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The Lesser Evil

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Judges Against Justice

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Abstract

Hans Calmeyer was the head of the office for Jewish matters in the Reichskommissariat of the German-occupied Netherlands. On the one hand, he was part of the operations that resulted in 76 % of the 140,000 Dutch Jews deported to the east and killed. He was responsible for the development, interpretation, and application of the Judenrecht in the Netherlands, which above all included the legislation that required that all Jews were registered as such in 1941. On the other hand, he and his office were directly responsible for the saving of hundreds of lives.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The presentation of Calmeyer is based on Rüthers (2008), pp. 84–101.

  2. 2.

    His account and a transcript of his witness statement for the Military Tribunal are published in Legislating the Holocaust: The Bernhard Loesener Memoirs and Supporting Documents by Schleunes (2001).

  3. 3.

    Schleunes (2001), location 546.

  4. 4.

    Schleunes (2001), location 571.

  5. 5.

    Schleunes (2001), location 787.

  6. 6.

    See the discussion in Essner (2002).

  7. 7.

    Stoltzfus (1996), p. 259.

  8. 8.

    Schorn (1959), p. 32.

  9. 9.

    Tamm (1984), pp. 41–42.

  10. 10.

    Nøkleby (1996), pp. 195 and 188.

  11. 11.

    Tamm (1984), p. 580.

  12. 12.

    See Michielsen (2004), pp. 84–89.

  13. 13.

    The Justice Case (1951), p. 1086.

  14. 14.

    Submission to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission by the following members of the Supreme Court of Appeal: Mr. Justice J.W. Smalberger, Mr. Justice C.T. Howie, Mr. Justice R.M. Marais, and Mr. Justice D.G. Scott, 115 S. African Law Journal 1998, p. 44.

  15. 15.

    The Justice Trial, p. 1086.

  16. 16.

    The Ministries Case, vol. XIV, p. 641.

  17. 17.

    The Ministries Case, vol. XIV, p. 646.

  18. 18.

    “Glaube niemand, daß es ihm gelingen werde, durch Teilnahme am Bösen Schlimmeres zu verhüten. Dies Experiment ist oft genug gemacht worden und oft genug mißlungen, ist auch oft genug ein bloßer Vorwand feiger Nachgiebigkeit gewesen. Auch wo er das, wie bei Schlegelberger, nicht war, führt er unvermeidlich in Verstrickungen mit dem Bösen, das man bekämpft, und schließlich zu jener Blindheit, die das Böse, das man zugesteht, in seinem wahren Wesen nicht mehr klar erkennt”, Radbruch (1948).

  19. 19.

    Arendt (2003), p. 35.

  20. 20.

    See Sharp (2010), p. 19.

  21. 21.

    Osiel (1995), p. 542.

  22. 22.

    Rehnquist (1998), location 3620.

  23. 23.

    Report vol. 4 from the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, (1998), p. 101.

  24. 24.

    Osiel (1995), p. 538.

  25. 25.

    Cover (1974), pp. 197–198.

  26. 26.

    Fraser (2005), p. 10.

  27. 27.

    Fraser (2005), p. 42.

  28. 28.

    Fuller (1957).

  29. 29.

    Radbruch (1946), p. 107.

  30. 30.

    Rundle (2009), pp. 65–125.

  31. 31.

    Rundle (2009), pp. 91–98.

  32. 32.

    Rundle (2009), p. 106, quoting Fuller.

  33. 33.

    This is even more pronounced in her article where she investigates how law is experienced in the daily life of its subjects; see Rundle (2012).

  34. 34.

    The Justice Trial, p. 1149.

  35. 35.

    See Werle (1992), pp. 2529–2535.

  36. 36.

    See Freudiger (2002), p. 405.

  37. 37.

    Gerrens (2009), p. 126.

  38. 38.

    See Brand-Ballard (2010), p. 177.

  39. 39.

    Dugard (1987), p. 500.

  40. 40.

    Cited from Döring (2011), pp. 113–114.

  41. 41.

    Wachs (1984).

  42. 42.

    Clover (2012), p. 198.

  43. 43.

    Submission to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission by the following members of the Supreme Court of Appeal: Mr. Justice J.W. Smalberger, Mr. Justice C.T. Howie, Mr. Justice R.M. Marais, and Mr. Justice D.G. Scott, 115 S. African Law Journal 1998, p. 45.

  44. 44.

    Dugard (1984).

  45. 45.

    Sharp (2010), p. 31.

  46. 46.

    Osiel (1995), pp. 548–549.

  47. 47.

    BGH, Urteil vom 16.11.1995—5 StR 747/94.

  48. 48.

    Graham v. Florida 560 US—08-7412 (2010).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Law, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Hans Petter Graver

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  1. Hans Petter Graver
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Graver, H.P. (2015). The Lesser Evil. In: Judges Against Justice. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44293-7_18

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