known as the Galena-Yorktown Foundation.
From their Forewords:
“This book, Lawyers Without Rights: The Fate of Jewish Lawyers in Berlin after 1933, helps us recollect. It recounts the early days of the Holocaust from the perspective of the law and Jewish lawyers in Germany, and Berlin specifically. It is important that we and future generations remember the misuse of laws in Germany and how it permitted a society to effectively purge a significant group of lawyers solely because of their religion, sending many in exile or to their deaths. It is about the misuse of law.”
“The Anne and Ronald Abramson Family Foundation is honored to have the opportunity to underwrite this book. It stands as a tribute to the Jewish attorneys in Berlin and throughout Nazi-controlled Europe who were brutally segregated and expelled from the practice of law. … Their stories collectively provide a painful reminder of why lawyers must lead the resistance when fair justice and the rule of law come under attack. As (Arthur) Szyk said of his art, the Lawyers Without Rights project is not the aim but a means. We must all work together to keep the memory of the Holocaust current and the meaning of the rule of law relevant and alive.