Nazi manipulation of legal system focus of exhibit

By Marc Katz, Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer

Nazi Germany’s plan to eliminate the Jews was helped considerably when in 1933 Hitler gained power and moved quickly to refuse access to courts for all Jewish judges, public prosecutors and lawyers.

After that, it became simpler to move Germany into ‘legalizing’ the extermination of millions of people, including more than six million Jews in Europe.

With the justice system left in the hands of criminals and those afraid to stop them, there was no official way to halt the Nazis.

In 1998, the German Federal Bar conceived of a plan to exhibit not only what happened to the German legal system under the Nazis, but to find out what became of the lawyers, judges and others abruptly removed from their positions.

The result is the traveling exhibit Lawyers Without Rights: Jewish Lawyers in Germany Under the Third Reich. Through sponsorship from the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation and the Dayton Bar Association, Lawyers Without Rights will be on display at Temple Israel May 14-June 8. The final day of the exhibit coincides with the temple’s Jewish Cultural Festival.

Holocaust survivor Bob Kahn first read about the exhibit a few years ago. He contacted the American Bar Association, which also had become involved in the project.

“They said if your community is interested in it, we’ll make it available,” Kahn said. “I became involved through the Community Relations Council about a year and a half ago. First you have to get people interested in the subject.”

An extensive exhibition, the project consists of several 7-foot panels of pictures, stories and timelines.

“The exhibition reflects a time in Germany when the individual rights and the rule of law were utterly neglected,” reads an introduction to the exhibit endorsed by both the German and American Bar Associations. “Many non-Jewish German lawyers in those days kept silent. They did not say a word. There was no real resistance. Most of them did not even try to help their colleagues. Why? We do not know, and this exhibition does not give an answer to this question either.”

Lawyers Without Rights provides some clues; it has been shown in more than 70 cities around the world since 2000 and comes to Dayton from an exhibition at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse in New York.

Kahn, 90, grew up in Mannheim, Germany. During Kristallnacht in 1938, his school and synagogue were burned and the Nazis forced him to play his violin while he watched his father being beaten.

In 1940, at age 18, he made his way to the United States. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and worked in intelligence at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He has been a local resident ever since.

Kahn actually knew one of the lawyers in the exhibit, but says, “the exhibit speaks for itself. The message will resonate with all persons. When you look at the portraits of these people, you have to be reminded of the lawlessness of Hitler’s reign, that people could be executed at will and taken to camps for no reason whatsoever.”

The exhibit will open on Wednesday, May 14 with a 7 p.m. reception and a talk by University of Pennsylvania Law School Adjunct Prof. Harry Reicher about how the Nazis perverted Germany’s legal system.

The next day, the Bar Association will present a continuing legal education seminar at Temple Israel for attorneys, judges and law students.

Though there are no other posted hours for visitation, individuals or groups interested in attending the free exhibit may call JCRC Director Beth Adelman at 610-1779.

The Jewish Community Relations Council and Dayton Bar Association present the exhibit Lawyers Without Rights: Jewish Lawyers in Germany Under the Third Reich, May 14-June 8 at Temple Israel, 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. For information, call JCRC Director Beth Adelman at 610-1779.  

To read the complete May 2014 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.