1/ For the most part, this is not the "law". We're talking about instructions that have not been legally challenged, that are issued by a government agency, ie

1/ For the most part, this is not the "law". We're talking about instructions that have not been legally challenged, that are issued by a government agency, ie civil servants that are not responsible to the people. 2/ In any case "the law" is only the result of a very imperfect process; it's not the word of God: it can be changed (it often is) and it doesn't have any special moral value. Your moral code is yours, it's dictated by your conscience and should not be taken whole from texts written by other people. In the 20th century, many crimes have been committed by people following the law, and not just in Nazi Germany. French Jews were arrested and delivered to the German authorities by members of the French police who were simply following orders. The ones giving the orders have indeed been tried after the war, but not the ones following them; in fact they never had to suffer any consequence for their actions. But the truth is, had there been no cops willing to participate, there would have been no deportations. "I'm just doing my job" or "I was just following orders" is NOT a valid excuse. It's a cop out (pun intended).