The Nazi mentality and the law

In the middle of the night, in the midst of a blind darkness, there is a knock at your door. You realize it is not the milkman, but you also know you are not a criminal. From the fists pounding on your door like cannonballs, it is clear that those standing on the other side of the threshold are not doing so with friendly intentions: Are they enemies? No. Who are they then? Law enforcement!? They claim to be there in the name of the law, and they are not entirely wrong; they even have a search warrant. Naturally, you let them in. What follows are courts, judges, defenses, and allegations.

The pages of the calendar are filled with examples of those who spread darkness not just into homes, but into the country, history, and time itself. Ultimately, the body of texts we call law is written into books after passing through an "ideological" filter; whatever the window through which one views life, those views mostly function in the name of the law. The relationship between law and power tells us that when the judiciary is instrumentalized, laws are often more effective than bullets, outperforming the most fortified positions, and court benches work much better than party offices. As I said, history is full of such examples, and unfortunately, these examples did not remain in history. As long as the law remains under the control of the ruling powers, its alliance with oppression will not change.

Fascist administrations and sultanate regimes based on the rule of a single person clearly demonstrate how the law is corrupted and how laws legitimize a regime of oppression. Hitler's Germany, one of the bloody regimes of the recent past, provides enough information and documentation to suffice for centuries to come; it says, 'the law has been one of the most dangerous tools of those in power.' One does not need to be a Nazi to avoid hearing this; a bigoted partisanship, an ideological commitment woven with hatred, and ignorance—the diseases of the era—are enough for a person at this stage.

Let us remember that the Nazi practice, which spanned years, did not fulfill this function solely through tyranny and oppression. It is very painful that lawyers played no small part in the construction of this order, in the building of that system from its stones to its bricks. While the bureaucracy of the era generally embraced the Nazi spirit as a sense of duty and tried to perform its tasks, Nazi judges took their places in the courts at this stage. Not every judge was a full-fledged Nazi; perhaps they were performing this duty for different reasons, but as a result, they all created the Nazi order together.

Some saw the Nazis as an opportunity for their careers and cozied up to them; they obtained their comfort, vacations, houses, cars, and even immunity this way. Some convinced their minds and souls to build the Nazi order within a "legal" framework; what was happening was not the laws of a bloody regime, but the name of a social order whose framework was defined by law. Everyone had to respect the laws; did the law serve the single man, Hitler? Perhaps it did, but did Hitler not mean the country? Was opposing Hitler not opposing the country, the homeland? Then every patriot had to be on Hitler's side. And the law was simply putting this into text. In short, at the end of the day, Nazi judges made the law the most important guarantee of the regime. With the exception of a few lawyers, most acted this way; let us salute those few who did not.

Speaking of Nazi judges, let us elaborate on the subject; they left their mark on a bloody time with the legal scalpels in their hands, let us give them their due.

Nazi judges took care to think in Hitler's name, to look at life through his window, and to determine the results within this framework while signing decisions; they showed no hesitation at this point. They said, "We will do whatever the law requires for Nazi Germany!" They did this in the name of the law.

Judge Roland Freisler, one of the important judges of the era, said in a letter he wrote to Hitler: "My Führer; from now on, when the people's courts make a decision, they will try to make a decision in the direction they believe you would decide." It is stated that this individual signed 5,000 death warrants between 1942 and 1945. This means about five executions a day. Look, I am not talking about an executioner, a torturer in a concentration camp, or a hired killer. This person is a judge. He studied law, he wore robes. But with what he did, he is no different from a concentration camp. Then we understand that you can turn court benches into concentration camps, judges into executioners, and laws into torture instruments in the name of the law. And they do. Each of them works like the Nazi judge of their era in different parts of the world. They are everywhere. I do not know whether to call them Nazi remnants, closet Nazis, or modern Nazis. It is not their name but their actions that are important, as long as we are aware of what is happening, of history, and of today.

Another characteristic of those judges, that is, the Nazi lawyers, was their humiliation of the defendants, discrediting them, and belittling them in front of everyone. They did this as a form of psychological violence display. The person in front of them was already guilty, and the point was not really to judge. The point was to sentence that defendant to punishment in the most powerful way possible. It was to intimidate those left behind, to strip the defendant of their personality, and to render them absolutely worthless. This is also a Nazi policy; it is a shame-laden document that history tells us not to forget, but to see.

Moreover, this situation was clearly recorded and took its place in history with the words of Goebbels, one of Hitler's closest men. In 1942, Goebbels spoke as follows: "When a judge makes a decision, he should proceed from the idea that the criminal must be destroyed rather than from the laws... The state must remove its internal enemies in the most efficient way and destroy them completely. The idea that the judge must be convinced of the defendant's guilt should be completely abandoned. The purpose of the administration of the law is not primarily retaliation, or even rehabilitation, but the preservation of the state."

A bloody dictatorship had become the state, that was it. This is another Nazi propaganda. Covering up all crimes committed with state rhetoric, using the state as a lightning rod in this sense, and trying to destroy dissidents by calling them "enemies of the state." And if there is no crime, inventing one; if there is no witness, fabricating one; if there is a situation in favor of the defendant, erasing it, destroying it... Let it remain not only in history but also in our minds. Dealing with closet Nazis is not easy, and it will not be.

The law is not a "sacred" field that derives its authority from itself. Judges are not 'saints.' Just like in other professions, there are good and bad people here; there is also a struggle within themselves. That is why one cannot just say "the law" and show respect. The law is not built independently of ideology, the adopted way of thinking, the understanding of religion, or the existence of single men. Moreover, judges do not work in an isolated place independent of the existence of the ruling order. When the time and place come, they can become ink for Nazi pens and fuel for Inquisition decisions. Let us not forget that behind the heads that went to the guillotine, there were always so-called judges.

Evil emerges from an organized integrity of society. Actually, I do not know how correct it is to call this a society, but what I do know is that behind the brutality, injustice, vulgarity, treachery, and decay, there can be millions of people, including lawyers, politicians, the press, the business world, the rich, and the ignorant. Nazi history tells this to humanity as a lesson. It says, "If you do not understand and consequently we fail the exam, you become the lesson."