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New Exhibit at the Holocaust Museum & Janet G. and Harvey D. Cohen Education Center

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

On Display April 9 – June 23, 2024 In the Estelle and Stuart Price Gallery

www.LawyersWithoutRights.com

awyers Without Rights is a joint traveling
exhibit project of the American Bar
LAssociation Center for Global Programs and
the German Federal Bar. Based on the book Lawyers
Without Rights, by Simone Ladwig-Winters, the
exhibit shows the consequences when the “just rule
of law” is usurped by an “arbitrary” one, and applied,
along with discriminatory legislation, to particular groups. The fate of
the Jewish lawyers in Germany under the Third Reich is more than
a historical footnote for us today. The rule of law is still under attack
in many countries around the world. This exhibit helps underline the
importance of keeping a country’s system of justice free from political
interference; its value and fragility should never be taken for granted.
The exhibit highlights the story of the occupational bans placed by
the Third Reich on Jewish lawyers and jurists in Berlin. At the time the
Reich came to power, the capital city was home to 3,400 attorneys, of
whom 43 percent were of Jewish origin, the largest percentage of any
city in Germany in 1933. The government’s systematic undermining
of fair and just law through humiliation, degradation, and legislation
resulted in the removal of the rights and dignity of Jewish lawyers and
their expulsion from the legal profession not only in Berlin, but across Ernst Flatau, Dr. Fred Flatau's Father
Germany. The Museum has a connection to one of those lawyers –
Ernst Flatau. In addition to being a well known lawyer, Flatau was a
decorated soldier in World War I. None of that mattered under the
Nazis. His late son, Dr. Fred Flatau, was a Museum Docent who often
shared his father’s story with visitors. After 1938, German law had all
but eliminated lawyers of Jewish origin from the profession,
leaving only a few dozen Jewish legal “consultants” still
practicing. Other professions were also subject to this
procedure, as the government sought to eliminate non-
Aryan influence in all areas of life. The fate that awaited
those unable to flee to other countries was grim Jewish Lawyer being humiliated in Berlin by authorities.
– many died in concentration camps or committed suicide.
Lawyers Without Rights: The Fate of Jewish Lawyers in
Berlin After 1933 has been seen across the U.S., including
as far away as Hawaii. It has been on display in Federal and
State Courthouses, State and County Bar Associations,
Law Schools, colleges and universities, public libraries,
museums, and other locations. The exhibit will be on
display at the Museum from April 9 – June 23, 2024.

975 Imperial Golf Course Blvd., Naples, FL 34110 239-263-9200 www.hmcec.org Info@hmcec.org

Life in Naples | April 2024 9