Friday, March 25, 2005
The pathology of evil
I'm going to post this without comment. I found it while flipping through a book I own called Hitler: The Pathology of Evil by George Victor, pages 116-117.
"A judge protested the 'euthanasia' program to the minister of justice...'Injustice cannot be turned into justice by formally correct...legislation.' The minister told him that a judge who 'does not recognize the will of the Fuhrer as the source of law...cannot be a judge anymore.' The judge retired....
"But Hitler ordered that the justice system participate in the extermination.
"Bizarre as this use of law may sound, it was accepted by Nazi law professors....And in fact the courts became an instrument for purging Germany's population...."
"While trying cases, prosecutors suggested to judges what verdicts and sentences the Chancellery expected. And members of the police or SS often sat in court as observers and hinted to judges about whether their conduct of cases was likely to lead to punishment.
"Laws and constitutions no longer meant what they said, for they had to be reinterpreted in the light of Hitler's will. Even with the directives they received, no judge, prosecutor, lawyer or police official could be sure what a law meant in general or how it should be applied in a specific case....Their uncertainty weakened prevailing moral and ethical rules as well as legal ones. Right and wrong were less clear than before."
"A judge protested the 'euthanasia' program to the minister of justice...'Injustice cannot be turned into justice by formally correct...legislation.' The minister told him that a judge who 'does not recognize the will of the Fuhrer as the source of law...cannot be a judge anymore.' The judge retired....
"But Hitler ordered that the justice system participate in the extermination.
"Bizarre as this use of law may sound, it was accepted by Nazi law professors....And in fact the courts became an instrument for purging Germany's population...."
"While trying cases, prosecutors suggested to judges what verdicts and sentences the Chancellery expected. And members of the police or SS often sat in court as observers and hinted to judges about whether their conduct of cases was likely to lead to punishment.
"Laws and constitutions no longer meant what they said, for they had to be reinterpreted in the light of Hitler's will. Even with the directives they received, no judge, prosecutor, lawyer or police official could be sure what a law meant in general or how it should be applied in a specific case....Their uncertainty weakened prevailing moral and ethical rules as well as legal ones. Right and wrong were less clear than before."
