Film Note: Nazi Law: Legally Blind (2016)
Contemporary Church History Quarterly
Volume 22, Number 3 (September 2016)
Film Note: Nazi Law: Legally Blind (2016)
By Christopher Probst, Washington University in St. Louis, University College
In post-WWI Germany, law had been a most respected entity, with the country thriving thanks to its most capable lawyers and judges, many of them Jewish. In 1933, no law could inhibit the Third Reich’s political and military rise to power. In a step-by-step process, the National Socialist government dismantled constitutional law, usurped justice and created a lethal totalitarian system that soon engulfed Germany and all of Europe. Redefining the nation as a pure political and biological organism, the Nazi government imposed legislation that reinforced its ideological program in all aspects of German life, with a focus on race, business, religion and medicine. Filmed at Boston College during a conference on Nazi law, as well as in Nuremberg, Munich and Dachau, this documentary relies on the expertise of scholars from Germany, France, Israel and the US. They come from the areas of medicine, law, Jewish Studies, theology and other disciplines.
The film is co-produced by John J. Michalczyk and Susan A. Michalczyk. For more information, please see the Etoile Productions website or contact Professor John J. Michalczyk.
