*/
“Six million is a big number”, Lord Justice Stanley Burnton told the group assembled in Temple Church on May 12 for the opening of “Lawyers without rights: Jewish lawyers in Germany under the Third Reich”, but the impact of this exhibition is to help us to remember that it represented a lot of individuals.
He explained that he had recently returned from a visit to the Berlin judiciary and cited several examples of how Germany “has confronted its past, it is not hidden”. The display, mounted by the Temple Church (thanks to the Master of the Temple Church, who organised the event), the Jewish Museum London and the German Federal Bar has already been to 50 cities in Germany, Israel and the United States. Nineteen panels tell the story of what happened both in general and in particular to 14 lawyers—men, women, people of varying seniority and eminence; those who were murdered, those who fled, and those who returned to rebuild their country. It is an exhibition which rightly requires the visitor to make an effort by reading in detail the texts, which are set out next to copies of extraordinary photographs and documents.
The gathering included Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers (himself the grandson of Sephardic Jews), HE the German Ambassador, the President of the Israeli Bar and the Vice-President of the German Bar. The latter pointed out that in 1933, Jews made up a substantial proportion of the legal profession, and the majority of practitioners in Berlin. What the exhibition does not answer, he admitted, is why their Gentile colleagues remained silent during the years of discrimination and exclusion: “in the end there is only shame”.
The main address was given by Mr Justice Beatson, who edited the accompanying book, Jurists Uprooted. He described in detail the step by step persecution between 1933 and 1938, the departure of refugees (academic lawyers were the first to go but overall numbers remained relatively small until the post-Krystallnacht flood after November 1938), what happened to them in England (“we can be proud but not smug”), the war-time internment (the future Lord Justice Kerr sat the Tripos in a disused ice cream factory, invigilated by the future Professor Kurt Lipstein), and their outstanding contribution to Britain.
What one remembers most vividly are the terrible pre-war events which happened in a country which was part of the family of western nations, at peace with its neighbours and ostensibly governed by the rule of law.
The exhibition is on until July 31.
He explained that he had recently returned from a visit to the Berlin judiciary and cited several examples of how Germany “has confronted its past, it is not hidden”. The display, mounted by the Temple Church (thanks to the Master of the Temple Church, who organised the event), the Jewish Museum London and the German Federal Bar has already been to 50 cities in Germany, Israel and the United States. Nineteen panels tell the story of what happened both in general and in particular to 14 lawyers—men, women, people of varying seniority and eminence; those who were murdered, those who fled, and those who returned to rebuild their country. It is an exhibition which rightly requires the visitor to make an effort by reading in detail the texts, which are set out next to copies of extraordinary photographs and documents.
The gathering included Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers (himself the grandson of Sephardic Jews), HE the German Ambassador, the President of the Israeli Bar and the Vice-President of the German Bar. The latter pointed out that in 1933, Jews made up a substantial proportion of the legal profession, and the majority of practitioners in Berlin. What the exhibition does not answer, he admitted, is why their Gentile colleagues remained silent during the years of discrimination and exclusion: “in the end there is only shame”.
The main address was given by Mr Justice Beatson, who edited the accompanying book, Jurists Uprooted. He described in detail the step by step persecution between 1933 and 1938, the departure of refugees (academic lawyers were the first to go but overall numbers remained relatively small until the post-Krystallnacht flood after November 1938), what happened to them in England (“we can be proud but not smug”), the war-time internment (the future Lord Justice Kerr sat the Tripos in a disused ice cream factory, invigilated by the future Professor Kurt Lipstein), and their outstanding contribution to Britain.
What one remembers most vividly are the terrible pre-war events which happened in a country which was part of the family of western nations, at peace with its neighbours and ostensibly governed by the rule of law.
The exhibition is on until July 31.
“Six million is a big number”, Lord Justice Stanley Burnton told the group assembled in Temple Church on May 12 for the opening of “Lawyers without rights: Jewish lawyers in Germany under the Third Reich”, but the impact of this exhibition is to help us to remember that it represented a lot of individuals.
The Chair of the Bar reports back
By Kem Kemal, CEO, Henry Dannell
By BSK Financial Planning
Mário Barroso, Head of R&D and Method Development at AlphaBiolabs
Susie Griffin on the admin that keeps barristers from billable work
Clement Cowley, Partner at The Penny Group, explains how global events can influence the performance of pensions and ISAs, and why taking a long-term approach to investing is often the most effective strategy
Kick off your career at the Bar Council’s Pupillage Fair this October – it’s one of the most valuable opportunities for aspiring barristers, says Amelia Clegg
Join us on Saturday 21 November 2026 at Leeds Beckett University and see for yourself why the North continues to be an exceptional place to build a career at the Bar
The golden age of advocacy? David Langwallner pays homage to the filmic if contentious barrister Sir Edward Carson and some of his contemporaries
Henry Fingerhut outlines what the Bar Standards Board AI guidance means for early career barristers
Not yet, says Jacob Turner. Regulation, unlike the technology itself, is a domain the legal profession can still control
