WashU Law introduced the new course Law and the Holocaust this semester. The course offers students an in-depth examination of how legal systems operated before, during, and after one of history’s greatest atrocities.
Taught by Dr. Isaac Amon, Lecturer in Law, the course explores the role of law in enabling tyranny, the responsibilities of legal actors, and the lasting legal and moral legacy of the Holocaust. Structured around six intensive sessions, it examines the transformation of ordinary institutions in Nazi Germany into instruments of state exclusion, violence, and mass murder. Core topics include the role of legislation and courts in Nazi persecution, the failures and responsibilities of judges, lawyers, and civil servants, and the long-term consequences of genocide, including accountability and collective memory.
A central focus of the course is the Nuremberg Trials, whose 80th anniversary in 2026 provides a timely framework for studying how law was used both to perpetrate atrocity and, in its aftermath, to establish legal responsibility and a historical record. Students engage directly with primary and secondary sources to analyze how legal processes documented evidence, preserved testimony, and shaped modern international criminal law.
“The study of law and the Holocaust challenges the assumption that legality necessarily equates with justice,” said Professor Amon. “Nazi policies of persecution and extermination were carried out through formal legislation, judicial proceedings, and bureaucratic and administrative routines. Examining this legal history forces students, scholars, and practitioners alike to confront difficult questions about professional responsibility, moral judgment, and the limits of obedience to law.”
The course’s learning objectives include analyzing how Nazi legal frameworks were used to marginalize, persecute, and annihilate European Jewry, explaining the origins and legacy of the Nuremberg Trials, and assessing the ethical obligations of legal professionals operating within unjust systems. Through this lens, students develop skills in historical legal analysis while grappling with enduring questions about law’s capacity for both harm and redress.
Dean Stefanie Lindquist emphasized the importance of engaging with difficult legal histories as part of a rigorous legal education. “Courses like Law and the Holocaust help our students understand how law functions under extreme pressure and why ethical judgment and institutional integrity are essential to the rule of law,” she said. “This work prepares future lawyers to think critically about their professional responsibilities in moments when legal systems are tested.”
The course is informed by Professor Amon’s background in legal practice, historical scholarship, and international justice, including a prior fellowship with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague and investigations of ISIS atrocity crimes through an international NGO. It is further shaped by his research and frequent public engagement on legal history, antisemitism, and Jewish memory, as well as his own family history in the Holocaust and World War II.
In conjunction with the course, Professor Amon presented a continuing legal education program on January 21, co-sponsored by the Law Library Association of St. Louis and the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, extending this inquiry to practicing attorneys and judges. On January 27, he will be the keynote speaker in San Antonio for International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a special program co-sponsored by the Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio and the San Antonio Public Library.
Together, the course and accompanying CLE reflect WashU Law’s commitment to integrating legal education, historical understanding, and professional responsibility on the 80th anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials.
