Non-Germans Under the Third Reich: The Nazi Judicial and Administrative System in Germany and Occupied Eastern Europe(United States Holocaust Memorial Museum S.)

Under the legal and administrative system of Nazi Germany, people categorized as "Fremdvolkische" (literally, "strange people") were subject to special laws that restricted their rights, limited their protection under the law, and exposed them to extraordinary legal sanctions and brutal, extralegal police actions. These special laws, one of the central constitutional principles of the Third Reich, applied to Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, non-Europeans: anyone perceived as different or racially inferior, whether German citizens or not. In this book, legal scholar Diemut Majer traces the establishment and evolution of these laws from the beginnings of the Third Reich through the administration of annexed and occupied eastern territories during the war. Drawing extensively on German archival sources as well as on previously unexplored material from Poland and elsewhere in eastern Europe, Majer shows with chilling detail how the National Socialist government maintained a superficial legal continuity from the Weimar Republic while expanding the legal definition of Fremdvolkische, ultimately giving itself legal sanction for the Holocaust. Replete with revealing quotations from secret decrees, instructions, orders and reports, this major work of scholarship offers a sobering assessment of the theory and practice of law in Nazi Germany.

About the Author :
Diemut Majer is a Titularprofessor of public law, constitutional legal history, and comparative law at the University of Bern and a lecturer in European law at the University of Karlsruhe.

Review :
"It is to be hoped that discussion of this encyclopedic work will not be limited to jurists and scholars of contemporary history. Some sections should be read and studied in courses on history and politics." -- SA1/4ddeutsche Zeitung, reviewing a previous edition or volume "One of the most impressive books to appear this year... Certain to be indispensable to any student of the New Order in Europe between 1939 and 1945." -- Annual Bulletin of Historical Literature "This is a truly impressive book. The huge undertaking of translation will benefit many scholars... It will serve as a mine of information, not least thanks to its extremely useful and detailed index." -- English Historical Review "Here is a work that is outstanding both in the wealth of materials that went into its making and in its precision of exposition. It is not a collection of regulations, but rather a critique based on the pertinent materials. As sober and honest as could be." -- Stuttgarter Zeitung, reviewing a previous edition or volume "The translation is highly readable, and the end notes are often independently interesting and hard to ignore." -- Robert D. Rachlin, Bulletin of the Center for Holocaust Studies "There has not been such a comprehensive presentation of the Third Reich's legal system before, and it will be a long time before another -- written by a single author -- appears. Here quantity is transformed into quality. The abundant references and quotations form a mosaic of the National Socialist period; they are also an indispensable aid to future investigators, especially since superbly detailed indices of subjects, place names and persons, along with maps and illustrations, facilitate the practical use of the information they contain." -- Juristen-Zeitung, reviewing a previous edition or volume "This is a truly impressive book. the huge undertaking of translation will benefit many scholars... it will serve as a mine of information, not least thanks to its extremely useful and detailed index." -- English Historical Review "This work is meant to contribute to the investigation of the National Socialist system of injustice. The author has succeeded brilliantly in doing so... The most important sections of the book should be made obligatory reading in the training of those who will enter governmental administration and the law." -- Gemeinsames Ministerialblatt, reviewing a previous edition or volume "Here is a work that is outstanding both in the wealth of materials that went into its making and in its precision of exposition. It is not a collection of regulations, but rather a critique based on the pertinent materials. As sober and honest as could be." -- Stuttgarter Zeitung, reviewing a previous edition or volume "It is to be hoped that discussion of this encyclopedic work will not be limited to jurists and scholars of contemporary history. Some sections should be read and studied in courses on history and politics." -- Sddeutsche Zeitung, reviewing a previous edition or volume "One of the most impressive books to appear this year... Certain to be indispensable to any student of the New Order in Europe between 1939 and 1945." -- Annual Bulletin of Historical Literature "The translation is highly readable, and the end notes are often independently interesting and hard to ignore." -- Robert D. Rachlin, Bulletin of the Center for Holocaust Studies "There has not been such a comprehensive presentation of the Third Reich's legal system before, and it will be a long time before another -- written by a single author -- appears. Here quantity is transformed into quality. The abundant references and quotations form a mosaic of the National Socialist period; they are also an indispensable aid to future investigators, especially since superbly detailed indices of subjects, place names and persons, along with maps and illustrations, facilitate the practical use of the information they contain." -- Juristen-Zeitung, reviewing a previous edition or volume "This is a truly impressive book. The huge undertaking of translation will benefit many scholars... It will serve as a mine of information, not least thanks to its extremely useful and detailed index." -- English Historical Review "This work is meant to contribute to the investigation of the National Socialist system of injustice. The author has succeeded brilliantly in doing so... The most important sections of the book should be made obligatory reading in the training of those who will enter governmental administration and the law." -- Gemeinsames Ministerialblatt, reviewing a previous edition or volume