What is it with American Clients and their Nazi Obsession?

Posted on 2024-12-05 by Andreas Moser

I really like to help the victims of Nazi persecution. Or rather their descendants, considering that most people who survived that horror have passed away since. My main focus is on the restitution of German citizenship to those whose ancestors were once stripped of it by the Nazis. (Sometimes, it even happens that I get into a random taxi in Bolivia, and as the driver recounts his family history, I can tell him that he is eligible for a German passport.)

But then, there is another group of clients, and I am sure it is mere coincidence that, thus far, they have all been American: People who want to be victims of Nazi persecution.

These cases have nothing to do with the Nazis, they are not even political in any way. It’s usually a child custody dispute or some tax stuff. Little things. Nothing to get agitated about.

Yet, that particular type of client wants to turn their mundane dispute into a personal fight against evil, as if they were single-handedly storming the beaches of Sicily, Salerno and Normandy and killing every single Nazi on the way to Berlin. (Where they would then complain about the absence of the Berlin Wall and a McDonald’s.) Or maybe they have watched too many movies and not enough news and believe that Germany is still ruled by the Nazis.

For example, there was this one lady, from Florida, but living in Munich, who was late with paying her bill. Very late. Despite repeated reminders. When she realized that I wouldn’t yield, she finally paid and sent this e-mail:

Andreas, I paid today. 

I told you I was in bad shape. Very bad shape in this Nazi nightmare.

To which I replied, with – for a lawyer – astonishing conciseness:

1- Thank you very much for the payment!

2- I recommend a short trip to Dachau and a visit to the exhibition there before making Nazi comparisons. It’s belittling to the real victims.

That advice was free. Because I am a nice guy, and I give people the chance to reflect on what they wrote. But always, really always, those people keep digging the hole they put themselves into.

Her reply:

If you knew my husband’s tactics I don’t think you would make that comment. Less than putting me in a gas chamber which is almost my wish at this point is that it all is humiliated me beaten me taking my kids away called me a whore and a slut in front of my kids to me there’s nothing worse than this and it’s an appalling behavior of abuse of power. But I guess it’s always the victim said allow themselves someway to be a little old so in the end it’s always the victim fault.

Oh, he also threw out my nine-year-old father and my mother out of the house that I used to own in Florida that I was stupid have to sign over to him that he will sell it in the company and I end up with nothing kids no home no life. After working for him for so many years. And too stupid to take care of myself.

By the way my family history is of partial Jewish descent the last name was like who fled to America rest of the family was annihilated by the German Nazis. I never held resentment which is why I was able to live in Germany and excepted as a tragedy of war . My experience has proven different and if I could to my life over again I would’ve skipped the German part. I was so understanding forgiving and in disbelief of cruel behavior that I even had children here. Anyway , A systematic premeditated intent to destroy the life of another person was just calling to spade a spade

To which I replied nothing, because as only a foreign speaker of English, the grammar had become too complex for me. Sorry.

As you may have figured out from the above excerpts, this sort of people have more problems than inappropriate historical comparisons. In fact, it is just one of many red flags, which by now I have learned to detect early on, giving me the opportunity to gracefully decline any request to get involved in their personal battles and tribulations.

Or take this guy, who has been fighting to spend time with his children for years, which must suck big-time. However, child custody cases are severely contested in many jurisdictions around the world, and I am not sure the Gestapo comparison is appropriate.

I want a lawyer to find out if there are any restraining orders or anything else against me. I can’t imagine what anything else could mean, but lying and ignoring the law have not prevented German officials from acting badly. One of my other lawyers tells some horror stories from her 10 years of court cases to finally get one man his son.

Maybe not the same lawyer because this requires a bit of courage: I also want a lawyer to be around if the police act illegally with me like they did 5 years ago. (The Goettingen police arrested me on false charges, refused to let me talk to a lawyer, only let me out of jail after they confirmed they had nothing to arrest me on but told me if they saw me again they would keep me in jail regardless of the law). So I want a lawyer around who won’t meekly ignore illegal actions by the police, if there is any chance I meet with my kids. I may get some extra help (e.g. PhD psychologist) as observers so if the police do one of their Gestapo tactics again, others are present. This will remind them of how much trouble they will be in if the police act badly.

This may sound extreme, but after my experiences in Germany (also included judges clearly lying, in writing) tell me the law isn’t that important so I need to take extra measures to prevent that from impacting me.

Just to put things into perspective: The Gestapo was the Nazi’s secret police and played a key role in the suppression of any opposition and in the Holocaust. It was an instrument of terror.

Now, I am not saying that contemporary German police are all nice people. Quite the contrary, there is the problem of racial profiling, and each time I return to Germany from abroad, I really wonder why my country has one of the unfriendliest border police forces in the world. – But still, that’s very far from the Gestapo. I mean, in all of last year, there were 8 people shot dead by the police in Germany. (In the USA, it takes the police only three days to kill as many people. Or twelve days if adjusted per capita.)

If you are ever in Germany and interested in the Gestapo, their former headquarters in Cologne have been turned into a museum.

Oh, you remember the “part of my family was of Jewish descent” from above? This is of course topped by “I have Jewish friends”, which is another warning sign, reminding me of people who “can’t be racist, because I have black friends / have been to Africa / like Puff Diddy”.

Let’s take this example:

Hi Andreas,

I just discovered your website and think you took a great decision by closing your office and travel! I feel that you are the kind of Lawyer we could have hired, you seem loyal, honest and knowledgeable.

Actually, I have since returned to practice as a lawyer in Germany. But I don’t necessarily want everyone to know about that.

Here is the situation and I need your total honesty.

Our story: In 2012 (USA), (10 years ago!!!) we purchased a cell phone to our daughter and put her on the phone family plan and she started sending nasty pictures (pictures taken when she was on vacation in Hawaii 2 weeks with her friend. We were not with her on vacation! So being nice parents and buying her a trip in Hawaii was a big mistake that destroyed our lives) to her “friends” on line and when she was caught at her return, my husband smashed her phone in pieces and cut Internet access to protect her and deleted everything to protect her (because kids go to prison for that matter in America) and he was not aware she hid a pic on an Apple Ipad. The daughter blackmailed her father, furious that he destroyed the phone and said that she would make up a story if she did not get what she asked for. My husband refused and she reported false allegations to the police.

The Law Enforcement were not happy because the nasty pictures were destroyed and the police is mad at my husband for destroying the data because they could have caught her “friends” with her nasty pictures so the Law enforcement retaliated and gave my husband a false conviction, he was held for 5 years without trial (with false added allegations), tortured, included water boarding and in extreme psychological torture. By the way, our daughter of 12 years old was kidnapped by FBI and put for adoption because I did not want to collaborate and did not want to lie to get her back.

Why isn’t there a movie about this?

So because of that ONE picture that he did not take and that picture was found on the Ipad that he was not aware of, he was put on the Megan List (a cruel list that does not make sense where about 1 million people (included children from 5 years old are labeled absurdly Sex Offenders and are on that list that violates their human rights) have their lives destroyed and family members and friends are harassed by the police.

As soon as a person is on the registry in USA (Megan list/Sex Offenders list) his/her life is basically over.

They are labeled harshly Sex Offenders (in USA, you do not need to commit a sex crime to be on that list, if someone is caught to pee outside, two teenagers in love, mooning, touching a shoulder, sexting, sending pics, and even a five year old hugging a teacher…  will end on the Sex Offenders Registry and basically it had been proven that life on the Megan registry is very parallel to the Dark History of Germany (branded passport, you cannot go to the park, library, live where you want…, people are on a Public List on Internet with their pictures and address and are murdered, commit suicide….

We moved at the end of 2021 to Germany to try to get a life and the American government with the help of the German Law Enforcement and vigilantes stalk us, snitch on her, report our location daily, telling neighbors, Doctors not to deal with us, shops refuse services…..

Basically we are treated like Jewish people were, sadly. Could you believe that?

A Holocaust Survivor man has his grand-son on the Megan List and mentioned the parallel with the Holocaust and said “no, not again!”.

We hired a Lawyer in Nuremberg, Germany where we live and after reading on your Blog how to hire a good Lawyer, I realized he was not a good fit because he portrayed exactly the “Lawyer” not to hire. He was not loyal, barely talkative, the authorities told him not to work with us anymore.

We consider ourself good and educated people and we did nothing wrong in USA or anywhere else. We would like to file for international human rights violation and against harassment.

We know that we will never get a loyal Lawyer so we would like to file a petition against the police, against USA too by ourself. Would you be able to help us? To tell us where to go to file or file for us, the form to use…We are from USA and we do not speak German enough to do so. Of course, we will pay you to do everything for us fast.

Is it something you could do? We have also other law suit we would like to do too.

We do not want to waste money with another Lawyer who will not help us.

Again, in my reply, I offered the chance to walk away from the unfounded comparison:

I am aware of Megan’s Law and its completely over-bearing consequences, although, based on my understanding of the law and of German history, I would not compare it to racial and anti-semitic persecution of whole groups of people.

I am also not quite sure what you want to achieve. There is nothing that a German lawyer or a German court could do to change a US federal or state law or indeed influence any US federal or state government action. Neither country is subject to the jurisdiction of the other country.

There is no international human rights court. (There is a European one, but it only deals with acts by member states of the Council of Europe.)

A different matter would be specific acts of harassment taking place in Germany.

And as always, the person did not take the clue, instead doubling down:

As I mentioned a Holocaust survivor compared the Megan Law himself with the dark History of Germany because his son is on the Megan List and that link does prove it,

followed by the link to a YouTube video.

I realized that they were generally more the YouTube-watching rather than the e-mail-reading folks, because what they wrote next sure sounded as if they hadn’t properly read my e-mail.

We want to abolish the Megan List in an International court because it is a violation of Human rights based on the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” and the Lawyer we had did say that it is also an International matter because the Megan List also exists in other countries.

By now, one of my standard replies is:

This is not how the law works.

As the couple live in Nuremberg, they would actually have two memorial sites in their neighborhood: the Nazi party rally grounds and the site of the Nuremberg Trials.

But this time, I didn’t even recommend a visit, because the people sounded like they would just bother the poor museum staff. And as a general rule, historians are not any more interested in watching your YouTube links than lawyers are.

By the way, whenever I have a court case in Nuremberg, I try to cheer up my client: “Hey, you gonna get divorced in the same courthouse where they hanged the Nazis!” It never works.

Henceforth, I only want clients with a sense of history, please. Or at least with a sense of humor.

Links:

Posted in German Law, Germany, Law | Tagged , , , | 36 Comments

The Sad Life of a Superlawyer

Posted on 2024-12-04 by Andreas Moser

Criss-crossing the country, from court to court, from case to case, from client to client. At night you find yourself in yet another hotel, going to bed early, because there is nothing else to do.

And when you turn on the telly, they are showing “The Lincoln Lawyer”.

By the way, the series is better than the movie.

They just published the third season, but I won’t be able to watch it. Because I already saw in the trailer that there is a snake under the pillow. Also, I don’t have a Netflix. But seriously, snakes should be banned from TV, from movies, from zoos, from the whole planet, and especially from trains and planes.

To be honest, I often enjoy the traveling part of the job. I like the arbitrariness of ending up in a small town that I would never have visited, if it weren’t for a divorce or a custody dispute. With more than 600 family courts in Germany, I sometimes get called to towns that I had never even heard of before.

If I lived 150 years ago, I guess I would have been one of them lawyers on a horse, riding from town to town, advertising in the local gazette: “Long awaited by the people of Tombstone, world-renowned hot-shot lawyer Andreas Moser will be staying in our lovely town from Tuesday onward, dispensing legal advice in the saloon, every day from 8:30am until he can’t talk no more. Reduced fees for widows and orphans. Se habla español.“

Posted in Law, Life | Tagged | 17 Comments

Wrocław – First Impression

Posted on 2024-12-03 by Andreas Moser

Only a few short years ago, when I was still young, I could easily sit on a train for 27 hours without getting off once. And shortly thereafter, I did the same again. And then for an incredible 38 hours.

But now I have become old and appreciative of at least a minimum of comfort. Even when I just want to embark on a short train journey to the Baltics, I have to interrupt it in Silesia already. This is all the more true when it is a birthday trip, which unfortunately makes you yet a year older. (Unless you use this trick under international law.)

So I ended up in Wrocław this summer, decided on a stopover and spent two days wandering around the city, aimlessly and unprepared. Since I hadn’t read up on the history this time, I can spare you the long and boring explanations and simply present you with a few photos. The first impression.

Wrocław is a pretty cool city.

An interesting mix of old and new. Lots of culture. Surprisingly little hustle and bustle, especially for the size of the city. I felt very relaxed. So, if any of you live in Wrocław and ever need a cat sitter, please let me know!

Posted in Photography, Poland, Travel | Tagged | 3 Comments

Advocatus Diavolo

Posted on 2024-12-02 by Andreas Moser
Posted in Food, Law | Tagged | 5 Comments

Wannsee

Posted on 2024-12-01 by Andreas Moser

Zur deutschen Fassung.

Once again, I am on the train from the capital of culture to the capital of politics, from Chemnitz to Berlin. As I make this journey rather frequently, and because the Deutschlandticket limits me to local and regional trains, I like to vary the route from time to time. Sometimes I change trains in Elsterwerda, sometimes in Jüterbog, and today in Dessau.

The train is pretty packed already, so I have to decide quickly whom to sit next to. I like to choose people reading books. Or old people, because they have interesting stories to tell.

There is a young couple, recognizably from Israel. They are speaking Hebrew, and the boy is wearing a kippah. I sit down next to them, if only to prevent an anti-Semite from joining them at the next stop and ruining their journey.

Because I am not only forward-thinking like this and ever considerate of the well-being of all fellow human beings, but also polite, I greet them in Hebrew. This allows the two travelers to realize that I understand their language and to adjust their conversation accordingly, so as not to divulge any private or state secrets.

But the youthful voyagers seem to be on their honeymoon, because they keep conversing lovingly and laughingly.

Or they realized that my Hebrew is not that good. I have forgotten most of what I learned, and now only understand the numbers, as well as the words for beer (בירה), pizza (פיצה) and kibbutz (קיבוץ). Just what you need for a trip around the Holy Land. And the word “אצטרובל” [itstrubál] for a pine cone. It’s funny how the brain works. Many of the things I want to learn and memorize don’t stick. But that one word, which I heard more than 25 years ago in Ben Shemen forest, has occupied a brain cell as doggedly as an Israeli settler in the West Bank.

Almost as sweet as the word “אצטרובל” are the names of the places we pass:

Jeber-Bergfrieden.

Bad Belzig.

Borkheide.

Beelitz-Heilstätten.

Ah, now I finally know where this famous “lost place” is.

Brandenburg is like Upper Egypt. Some interesting ruins, but the rest is sand, and a flood every few years. (Upper Egypt is the part of Egypt which is at the bottom of the map, by the way. Just like Upper Bavaria or Upper Volta.)

I am digressing a bit, because I want to delay the inevitable. In fact, I would even prefer to redirect the train, if I could. Because I know which place we will pass soon.

“Well,” I tell myself, “they’re young people. That doesn’t mean anything to them anymore.” Besides, they are very happy and joking with each other. Probably not a honeymoon, after all, but the beautiful time before that fatal mistake that many people make despite my constant warnings.

If anyone finds this too negative: I am on my way to the family court, because two parents have been arguing for months about the days they see their son. Actually, people willing to marry and, above all, to procreate should be obliged to watch how quickly love turns into hate, before they are allowed to say “I do”. That’s probably why proceedings at the family court are closed to the public, as are only espionage trials. The state, concerned about the population pyramid, does not want people to learn the truth.

Wilhelmshorst.

Potsdam-Rehbrücke.

Potsdam-Babelsberg.

“Our next stop is Berlin-Wannsee. Exit to the right of the train.”

The girl next to me winces: “? ואנזה בגרמניה” (Wannsee is in Germany?)

I realize that Wannsee is just one of many Holocaust sites that she heard about at school. And because some of the most well-known of these – Auschwitz, Sobibor, Treblinka, Babi Yar, Majdanek – are located far to the east, the impression sometimes arises that the murder happened far away from the land of the murderers.

Perhaps that is why Germans appreciate these memorials in Eastern Europe so much. You can make a duty-bound trip there once, and then tell yourself that back home in Münster or Bremen or Fulda no one could have suspected, let alone known, anything about the Holocaust.

That is why I do not think much of carting all German school classes to Auschwitz, as is regularly suggested by politicians and by coach companies. They should go to Sachsenhausen if they are from Berlin. To Dachau if they are from Munich. To Neuengamme if they are from Hamburg. To Grafeneck if they are from the Swabian Alb. To Flossenbürg if they are from the Upper Palatinate. With thousands of concentration camps, Gestapo prisons, forced labor camps, euthanasia and other killing sites, you really don’t have to look far in Germany to see how ubiquitous genocide and other crimes were.

At the train station in Wannsee, they didn’t even bother to change the old signs. It still gives me the creeps each time I pass by.

Links:

Posted in Germany, History, Holocaust, Language | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Yay, I am in Timbuktu!

Posted on 2024-11-02 by Andreas Moser

Zur deutschen Fassung.

Do you know that feeling?

There are places, cities and countries you have always wanted to visit, although you hardly know anything about them. The desire can be traced back to infancy, probably to some comic books you read as a child. An idea took root, sometimes fading in the background, but never disappearing completely. An inexplicable but deep longing.

In my case, Timbuktu is one of these dream destinations, although, for the longest time, I didn’t even know that it is in Mali. We Europeans, and it is important to be self-critical about this, all too often think of the entire African continent as a single large, exotic country.

The only cure against such ignorance is traveling.

And now, I am finally in Timbuktu!

Well, admittedly, not quite yet.

The photo was actually taken in the ODF Park in Chemnitz. The marble slab sunk into the ground refers to the twinning between the most beautiful city in Saxony and the pearl of the Sahara.

Originally, the municipal partnership was concluded in 1969 between Timbuktu and Karl-Marx-Stadt. But I guess you don’t terminate your friendships either whenever somebody changes their name. (Except, of course, when someone gets a doctorate degree and insists on being addressed as Dr So-and-so. This reminds me of a story I once heard in Eastern Europe: An academic from Germany, probably a scholar of literature or theater, went to Russia for a year. When she moved into her apartment, she insisted that her name on the doorbell include the “Dr”. As a result, she was regularly woken up in the middle of the night by neighbors asking for medical help or for antibiotics.)

I, for one, am thrilled that Chemnitz has such a fabulous twin city. Because that really is a reason to finally hitchhike to Timbuktu. The fact that you have to cross the desert for 52 days to get there is a bit daunting, but I guess that just means that I have to pack a few more cans of Coca-Cola.

In my opinion, it should be a general rule that one visits all the twin cities of one’s (adopted) hometown.

In Chemnitz, however, this is quite a challenge. Not only because the list is endless and some places are 8,000 km away. Inconveniently, Stalingrad is in a country where you can easily be locked away for a few funny remarks on a blog. And Düsseldorf, well, I don’t see why anybody would want to go there voluntarily either.

How about you? What twin towns or regions does your hometown have? Did you ever visit any of them?

The otherwise unassuming village in Bavaria where I grew up has an active partnership with the region of Modi’in in Israel, at the heart of which is an annual youth exchange. I went many times, first as a participant, later as a guide. It was a fantastic experience, from which I still benefit decades later, culturally and intellectually, personally and linguistically. So, if you have any children, send them forth into the big wide world! (And you better pay for the exchange or the Interrail ticket, or elsewhere your kids will have to abscond as stowaways.)

Posted in Germany, Mali, Photography, Travel | Tagged , | 19 Comments

Password Swordfish

Posted on 2024-10-28 by Andreas Moser

If you have ever been on the internet, you probably have plenty of passwords. Sometimes, the web pages prompt us to change them, and then, if we don’t use them on a daily basis, we forget about them and are locked out of our accounts.

The Marx Brothers already foresaw that problem in their 1932 movie “Horse Feathers”.

Posted in Cinema | Tagged | 6 Comments

Karl Marx wishes you a wonderful autumn

Posted on 2024-10-27 by Andreas Moser

Zur deutschen Fassung.

This and the following photos are from the Park for the Victims of Fascism in Chemnitz, Germany.

It’s a large park, which is not a surprise, given the number of victims of fascism. And I am not even counting the guy who last year had his fingers cut off by a fascist, because he was a neo-Nazi himself. The two had conspired to fake the attack and blame it on the Antifa. I guess those guys should have their own park, dedicated to the victims of stupidity.

In any case, it’s a beautiful park, especially now in autumn. The public library is not far, and I often come here after having stocked up on books again.

And, as you may have guessed from one or two of the photos, the school buildings on the edge of the park are also impressive. Or, to be more precise, expressive. Because the Industrial School (at its time the largest vocational school in Germany) and the Agricola High School were opened in the 1920s and are outstandingly preserved examples of Brick Expressionism.

Too bad that most of us go to school at an age when we haven’t yet learned to appreciate such architecture. Many things in life proceed in the completely wrong order.

Posted in Germany, Photography | Tagged | 6 Comments

Saaremaa – First Impression

Posted on 2024-09-14 by Andreas Moser

I am still on the island of Saaremaa.

As usual, it will take me a few weeks or months to process all my impressions and experiences and – much to the dismay of some readers – all the half-knowledge I have acquired about the history of Estonia and this particular island, and to transform everything into a properly polished article.

But as a teaser, here are a few photos and my initial assessment: This island is pure paradise!

Seriously, I am often so amazed that I fall into the lush grass, exhausted from sheer happiness and bliss. Or maybe it’s because I’m not used to riding a bike anymore.

In any case, I spontaneously extended my vacation by a week.

If the people here weren’t so peaceful, which unfortunately means no need at all for lawyers, I would have settled right away. But as it is, I’m glad that Saaremaa is very large and my cycling muscles are very weak. That means that I will have to return many times to explore the island in full.

And you can look forward to the detailed article and to a postcard!

Posted in Estonia, Photography, Travel | Tagged | 14 Comments

Next Trip: Saaremaa

Posted on 2024-09-04 by Andreas Moser

Zur deutschen Fassung.

I almost feel guilty announcing yet another little trip as part of my journey to the center of Europe.

After all, I still haven’t even published the articles about the last geographical centers I visited – in Cölbe, near Purnuškės, in Europe Park north of Vilnius and in Suchowola. And then, there is the special episode about the geographical centers of Chemnitz.

My little history series has also been on hiatus for several months. As you see, the situation on this blog is pretty much a disaster.

Unfortunately, since I’ve returned to work as a lawyer, I’ve had far less spare time than granted to us under any human rights treaty. Divorces, child abductions, drugs and the new citizenship law all keep me on my toes. And a large part of my creativity is poured into legal briefs, which are only appreciated by a very exclusive audience. If at all.

In short: I really need a vacation.

So I’ve picked out the one of the supposed centers of Europe that I imagine to be the most beautiful and dreamlike of them all: the island of Saaremaa off the coast of Estonia.

Many years ago, I visited the smaller neighboring island of Hiiumaa. One of my secret travel tips for anyone who wants to do something against overtourism.

Back then it was the end of October and the first snow had just fallen. That’s why I’m going in September this time, when it’s still perfect weather for swimming, as the following videos show:

Hm, maybe I should pack a sweater. Just in case.

Actually, come to think of it, I am more into hiking than swimming anyway.

What I’m most looking forward to is the peace and quiet. Saaremaa is twice the size of Los Angeles, but only 36,000 people live on the island. And half of them are probably on the mainland to study or work.

I’m also excited by the outlook of staying on an island so sparsely populated that there is most certainly no mobile network or internet. I’ve already packed a backpack full of books and I am longing to take an offline break from all the problems of this world. (Unless some stupid country will invade Saaremaa again.)

So there will be radio silence until the end of September.

But after that, I hope to return to a regular publication schedule. I’ve put a freeze on accepting new clients until the end of the year, so that I have more time to write – and to study. I figured that in the gray fall and cold winter, your desire for travel stories from all over the world will be stronger than now in summer. At least that’s how I feel about it myself.

Links:

Posted in Estonia, Travel | Tagged | 20 Comments