Before World War Two and the Holocaust, the world had no official term for the practices of ethnic cleansing or genocide. Before World War Two and the Holocaust, the world had no international court system, capable of holding people accountable for crimes against humanity. Before World War Two and the Holocaust, the world community was more or less in a state of anarchy as defined by Thomas Hobbes, as no major power claimed the world that Britain left for it. While the Second World War and the Holocaust occurred mainly as a result of the Treaty of Versailles and the rise of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist Party, there is adequate proof that partially holds the German citizens, the bystanders of the Holocaust, responsible for the ethnic
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In his article, “Jews and the Courts in Weimar Germany,” Donald Niewyk describes the court system in Weimar Germany, citing several legal cases against both anti-Semites and Jews. In Weimar Germany, it is clear that democratic principles clouded the perspectives of those prosecuting anti-Semites to the full extent of the law. Niewyk states “The most common justification for mercy in cases of criminal libel was that the defendants were uninfluential political extremists upon whom stiff penalties would have not the slightest deterrent or curative effect.” One example of this would be a case in which a racist German man was charged for arguing that Jewish peoples were acting unpatriotic. The judge concluded that, “The defendant is a thoroughly patriotic man. If he struggles against Jewry he does so because of honest convictions arrived at through study.” The Weimar courts did however take a proactive stance when punishing offenders who had either threatened Jewish lives or sabotaged Jewish businesses or places of work. According to Niewyk’s research, the number of guilty verdicts increased after 1930 in Germany and the Baltic states, including several Nazis. At this point, German society had overall reacted negatively to anti-Semitism, punishing those who act out against German-Jewish peoples. It will be after Hitler is elected to power in Germany that the citizens act out against Jewish peoples and persecute their neighbours based on race and
In his article, “Jews and the Courts in Weimar Germany,” Donald Niewyk describes the court system in Weimar Germany, citing several legal cases against both anti-Semites and Jews. In Weimar Germany, it is clear that democratic principles clouded the perspectives of those prosecuting anti-Semites to the full extent of the law. Niewyk states “The most common justification for mercy in cases of criminal libel was that the defendants were uninfluential political extremists upon whom stiff penalties would have not the slightest deterrent or curative effect.” One example of this would be a case in which a racist German man was charged for arguing that Jewish peoples were acting unpatriotic. The judge concluded that, “The defendant is a thoroughly patriotic man. If he struggles against Jewry he does so because of honest convictions arrived at through study.” The Weimar courts did however take a proactive stance when punishing offenders who had either threatened Jewish lives or sabotaged Jewish businesses or places of work. According to Niewyk’s research, the number of guilty verdicts increased after 1930 in Germany and the Baltic states, including several Nazis. At this point, German society had overall reacted negatively to anti-Semitism, punishing those who act out against German-Jewish peoples. It will be after Hitler is elected to power in Germany that the citizens act out against Jewish peoples and persecute their neighbours based on race and