Nov. 17, 2010

Museum Program Explores Holocaust's Current Legal Impact

Throughout California, members of the judiciary got a glimpse into what their job may have been like during the Nazi regime in Germany. Three sessions hosted by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Sacramento, Irvine, and San Francisco on Nov. 5, 8, and 9 respectively, offered over 400 members of the judiciary a look back at court operations during this era, and a study of why the Holocaust is still relevant in today's legal world. While the Museum offers similar seminars in seven other states, these were the first Museum judicial training programs held in California. Each program explored how the German judiciary functioned in the democratic Weimar Republic, the Nazi era, and the post-war period, and included a panel discussion featuring judges, historians, and academics, analyzing history's impact on judges today. PHOTO: Dr. William Meinecke, historian at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, leads its "Law, Justice and the Holocaust" training program at UC Irvine.