Lawyers Without Rights: The Fate of Jewish Lawyers in Berlin after 1933

Book Synopsis: As the rule of law comes under attack today in both developed and Third World countries, Lawyers Without Rights tragically portrays what can happen when the just rule of law disappears – replaced by an arbitrary rule by law that sweeps aside the rights and dignity of selected populations. The story of the fate of Jewish lawyers in Berlin and all of Germany is more than a historical footnote; it is a wake-up call that a system of justice free of improper political considerations remains fragile and should never be taken for granted.

The publication of the English translation of this book marks an exciting new step for a joint project of the American Bar Association and the Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer (German Federal Bar) that has focused on the tragic fate of Jewish lawyers in Nazi Germany and the meaning of the rule of law. Lawyers Without Rights captures the story of the occupational bans on Jewish lawyers and jurists in Berlin, the capital city and home to 3,400 attorneys. Of those, 43 percent were of Jewish origin, the largest group of any city in Germany in 1933. This story was first told in German two decades ago and updated in 2007. The book includes more than 1,600 bios of lawyers in Berlin who could no longer practice law after 1938 because of their Jewish ancestry, and notes the fate of 1,404 of them.

The release coincides with the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, where on Nov. 9-10, 1938, Nazis in Germany torched synagogues, vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses and killed close to 100 Jews. In the aftermath of Kristallnacht, also called the “Night of Broken Glass,” some 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to Nazi concentration camps.

By then, German law had eliminated all but a few dozen Jewish legal “consultants” from the profession. As this book indicates, hundreds subsequently died in concentration camps or committed suicide; others fled the Nazi regime emigrating across the world, including more than 200 of them who eventually lived in the United States. A few, like Berlin lawyer Hanna Katz, a pioneer in the practice of law by women in Germany and whose career is detailed in this book, even earned U.S. law degrees. Katz, for one, lived in New York and later became a member of the American Bar Association. This release includes three significant additions—forewords from the Honorable Stephen G. Breyer, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and one of three sitting Jewish justices; Benjamin B. Ferencz, the sole surviving prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials; and Ronald D. Abramson, a Jewish lawyer and philanthropist whose family foundation, the Anne and Ronald Abramson Family Foundation, provided support for this book. With minor exceptions, the second edition of Simone Ladwig-Winters’ book has been presented in its entirety, including prefaces from the Berlin bar, the author’s insights into her research, notes and abbreviations.