The exhibition “Lawyers without Rights - Fates of Jewish Lawyers in Germany after 1933” was opened with a festive event in the Historical Library of the Bamberg Higher Regional Court on 6 May 2025. The exhibition, conceived by the German Federal Bar Association, deals with the disenfranchisement and persecution of lawyers of Jewish origin during the National Socialist era and illustrates this through their individual fates.
In addition to speeches by the President of the Higher Regional Court, Dr Karin Angerer, the President of the Bamberg Bar Association, Ilona Treibert, and the Vice President of the Federal Bar Association, André Haug, the Director of the Academy, Professor Dr Christoph Safferling, gave the keynote speech.
He appealed for people to be “shocked again and again” by what happened in Germany between 1933 and 1945. In addition to the “Gleichschaltung” in the judiciary, the legal profession and legal training, he also spoke about the deliberate dismantling of the rule of law and its instrumentalisation by the Nazi regime, while also drawing a line to current political events. He concluded his lecture with the words: “Only if we learn from history, we can arm ourselves for the future”.
The exhibition, which has already been shown internationally and is illustrated with pictures and documents, can be visited in the Central Justice Building in Bamberg until 23 May 2025. (bk)
