Prawnicy niemieckiego pochodzenia w Łodzi okresu II wojny światowej
Lawyers of German origin in Łódź during World War II

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the article is to analyse the biographies of German lawyers from Łódź,who during World War II were faced with the necessity of choosing:the Volksliste or maintaining Polish citizenship and leavingfor the General Government. After January 1945, those of themwho were on the German National List had to answer criminallyfor accepting German citizenship. The participation of pre-warlawyers in the National Socialist justice systemraised many doubts: the scope of activity of German lawyerswas diminishing in war conditions from year to year, and they could notrepresent Polish and Jewish clients before German courts. Their subsequent settlement and removal from the profession ended –together with the Holocaust of Jewish lawyers – the pre-warnational conflict over access to positions and the possibility of representing clients. The fate of the Łódź lawyers of German origin is symptomaticof the fate of the entire German middle class in central Poland – fromthe outbreak of the war to the last expulsions and displacements from post-war Łódźand the Łódź voivodeship.

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