What is the relationship between legislation and Nazi violence in the Netherlands from 1940 to 1945? This work uncovers, for the first time, the documents that led to German legislation in the Netherlands. The occupying power presents itself in the Netherlands, on one hand, as a state governed by law through legislation, and legitimizes itself through decrees. On the other hand, it announces unlawful measures. Therefore, the citizen in the Nazi state is simultaneously kept in check by regulatory ordinances and threatened by unlawful actions. The Nazi system deliberately exploits the discrepancy between right and wrong. Legislation has degenerated into a political instrument devoid of moral content.