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NUREMBERG LAWS

THE DEVELOPMENT OF NAZISM AND PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN GERMANY (1918‒1939)

THE DEVELOPMENT OF NAZISM AND PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN GERMANY (1918‒1939)

NUREMBERG LAWS

On 15 September 1935, the Reichstag, on a special meeting convened in Nuremberg, passed racist laws, commonly known as the Nuremberg Laws. Under these laws the Jews became second-class citizens or were rather simply deprived of civic rights. The Reich Citizenship Law and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour stated that a person of Jewish descent could not be a citizen of the German Reich because such a person did not have German blood. A Jew was somebody, whose ancestors, even going back three generations, were of Jewish origins. Legal regulations now excluded Jews from political, social and cultural life. They were deprived of the rights of a Reich citizen, including the right to vote, hold public offices or do military service. Mixed marriages were forbidden (i.e. between Jews and citizens of German blood) and German spouses in such marriages were encouraged to divorce. Sexual contact between a Jew and a German was treated as a criminal offence. Persons accused of ‘desecrating the race’ were arrested and sent to a concentration camp. Jews were forbidden to employ as house servants non-Jews under the age of 45. They were also forbidden to purchase cars, valuable items, telephones or even animal pets. German Jews became ‘subjects of the Reich’ deprived of all civic rights. By 1939 over two thousand anti-Jewish rules and regulations had been introduced to German law.


In 1936, attacks against the Jews decreased slightly due to the Olympic Games being held in Berlin. But at the start of 1938 the persecution was resumed with renewed energy. In Austria after the Anschluss, the same anti-Jewish decrees applied as in Germany. To facilitate the appropriation of their real estate, Jews were forced to register everything that belonged to them. Many were forced to sell their estates at below market prices, while those who resisted simply had their estates confiscated. To ease identification, the authorities ordered Jews to adopt additional Jewish names: Israel or Sara. Their passports were stamped with the letter ‘J’.

*Think: *

  • Consider the consequences of the Nuremberg Laws for German Jews?
  • Evaluate the consequences?
A poster showing the pseudo-scientific racial division of the population.

Source: USHMM

A chart presenting a pseudo-scientific division of people into races, forming a basis for the racial policies of Nazi Germany. According to this chart, the only racially pure people are those who have four German grandparents (the four white circles in the first column on the left). German citizens with three or four Jewish ancestors (first and second column on the right) were Jews. The second and third column from the left represent the Mischlinge (mixed-blood) categories, depending on the number of Jewish ancestors they had.

A man and a woman standing in the street, with signs hanging from their chests. They are elegantly dressed, the man in a suit, the woman in a dress and wearing a hat. Behind them are men in uniforms with swastikas on their shoulders.

Source: Yad Vashem Photo Archive, Jerusalem, sign. 1652/26

Unmarried German-Jewish couples were publicly stigmatised. In the photograph a German woman and Jew with notices informing passers-by of their extramarital relationship, which under the Nuremberg Laws was prohibited.

Think:

  • What could have been the purpose of publicly stigmatising people who broke the Nuremberg Laws?
The passport of Sarah Rosenberg. In the photograph is a young woman with dark hair, wearing a white blouse with a collar and a jacket. On the passport are the stamps of the Third Reich - an eagle holding a wreath with a swastika in its talons and a large letter 'J'.

Source: Janrense Boonstra, Hans Jansen and Joke Kniesmeyer, Antisemitism. A History Portrayed, Amsterdam 1993.

Passport issued to Sara Rosenberg, 23 January 1939. On the left side there is a large letter ‘J’—Jude.

Think:

  • What was the purpose of giving Jewish names to assimilated Jews?
  • Why was the letter ‘J’ stamped into the passports of people of Jewish descent?

Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour of 15 September 1935.

Moved by the understanding that purity of German blood is the essential condition for the continued existence of the German people, and inspired by the inflexible determination to ensure the existence of the German nation for all time, the Reichstag has unanimously adopted the following law, which is promulgated herewith:

Article 1


  1. Marriages between Jews and subjects of the state of German or related blood are forbidden. Marriages nevertheless concluded are invalid, even if concluded abroad to circumvent this law…

    Article 2

    Extramarital relations between Jews and subjects of the state of German or related blood are forbidden.

    Article 3

    Jews may not employ in their households female subjects of the state of German or related blood who are under 45 years old.

    Article 4

  2. Jews are forbidden to fly flags of German national colours…

    Article 5

  3. Any person who violates the prohibition under Article 1 will be punished with a prison sentence.
  4. A male who violates the prohibition under Article 2 will be punished with a jail term or a prison sentence.

Source: Robert Szuchta and Piotr Trojański, Zrozumieć Holokaust, Warsaw 2012, p. 139.

First implementing regulation to the Reich Citizenship Law, 14 November 1935.

Article 3

Only the Reich citizen, as bearer of full political rights, exercises the right to vote in political affairs or can hold public office…

Article 4


  1. A Jew cannot be a citizen of the Reich. He has no right to vote in political affairs, he cannot occupy a public office…
  2. Jewish civil servants will retire as of 31 December 1935…

    Article 5

  3. A Jew is anyone who has among his second-degree relatives [grandparents] at least three ancestors who were fully Jewish by race.
  4. A Jew is also anyone who is a German subject of mixed-blood and descended from two Jewish ancestors.

Source: Robert Szuchta and Piotr Trojański, Zrozumieć Holokaust, Warsaw 2012, p. 139.

Questions to the text:

  • What issues did the Nuremberg Laws regulate?
  • Explain why it is considered to be racist legislation?
  • What criteria were used to define Jewish origin?