Description

The Appeal against Mixed Marriages between 1933 and 1939. The Development of Judicial Decisions in the Third Reich: Conformity and Self-Assertion of the Courts. 233 p. (Text in German)
The author analyses and evaluates hitherto unpublished judgments passed by the civil courts on appeals made against so-called mixed marriages between Jewish and non-Jewish Germans in the Third Reich. Revaluating existing sources, he attempts to show how the judiciary either conformed or asserted itself under National Socialism. These judicial decisions are one of the darkest chapters in German court rulings made under civil jurisdiction. At the beginning many judgments demonstrated obvious restraint, and there were isolated courts which remained steadfast. However more and more judges adopted the new philosophy and declared mixed marriages void. After the war, court rulings of this nature were judged to be crimes against humanity.
It was then established that, although it had been possible to refrain It was then established that, although it had been possible to refrain from having to make such rulings, there were very few who made use of these possibilities.