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{{short description|Antisemitic and racist laws enacted in 1935 in Nazi Germany}}
{{for|the set of research ethics principles for human experimentation|Nuremberg Code}}
{{The Holocaust}} {{good article}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2022}}
After Hitler came to power in 1933, there was a rapid growth in German legislation directed at Jews, however the existence of many secular and atheistic Germans of Jewish origin and the adherence of the Nazis to racial definitions created a need for a clear legal method of defining who was Jewish. The '''Nuremberg Laws''' ({{lang-de|Nürnberger Gesetze}}) of 1935 were ] ] in ] which were introduced at the annual ]. The laws classified people with four German grandparents as "German or kindred blood", while people were classified as Jews if they descended from three or four Jewish grandparents. A person with one or two Jewish grandparents was a '']'', a crossbreed, of "mixed blood".<ref> In many cases a person with exactly two Jewish grandparents was deemed a "Jew" under the Nuremberg Laws. There were a number of ]s used, to determine if such a person --with precisely two Jewish grandparents-- was to be classified as a "Jew" or a "Mischling" under the laws. ''See'' ].</ref> The Nuremberg Laws deprived Jews of ] and prohibited marriage between Jews and other Germans.<ref>Hunt, L. (2009). The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures, Vol. C: Since 1740. Bedford/St. Martin's.</ref>
{{Use British English|date=November 2024}}
{{for multi|the set of guidelines for determining what constitutes a war crime|Nuremberg principles|the set of research ethics principles for human experimentation|Nuremberg Code}}
] {{Lang|de|]}} issue proclaiming the laws, published on 16 September 1935 (RGBl. I No. 100)]]
{{Discrimination sidebar|state=collapsed}}
The '''Nuremberg Laws''' ({{langx|de|link=no|Nürnberger Gesetze}}, {{IPA|de|ˈnʏʁnbɛʁɡɐ ɡəˈzɛtsə|pron|De-Nürnberger Gesetze.ogg}}) were ] and ] laws that were enacted in ] on 15 September 1935, at a special meeting of the ] convened during the annual ] of the ]. The two laws were the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour, which ] between ] and ] and the employment of German females under 45 in Jewish households; and the Reich Citizenship Law, which declared that only those of German or related blood were eligible to be Reich citizens. The remainder were classed as state subjects without any citizenship rights. A supplementary decree outlining the definition of who was Jewish was passed on 14 November, and the Reich Citizenship Law officially came into force on that date. The laws were expanded on 26 November 1935 to include ] and ]. This supplementary decree defined Romani people as "enemies of the race-based state", the same category as Jews.


Out of foreign policy concerns, prosecutions under the two laws did not commence until after the ], held in Berlin. After ] in 1933, the Nazis began to implement antisemitic policies, which included the formation of a '']'' (people's community) based on race. ] and '']'' (leader) of the Nazi Party ] declared a ] on 1 April 1933, and the ], passed on 7 April, excluded so-called ] from the legal profession, the civil service, and from teaching in secondary schools and universities. Books considered un-German, including those by Jewish authors, were destroyed in a nationwide ] on 10 May. Jewish citizens were harassed and subjected to violent attacks. They were actively suppressed, stripped of their citizenship and civil rights, and eventually completely removed from German society.
The existence of laws identifying who was Jewish made it easier for the Nazis to introduce legislation restricting Jewish rights, the laws themselves included a ban on sexual intercourse between (people defined as) "Jews" and (non-Jewish) Germans, and preventing "Jews" from participating in German civic life. Before 1870 Jews living in Germany were automatically defined as aliens and their rights were restricted, regardless of how many generations they had lived in the country, the Nuremburg laws were thus, to some extent, a reversion to a previous state of affairs.
== Background history ==
] used to explain the Nuremberg Laws]]


The Nuremberg Laws had a crippling economic and social impact on the Jewish community. Persons convicted of violating the marriage laws were imprisoned, and (subsequent to 8 March 1938) upon completing their sentences were re-arrested by the ] and sent to ]. Non-Jews gradually stopped socialising with Jews or shopping in Jewish-owned stores, many of which closed due to a lack of customers. As Jews were no longer permitted to work in the civil service or government-regulated professions such as medicine and education, many middle-class business owners and professionals were forced to take menial employment. Emigration was problematic, as Jews were required to remit ] upon leaving the country.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=64, 66}} By 1938 it was almost impossible for potential Jewish emigrants to find a country willing to take them. Mass deportation schemes such as the ] proved to be impossible for the Nazis to carry out, and starting in mid-1941, the German government started ].
At the time of ]'s ] on 30 January 1933 less than one percent of the German population was Jewish. Nevertheless, antisemitism had been a major theme of Hitler's rhetoric for almost fifteen years and attacks on Jews started almost as soon as Hitler assumed the Chancellorship in January 1933. The first nationwide example of the anti-Semitic campaign was the ] on 1 April 1933.


==Background==
During the spring and summer of 1935, many '']'' (Old Fighters; i.e. those who joined the ] before 1930, and who tended to be the most ardent anti-Semites in the Party) and ] members, disenchanted with unfulfilled promises by the Nazi party, were eager to lash out against Germany's Jewish minority as a way of expressing their frustrations against a group that the authorities would not generally protect.<ref name="K1">''Kershaw'' pp. 560-61.</ref> A ] report from the spring of 1935 stated that the rank and file of the Nazi Party would set in motion a solution to the "]" "by us from below that the government would then have to follow".<ref name="K1"/> The ensuing wave of assaults, vandalism and ] by active Nazis and SA members against German Jews in the spring and summer of 1935 was far more violent then the anti-Semitic campaigns in the two previous years.<ref name="K2">''Kershaw'' pp. 561-62.</ref>
{{Main|Nazi eugenics|Nazism and race}}
The Nazi Party was one of several ] political parties active in Germany after the end of the ].{{sfn|Evans|2003|pp=170–171}} The party platform included removal of the ], rejection of the terms of the ], radical antisemitism, and anti-].{{sfn|Goldhagen|1996|p=85}} They promised a strong central government, increased '']'' (living space) for Germanic peoples, formation of a ''Volksgemeinschaft'' (people's community) based on race, and racial cleansing via the active suppression of Jews, who would be stripped of their citizenship and civil rights.{{sfn|Evans|2003|pp=179–180}}


While imprisoned in 1924 after the failed ], Hitler dictated '']'' to his deputy, ].{{sfn|Bullock|1962|p=121}} The book is an autobiography and exposition of Hitler's ideology in which he laid out his plans for transforming German society into one based on race. In it, he outlined his belief in ], a conspiracy theory that posited the existence of an international Jewish conspiracy for world domination in which the Jews were the mortal enemy of the German people. Throughout his life, Hitler never wavered in his ] as expounded in ''Mein Kampf''.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|pp=148–150}} The Nazi Party advocated the concept of a ''Volksgemeinschaft'' ("people's community") with the aim of uniting all Germans as national comrades, whilst excluding those deemed either to be community aliens or of a ] (''Fremdvölkische'').{{sfn|Wildt|2012|pp=96–97}}
Dr. ], the Economics Minister, criticized arbitrary behavior by Party members as this inhibited his policy of developing the ].<ref name="K3">''Kershaw'' p. 563.</ref> It made no economic sense since Jews were believed to have certain entrepreneurial skills that could be usefully employed to further his policies. Schacht made no moral condemnation of anti-Jewish policy and advocated the passing of legislation to clarify the situation. Following complaints from Dr. Schacht plus reports on the public disagreement with the wave of anti-Semitic violence, Hitler ordered a stop to "individual actions" against German Jews on August 8, 1935.<ref name="K3"/> A conference of ministers was held on August 20, 1935 to discuss the negative economic effects of Party actions against Jews. Hitler, the Party representative at the conference, argued that such effects would cease, once the ] decided on a firm policy against the Jews. At the same time, the Interior Minister Dr. ] threatened to impose harsh penalties on those Party members who ignored the order of August 8 and continued to assault Jews.
<ref name="K3"/>


==Nazi Germany==
From Hitler's perspective, it was imperative to bring in harsh new anti-Semitic laws as a consolation prize for those Party members who were disappointed with Hitler's halt order of August 8, especially because Hitler had only reluctantly given the halt order for pragmatic reasons, and his sympathies were with the Party radicals.<ref name="K3"/>
] picketing in front of a Jewish place of business with placards saying "Germans! Defend yourselves! Don't buy from Jews!" during the ], 1 April 1933]]
nuremberg laws were fake
Discrimination against Jews intensified after the Nazis came into power; a month-long series of attacks by members of the '']'' (SA; paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party) on Jewish businesses, synagogues, and members of the legal profession followed.{{sfn|Shirer|1960|p=203}} On 21 March 1933, former U.S. congressman ], at a meeting of the executive advisory committee of the ], urged a strict boycott against all German goods.{{sfn|''New York Times'', 21 March 1933}} Later that month, a ] was declared, with the support of several prominent Jewish organisations (though with the abstention of others, such as the ]).{{sfn|Yahil|Friedman|1991|p=95}} In response, Hitler declared a ] on 1 April 1933.{{sfn|Shirer|1960|p=203}} By that time, many people who were not Nazi Party members were advocating for segregating Jews from the rest of German society.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=539}} The ], passed on 7 April 1933, forced all non-Aryans to retire from the legal profession and civil service.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=40}} Similar legislation soon deprived Jewish members of other professions of their right to practice.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=40}} It also barred Jews from teaching at universities.{{sfn|Isaacson|2007|pp=407–410}} In 1934, the Nazi Party published a pamphlet titled ''"Warum Arierparagraph?"'' ("Why the Aryan Law?"), which summarised the perceived need for the law.{{sfn|Schulz|Frercks|1934}} As part of the drive to remove what the Nazis called "Jewish influence" from cultural life, members of the ] removed from libraries any books considered un-German, and a nationwide ] was held on 10 May.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=39}} Violence and economic pressure were used by the regime to encourage Jews to voluntarily leave the country.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=67–69}} Legislation passed in July 1933 stripped naturalised German Jews of their citizenship, creating a legal basis for recent immigrants (particularly Eastern European Jews) to be deported.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=40}} Many towns posted signs forbidding entry to Jews.{{sfn|Shirer|1960|p=233}} Throughout 1933 and 1934, Jewish businesses were denied access to markets, forbidden to advertise in newspapers, and deprived of access to government contracts. Citizens were harassed and subjected to violent attacks.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=41}}
The seventh ] was held in Nuremberg from 10th to 16th September 1935. It was meant to introduce compulsory conscription and to liberate Germany from the restrictions of the ], hence its motto ''Party Rally of Freedom''. Hitler had planned a law making the Nazi Swastika flag the flag of the German ''Reich'', which was passed in Nuremberg on September 15 but is generally not counted among the "Nuremberg Laws". Moreover, he had prepared a major speech in support of the impending Italian aggression against Ethiopia.<ref name="K4">''Kershaw'' pp. 567-68.</ref> However, at the last minute, the German Foreign Minister Baron ] persuaded Hitler to cancel his speech as being too provocative to public opinion abroad.<ref name="K4"/> On September 12, 1935, two days after the beginning of the party rally, leading Nazi physician ] surprisingly announced in a speech that the Nazi government would soon introduce a “law for the protection of German blood” to prevent mixed marriages between Jews and “Aryans” in the future. Hitler immediately decided to extend the legal scope. The next day, ], legal adviser of the Nazi Party and State Secretary, Dr. Bernhard Lösener, the Interior Ministry official in charge of drafting anti-Semitic laws, ''Ministerialrat'' (Ministerial Counsellor) Franz Albrecht Medicus and other officials were hastily summoned from ] to ] to draft a law for Hitler to present to the ''Reichstag'' for September 15.<ref name="K5">''Kershaw'' p.567.</ref> Because of the short time available, both measures were hastily improvised – there was even a shortage of drafting paper so that menu cards had to be used.<ref name="K6">''Kershaw'' pp. 568-70 & 759-60.</ref>


Other laws promulgated in this period included the ] (passed on 14 July 1933), which called for the compulsory sterilisation of people with a range of hereditary, physical, and mental illnesses.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=507}} Under the Law against Dangerous Habitual Criminals (passed 24 November 1933), habitual criminals were forced to undergo sterilisation as well.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=511}} This law was also used to force the incarceration in prison or ] of "social misfits" such as the chronically unemployed, prostitutes, beggars, alcoholics, homeless vagrants, Black people, and Romani (referred to as ''Zigeuner'' "Gypsies").{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=49}}{{sfn|Morrison|2006|p=80}}
== Introduction of the Laws ==
On the evening of September 15, 1935, two measures were announced to the Reichstag at the annual ] in Nuremberg, becoming known as the Nuremberg Laws.<ref name="K4"/>


===Reich Gypsy Law===
The first law, '''The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour,'''<ref>, English translation at the University of the West of England</ref> prohibited marriages and extramarital intercourse between "Jews" (the name was now officially used in place of "non-Aryans") and "Germans" and also the employment of "German" females under forty-five in Jewish ]s. The second law, '''The Reich Citizenship Law''' <ref>, English translation at the University of the West of England</ref>, stripped persons not considered of German blood of their ] and introduced a new distinction between "Reich ]s" and "nationals".
The Central Office for Combatting Gypsies was established in 1929, under the Weimar Republic.{{sfn|Hilberg|2003|p=1070}} In December 1938 '']'' ] issued an order for "combatting the Gypsy plague". ] were to be categorised in terms of their Roma ancestry as a racial characteristic, rather than in terms of their previous characterisation as an 'anti-social' element of society.{{sfn|McGarry|2010|p=21}} This work was advanced by ] of the Racial Hygiene and Population unit of the Ministry of Health, who by 1942, had produced a scale of ZM+, ZM of the first and second degree, and ZM- to reflect an individual's decreasing level of Romani ancestry.{{sfn|Hilberg|2003|pp=1070–1071}} This classification meant that one could be classified as Roma and subject to anti-Roma legislation based on having two Roma great-great-grandparents.{{sfn|Wolfe|2014|p=96}} According to the Ministry of the Interior, the "Gypsy problem" could not be dealt with by forced resettlement or imprisonment within Germany, so they prepared a draft of a Reich "Gypsy Law" intended to supplement and accompany the Nuremberg Laws. The draft recommended identification and registration of all Roma, followed by ] and deportation. In 1938, public health authorities were ordered to register all Roma and Roma ''Mischlinge''.{{sfn|Grenville|2002|p=320}} Despite Himmler's interest in enacting such legislation, which he said would prevent "further intermingling of blood, and which regulates all the most pressing questions which go together with the existences of Gypsies in the living space of the German nation",{{sfn|Burleigh|Wippermann|1991|p=121}} the regime never promulgated the "Gypsy Law".{{sfn|USHMM, "Sinti and Roma"}} In December 1942, Himmler ordered that all Roma were to be sent to Nazi concentration camps.{{sfn|McGarry|2010|p=21}}


==="The Jewish problem"===
Hitler made a speech before the Reichstag in Nuremberg, introducing the laws and their alleged motivation, before the laws were formally read and proposed for adoption by ], the President of the Reichstag:
{{Antisemitism sidebar}}]
Disenchanted with the unfulfilled promise of Nazi Party leaders to eliminate Jews from German society, SA members were eager to lash out against the Jewish minority as a way of expressing their frustrations. A ] report from early 1935 stated that the rank and file of the Nazi Party would set in motion a solution to the "]{{nbsp}}... from below that the government would then have to follow".{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=340}} Assaults, vandalism, and boycotts against Jews, which the Nazi government had temporarily curbed in 1934, increased again in 1935 amidst a propaganda campaign authorised at the highest levels of government.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=340}} Most non-party members ignored the boycotts and objected to the violence out of concern for their own safety.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=341}} Israeli historian ] argues that there was a disparity between the views of the '']'' (longtime party members) and the general public, but that even those Germans who were not politically active favoured bringing in tougher new antisemitic laws in 1935.{{sfn|Marrus|2000|pp=92–93}} The matter was raised to the forefront of the state agenda as a result of this antisemitic agitation.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=342}}


Interior Minister ] announced on 25 July that a law forbidding marriages between Jews and non-Jews would shortly be promulgated, and recommended that registrars should avoid issuing licences for such marriages for the time being. The draft law also called for a ban on marriage for persons with hereditary illnesses.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=57–58}}
{{bquote|...Bitter complaints have come in from countless places citing the provocative behavior of ]....a certain amount of planning was involved.... vigorous defensive action by the people<ref>It was a standard tactic of Hitler's to transfer the blame for his aggressive actions onto his adversary so that his action was simply a "defensive" one.</ref>, we have no choice but to contain the problem through legislative measures....it may be possible, through a definitive secular solution, to create a basis on which the German people can have a tolerable relationship with the Jews.<ref>Even a cursory review of '']'' and Hitler's speeches before 1935 would make it clear to anyone that this prospect of "hope of toleration" extended by Hitler is a blatant lie. ''See also'' ''Kershaw'' p. 565.</ref> ... This law is an attempt to find a legislative solution....if this attempts fails, it will be necessary to transfer ... to the National Socialist Party for a final solution ({{lang-de| endgültige Lösung}}).<ref>The ominous term "]" did not yet, in ordinary discourse in 1935, necessarily entail the complete eradication of European or World Jewry. Neither did it exclude that possibility.</ref>}}


], Economics Minister and '']'' president, criticised the violent behaviour of the ''Alte Kämpfer'' and SA because of its negative impact on the economy.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=342}} The violence also had a negative impact on Germany's reputation in the international community.{{sfn|Gordon|1984|p=122}} For these reasons, Hitler ordered a stop to "individual actions" against German Jews on 8 August 1935, and Frick threatened to take legal action against Nazi Party members who ignored the order.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=342}} From Hitler's perspective, it was imperative to quickly bring in new antisemitic laws to appease the radical elements in the party who persisted in attempting to remove the Jews from German society by violent means.{{sfn|Gordon|1984|p=122}} A conference of ministers was held on 20 August 1935 to discuss the question. Hitler argued against violent methods because of the damage being done to the economy and insisted the matter must be settled through legislation.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=343}} The focus of the new laws would be marriage laws to prevent "racial defilement", stripping Jews of their German citizenship, and laws to prevent Jews from participating freely in the economy.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=59}}
The measures were unanimously adopted by the Reichstag. In twelve years of Nazi rule, the Reichstag only passed four laws: the Nuremberg laws were two of them.<ref>''Shirer'' p. 234n. Most laws in the Nazi state were simply decreed by Hitler under powers vested in him by the ]; there was no legal need for the "legislature" here, and having the Reichstag adopt these laws at the party rally was done for propaganda purposes. ''Kershaw'' p. 268-75.</ref>


===Events in Nuremberg===
The Nuremberg Laws by their general nature formalized the unofficial and particular measures taken against Jews up to 1935. The Nazi leaders made a point of stressing the consistency of this legislation with the ], which demanded that Jews should be deprived of their ] rights.
The seventh annual Nazi Party rally, held in Nuremberg from 10 to 16 September 1935, featured the only ] session held outside Berlin during the Nazi regime.{{sfn|Friedländer|2009|p=45}} Hitler decided that the rally would be a good opportunity to introduce the long-awaited anti-Jewish laws.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=543}} In a speech on 12 September, leading Nazi physician ] announced that the government would soon introduce a "law for the protection of German blood".{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=344}} The next day, Hitler summoned the Reichstag to meet in session at Nuremberg on 15 September, the last day of the rally.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=543}} He then spoke with ], ] in the Reich Interior Ministry, and ], a Ministerial Counselor, instructing them to draft a law forbidding sexual relations or marriages between Jews and non-Jews. They, in turn, summoned {{interlanguage link|Franz Albrecht Medicus|de}} and ] of the Interior Ministry to Nuremberg to assist with the hurried drafting of the legislation. The two men arrived on 14 September.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|pp=344–345}} That evening, Hitler ordered them to also have ready by morning a draft of the Reich citizenship law.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=59}} Hitler found the initial drafts of the Blood Law to be too lenient, so at around midnight Frick brought him four new drafts that differed mainly in the severity of the penalties they imposed. Hitler chose the most lenient version but left vague the definition of who was a Jew.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|pp=345–346}} Hitler stated at the rally that the laws were "an attempt at the legal settlement of a problem, which, if this proved a failure, would have to be entrusted by law to the National Socialist Party for a definitive solution".{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=60}} ] ] had the radio broadcast of the passing of the laws cut short, and ordered the German media to not mention them until a decision was made as to how they would be implemented.{{sfn|Mommsen|1989|p=225}}


== The Laws == ==Text of the laws==
{{multiple image
;The Laws for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour
| header = Nuremberg Race Laws
| align = right
| image1 = Blutschutzgesetz v.15.9.1935 - RGBl I 1146gesamt.jpg
| width1 = 157
| alt1 =
| caption1 = Reich Citizenship Law
| image2 = Blutschutzgesetz v.15.9.1935 - RGBl I 1147.jpg
| width2 = 159
| alt2 =
| caption2 = Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour
}}


The two Nuremberg Laws were unanimously passed by the Reichstag on 15 September 1935.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=544}} The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour prohibited marriages and ] between Jews and Germans, and forbade the employment of German females under 45 in Jewish households. The Reich Citizenship Law declared that only those of German or related blood were eligible to be Reich citizens; the remainder were classed as state subjects, without citizenship rights.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=345}} The wording in the Citizenship Law that a person must prove "by his conduct that he is willing and fit to faithfully serve the German people and Reich" meant that political opponents could also be stripped of their German citizenship.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=544}} This law was effectively a means of stripping Jews, Roma, and other "undesirables" of their legal rights and their citizenship.{{sfn|Wolfe|2014|p=94}}
{{Quote|
(September 15, 1935)
Entirely convinced that the purity of German blood is essential to the further existence of the German people, and inspired by the uncompromising determination to safeguard the future of the German nation, the Reichstag has unanimously resolved upon the following law, which is promulgated herewith:


Over the coming years, an additional 13 supplementary laws were promulgated that further marginalised the Jewish community in Germany.{{sfn|Shirer|1960|p=233}} For example, Jewish families were not permitted to submit claims for subsidies for large families and were forbidden to transact business with Aryans.{{sfn|Burleigh|Wippermann|1991|p=84}}
; Section 1
:#]s between Jews and citizens ({{lang-de|Staatsangehörige}}) of German or kindred blood are forbidden. Marriages concluded in defiance of this law are void, even if, for the purpose of evading this law, they were concluded abroad.
:#Proceedings for annulment may be initiated only by the ].
; Section 2
:Extramarital sexual intercourse between Jews and subjects of the state of Germany or related blood is forbidden.
:::*''(Supplementary decrees set Nazi definitions of racial Germans, Jews, and half-breeds or ]e --- see the latter entry for details and citations and ] for how such decrees were applied. Jews could not vote or hold public office under the parallel "citizenship" law.)''
; Section 3
: Jews will not be permitted to employ female citizens under the age of 45, of German or kindred blood, as ]s.
; Section 4
:#Jews are forbidden to display the ] and ] or the ].
:#On the other hand they are permitted to display the Jewish colours. The exercise of this right is protected by the State.
; Section 5
:#A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of Section 1 will be punished with ].
:#A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of Section 2 will be punished with ] or with hard labour.
:#A person who acts contrary to the provisions of Sections 3 or 4 will be punished with imprisonment up to a year and with a ], or with one of these penalties.
; Section 6
: The Reich Minister of the Interior in agreement with the Deputy Führer and the Reich ] will issue the legal and administrative regulations required for the enforcement and supplementing of this law.
; Section 7
: The law will become effective on the day after its promulgation; Section 3, however, not until January 1, 1936.
}}


Translations of the laws below are provided by the ].{{sfn|USHMM, "Nuremburg Race Laws"}}
== Effect of the Laws ==
]
{{See also|Anti-Jewish legislation in prewar Nazi Germany}}
Legal discrimination against Jews had come into being before the Nuremberg Laws and steadily grew as time went on; however, for discrimination to be effective, it was essential to have a clear definition of who was or was not a Jew. This was one important function of the Nuremberg laws and the numerous supplementary decrees that were proclaimed to further them.


=== Reich Citizenship Law ===
People defined as Jews could then be barred from employment as lawyers, doctors or journalists. Jews were prohibited from using state hospitals and could not be educated by the state past the age of 14. Public parks, libraries and beaches were closed to Jews. War memorials were to have Jewish names expunged. Even the lottery could not award winnings to Jews.<ref>{{cite web |title=Examples of Antisemitic Legislation, 1933-1939
{{Foreign language text table
|publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum no
|lang1=de|lang2=en
|url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007459
|text1='''Reichsbürgergesetz'''|trans1='''Reich Citizenship Law'''
|accessdate=2008-07-12}}</ref>
|text2=Der Reichstag hat einstimmig das folgende Gesetz beschlossen, das hiermit verkündet wird:
With the so-called ''Namensänderungsverordnung'' ("Regulation of Name Changes") of August 17, 1938, Jews were required to adopt a middle name: "Sara" for women and "Israel" for men. At the instigation of Swiss immigration official Heinrich Rothmund, passports of German Jews were required to have a large "J" stamped on them and could be used to leave Germany - but not to return.<ref>{{cite web
|trans2=The Reichstag has unanimously enacted the following law, which is promulgated herewith:
|title=The Nuremberg Race Laws
|text3='''§1'''<br>(1) Staatsangehöriger ist, wer dem Schutzverband des Deutschen Reiches angehört und ihm dafür besonders verpflichtet ist.<br>(2) Die Staatsangehörigkeit wird nach den Vorschriften des Reichs- und Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetzes erworben.|trans3='''§1'''<br>(1) A subject of the state is a person who enjoys the protection of the German Reich and who in consequence has specific obligations toward it.<br>(2) The status of subject of the state is acquired in accordance with the provisions of the Reich and the Reich Citizenship Law.
|publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
|text4='''§2'''<br>(1) Reichsbürger ist nur der Staatsangehörige deutschen oder artverwandten Blutes, der durch sein Verhalten beweist, daß er gewillt und geeignet ist, in Treue dem Deutschen Volk und Reich zu dienen.<br>(2) Das Reichsbürgerrecht wird durch Vereihung des Reichsbürgerbriefes erworben.<br>(3) Der Reichsbürger ist der alleinige Träger der vollen politischen Rechte nach Maßgabe der Gesetze.|trans4='''§2'''<br>(1) A Reich citizen is a subject of the state who is of German or related blood, and proves by his conduct that he is willing and fit to faithfully serve the German people and Reich.<br>(2) Reich citizenship is acquired through the granting of a Reich citizenship certificate.<br>(3) The Reich citizen is the sole bearer of full political rights in accordance with the law.
|url=http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/nlaw.htm
|text5='''§3'''<br>Der Reichsminister des Innern erläßt im Einvernehmen mit dem Stellvertreter des Führers die zur Durchführung und Ergänzung des Gesetzes erforderlichen Rechts- und Verwaltungsvorschriften.|trans5='''§3'''<br>The Reich Minister of the Interior, in coordination with the Deputy of the ''Führer'', will issue the legal and administrative orders required to implement and complete this law.}}
|accessdate=2008-07-12}}</ref>


=== Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor ===
The obligation to wear the ], introduced in ] in September 1939, was extended to all Jewish people living within the Nazi empire in September 1941.
{{Foreign language text table|lang1=de|lang2=en|text1='''Gesetz zum Schutze des deutschen Blutes und der deutschen Ehre'''|trans1='''Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor'''
|text2=Durchdrungen von der Erkenntnis, daß die Reinheit des deutschen Blutes die Voraussetzung für den Fortbestand des Deutschen Volkes ist, und beseelt von dem unbeugsamen Willen, die Deutsche Nation für alle Zukunft zu sichern, hat der Reichstag einstimmig das folgende Gesetz beschlossen, das hiermit verkündet wird:|trans2=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:
|text3='''§1'''<br>(1) Eheschließungen zwischen Juden und Staatsangehörigen deutschen oder artverwandten Blutes sind verboten. Trotzdem geschlossene Ehen sind nichtig, auch wenn sie zur Umgebung dieses Gesetzes im Ausland geschlossen wird. <br>(2) Die Nichtigkeitsklage kann nur der Staatsanwalt erheben.
|trans3='''§1'''<br>(1) Marriages between Jews and citizens of German or related blood are forbidden. Marriages nevertheless concluded are invalid, even if concluded abroad to circumvent this law.<br>(2) Annulment proceedings can be initiated only by the state prosecutor.
|text4='''§2'''<br>Außerehelicher Verkehr zwischen Juden und Staatsangehörigen deutschen oder artverwandten Blutes ist verboten.|trans4='''§2'''<br>Extramarital relations between Jews and citizens of German or related blood are forbidden.
|text5='''§3'''<br>Juden dürfen weibliche Staatsangehörige deutschen oder artverwandten Blutes unter 45 Jahren in ihrem Haushalt nicht beschäftigen.|trans5='''§3'''<br>Jews may not employ in their households female subjects of the state of Germany or related blood who are under 45 years old.
|text6='''§4'''<br>(1) Juden ist das Hissen der Reichs- und Nationalflagge und das Zeigen der Reichsfarben verboten.<br>(2) Dagegen ist ihnen das Zeigen der jüdischen Farben gestattet. Die Ausübung dieser Befugnis steht unter staatlichen Schutz.|trans6='''§4'''<br>(1) Jews are forbidden to fly the Reich or national flag or display Reich colors.<br>(2) They are, on the other hand, permitted to display the Jewish colors. The exercise of this right is protected by the state.
|text7='''§5'''<br>(1) Wer der Verbot des § 1 zuwiderhandelt, wird mit Zuchthaus bestraft.<br>(2) Der Mann, der dem Verbot des § 2 zuwiderhandelt, wird mit Gefängnis oder mit Zuchthaus bestraft.<br>(3) Wer den Bestimmungen der §§ 3 oder 4 zuwiderhandelt, wird mit Gefängnis bis zu einem Jahr und mit Geldstrafe oder mit einer dieser Strafen bestraft.|trans7='''§5'''<br>(1) Any person who violates the prohibition under Article 1 will be punished with a prison sentence with hard labor.<br>(2) A male who violates the prohibition under Article 2 will be punished with a jail term or a prison sentence with hard labor.<br>(3) Any person violating the provisions under Articles 3 or 4 will be punished with a jail term of up to one year and a fine, or with one or the other of these penalties.
|text8='''§6'''<br>Der Reichsminister des Innern erläßt im Einvernehmen mit dem Stellvertreter des Führers und dem Reichsminister der Justiz die zur Durchführung und Ergänzung des Gesetzes erforderlichen Rechts- und Verwaltungsvorschriften.|trans8='''§6'''<br>The Reich Minister of the Interior, in coordination with the Deputy of the ''Führer'' and the Reich Minister of Justice, will issue the legal and administrative regulations required to implement and complete this law.
|text9='''§7''' <br>Das Gesetz tritt am Tage nach der Verkündung, § 3 jedoch am 1. Januar 1936 in Kraft.|trans9='''§7''' <br>The law takes effect on the day following promulgation, except for Article 3, which goes into force on January 1, 1936.}}


==Classifications under the laws==
== Influence and inspiration ==
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
In the early thirties, the Nuremberg Laws and ] were regarded by many as the height of scientific thought and the laws were emulated in other countries such as ] passed in ] during ], which also had a strong ]. Romania, Slovakia and Croatia also emulated the Nazi laws.
|+1935{{sfn|Nuremberg Laws|1935}}
! scope="col" | Classification
! scope="col" | Translation
! scope="col" | Heritage
! scope="col" | Definition
|-
! scope="row" | ''Deutschblütiger''
| German-blooded
| German
| Belongs to the German race and nation; approved to have Reich citizenship
|-
! scope="row" | ''Deutschblütiger''
| German-blooded
| {{Fraction|8}} Jewish
| Considered as belonging to the German race and nation; approved to have Reich citizenship
|-
! scope="row" | ''Mischling zweiten Grades''
| Mixed race (second degree)
| {{Fraction|4}} Jewish
| Only partly belongs to the German race and nation; approved to have Reich citizenship
|-
! scope="row" | ''Mischling ersten Grades''
| Mixed race (first degree)
| {{Fraction|3|8}} or {{Fraction|2}} Jewish
| Only partly belongs to the German race and nation; approved to have Reich citizenship
|-
! scope="row" | ''Jude''
| Jew
| {{Fraction|3|4}} Jewish
| Belongs to the Jewish race and community; not approved to have Reich citizenship
|-
! scope="row" | ''Jude''
| Jew
| Jewish
| Belongs to the Jewish race and community; not approved to have Reich citizenship
|}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|+Special cases with first-degree ''Mischlinge''{{sfn|Nuremberg Laws|1935}}
|-
! scope="col" | Date
! scope="col" | Decree
|-
! scope="row" | 15 September 1935
| A ''Mischling'' will be considered a Jew if they are a member of the Jewish religious community.
|-
! scope="row" | 15 September 1935
| A ''Mischling'' will be considered a Jew if they are married to a Jew. Their children will be considered Jews.
|-
! scope="row" | 17 September 1935
| A mixed-race child that is born of a marriage with a Jew, where the marriage date is after 17 September 1935, will be classified as a Jew. Those born in marriages officiated on or before 17 September 1935 will still be classified as ''Mischlinge''.
|-
! scope="row" | 31 July 1936
| A mixed-race child originating from forbidden extramarital sexual intercourse with a Jew that is born out of wedlock after 31 July 1936 will be classified as a Jew.
|}


==Impact==
The principal inspiration for Nazi racial thinking was the British-German author, ], several of whose books were found in Hitler's private library.<ref>]: The Books That Shaped His Life, T.W. Ryback page 69 & 112 Knopf 2008</ref> Houston Chamberlain was inspired in turn by the ] theories of ]<ref>Brookes, M. 2004,Extreme Measures: The Dark Visions and Bright Ideas of Francis Galton, Bloomsbury Publ. Plc. London , p. 142.,</ref>, Galton was the cousin of Charles Darwin and his ideas owed a lot to ]. ], who coined the term "]" is also believed to have played an important role in bringing Galton's theories to Hitler's attention.
{{See also|Anti-Jewish legislation in pre-war Nazi Germany}}
]'s work ] was another influence and , in 1922, the New York Times report that his office contained a large picture of Ford.<ref>]: The Books That Shaped His Life, T.W. Ryback page 69 Knopf 2008</ref>
]e'', and Jew (English translation).]]
While both the Interior Ministry and the Nazi Party agreed that persons with three or more Jewish grandparents would be classed as being Jewish and those with only one ('']e'' of the second degree) would not, a debate arose as to the status of persons with two Jewish grandparents (''Mischlinge'' of the first degree).{{sfn|Friedländer|2009|p=49}} The Nazi Party, especially its more radical elements, wanted the laws to apply to ''Mischlinge'' of both the first and second degree.{{sfn|Mommsen|1989|p=224}} For this reason Hitler continued to stall, and did not make a decision until early November 1935. His final ruling was that persons with three Jewish grandparents were classed as Jewish; those with two Jewish grandparents would be considered Jewish only if they practised the faith or had a Jewish spouse.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=347}} The supplementary decree outlining the definition of who was Jewish was passed on 14 November, and the Reich Citizenship Law came into force on that date. Jews were no longer German citizens and did not have the right to vote.{{sfn|Friedländer|2009|p=50}} Jews and Gypsies were not allowed to vote in Reichstag elections or the ].{{sfn|Milton|2001|p=216}} Civil servants who had been granted an exemption to the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service because of their status as war veterans were forced out of their jobs on this date.{{sfn|Friedländer|2009|p=50}} A supplementary decree issued on 21 December ordered the dismissal of Jewish veterans from other state-regulated professions such as medicine and education.{{sfn|Friedländer|2009|p=50}}


While Frick's suggestion that a citizenship tribunal before which every German would have to prove that they were Aryan was not acted upon, proving one's racial heritage became a necessary part of daily life.{{sfn|Mommsen|1989|p=224}}{{sfn|Friedländer|2009|p=52}} Non-government employers were authorised to include in their statutes an ] excluding both ''Mischlinge'' and Jews from employment.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=547}} Proof of Aryan descent was achieved by obtaining an ]. One form was to acquire an '']'', which could be obtained by providing birth or baptismal certificates that all four grandparents were of Aryan descent.{{sfn|Ehrenreich|2007|p=68}} The ''Ahnenpass'' could also be acquired by citizens of other countries, as long as they were of "German or related blood".{{sfn|Scheil|2012}}
== Existing copies ==
An original typescript of the laws signed by Hitler was found by the 203rd Detachment of the ] (CIC), commanded by Martin Dannenberg, in ], ], on April 27, 1945. It was appropriated by General ], in violation of ]. During a visit to ], he secretly handed it over to the ]. The document was stored until June 26, 1999 when its existence was revealed. Although legal ownership of the document has not been established, it is on permanent loan to the ], which placed it on public display three days later.


]'', 1 July 1942]]
== See also ==
Under the ''Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour'' (15 September 1935), marriages were forbidden between Jews and Germans; between ''Mischlinge'' of the first degree and Germans; between Jews and ''Mischlinge'' of the second degree; and between two ''Mischlinge'' of the second degree. ''Mischlinge'' of the first degree were permitted to marry Jews, but they would henceforth be classed as Jewish themselves. All marriages undertaken between half-Jews and Germans required the approval of a Committee for the Protection of German Blood. Few such permissions were granted.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=547}} A supplementary decree issued on 26 November 1935 extended the law to "Gypsies, Negroes, and their bastards".{{sfn|Friedländer|2009|p=51}}
* ]
* ]
* ]


Persons suspected of having sexual relations with non-Aryans were charged with '']'' (racial defilement) and tried in the regular courts. Evidence provided to the Gestapo for such cases was largely provided by ordinary citizens such as neighbours, co-workers, or other informants.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=551}} Persons accused of race defilement were publicly humiliated by being paraded through the streets with a placard around their necks detailing their crime.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=540}} Those convicted were typically sentenced to prison terms, and (subsequent to 8 March 1938) upon completing their sentences were re-arrested by the Gestapo and sent to concentration camps.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=551}} As the law did not permit capital punishment for racial defilement, special courts were convened to allow the death penalty for some cases.{{sfn|Majer|2003|pp=331–332}} From the end of 1935 through 1940, 1,911 people were convicted of ''Rassenschande''. Over time, the law was extended to include non-sexual forms of physical contact such as greeting someone with a kiss or an embrace.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=551}}
== References ==
=== Bibliography ===
*Ehrenreich, Eric. ''The Nazi Ancestral Proof: Genealogy, Racial Science, and the Final Solution''. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-253-34945-3
*{{cite book | last = Fest| first = Joachim C. | title = Hitler | author-link=Joachim C. Fest| publisher = Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | year = 2002 | isbn = 0156027542}}
*{{cite book | last = Fischer | first = Conan | title = The Rise of the Nazis| publisher = Manchester University Press | year = 2002 |author-link=| isbn = 0719060672}}
*{{cite book |last=Kershaw|first=Ian|isbn = 0-393-04671-0 |author-link=Ian Kershaw|title= Hitler 1889–1936: Hubris|location=New York|publisher= W. W. Norton & Company|year=1999 }}
*{{cite book | last = Shirer | first = William L. | title = The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich| author-link = William L. Shirer | publisher =Simon & Shuster| location = New York | year = 1960 }}
*{{cite book | last = Toland | first = John | title = Adolf Hitler | author-link=John Toland| publisher = Doubleday & Company | year = 1976 | location = New York | isbn = 0-385-03724-4 }}


] on their clothing.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=217}}]]
=== Notes ===
{{reflist}}


For the most part, Germans accepted the Nuremberg Laws, partly because Nazi propaganda had successfully swayed public opinion towards the general belief that Jews were a separate race, but also because to oppose the regime meant leaving oneself open to harassment or arrest by the Gestapo.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=548}}{{sfn|Gordon|1984|p=180}} Citizens were relieved that the antisemitic violence ceased after the laws were passed.{{sfn|Gordon|1984|p=172}} Non-Jews gradually stopped socialising with Jews or shopping in Jewish-owned stores.{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=548, 553}} Wholesalers who continued to serve Jewish merchants were marched through the streets with placards around their necks proclaiming them as traitors.{{sfn|Gellately|1991|p=105}} The Communist Party and some elements of the Catholic Church were critical of the laws.{{sfn|Friedländer|2009|p=51}} Concerned that international opinion would be adversely swayed by the new laws, the Interior Ministry did not actively enforce them until after the ], held in Berlin that August.{{sfn|Gordon|1984|p=122}}{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=548}}
== External links ==
*
*, English translation at the University of the West of English
*, English translation at the University of the West of England
* (Nazi and other)
*
*


The Interior Ministry estimated there were 750,000 ''Mischlinge'' as of April 1935 (studies done after the war put the number of ''Mischlinge'' at around 200,000).{{sfn|Friedländer|2009|p=51}} As Jews became more and more excluded from German society, they organised social events, schools, and activities of their own.{{sfn|Friedländer|2009|p=55}} Economic problems were not so easily solved, however; many Jewish firms went out of business due to lack of customers. This was part of the ongoing ] process (the transfer of Jewish firms to non-Jewish owners, usually at prices far below market value) that the regime had initiated in 1933, which intensified after the Nuremberg Laws were passed.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=65–66}} Former middle-class or wealthy business owners were forced to take employment in menial jobs to support their families, and many were unable to find work at all.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=86}}
{{Segregation by type|state=collapsed}}
{{Nationality laws}}


Although a stated goal of the Nazis was that all Jews should leave the country, emigration was problematic, as Jews were required to remit up to 90 per cent of their wealth as a tax upon leaving the country.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=64, 66}} Anyone caught transferring their money overseas was sentenced to lengthy terms in prison as "economic saboteurs".{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=66}} An exception was money sent to Palestine under the terms of the ], whereby Jews could transfer some of their assets and emigrate to that country. Around 52,000 Jews emigrated to Palestine under the terms of this agreement between 1933 and 1939.{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=556–557}}

By the start of the Second World War in 1939, around 250,000 of Germany's 437,000 Jews had emigrated to the United States, the British Mandate of Palestine, Great Britain, and other countries.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=127}}{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=555}} By 1938 it was becoming almost impossible for potential Jewish emigrants to find a country that would take them.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=67}} After the ], the British were disinclined to accept any more Jews into Palestine for fear it would further destabilise the region.{{sfn|Friedländer|2009|p=57}} Nationalistic and ] people in other countries pressured their governments not to accept waves of Jewish immigrants, especially poverty-stricken ones.{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=560, 601}} The ], a proposed mass deportation of European Jews to Madagascar, proved to be impossible to carry out.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=162–164}} Starting in mid-1941, the German government began resorting to mass exterminations of European Jews.{{sfn|Rhodes|2003|pp=159–160}} The total number of Jews murdered during the resulting ] is estimated at 5.5 to 6 million people.{{sfn|Evans|2008|p=318}} Estimates of the death toll of Romani people in the ] range from 150,000 to 1,500,000.{{sfn|Hancock|2012|p=381}}

==Legislation in other countries==
] for approval of the Law for Protection of the Nation]]
Some of the other ] passed their own versions of the Nuremberg Laws.
* In 1938, ] passed the ] and ] which stripped Jews of their citizenship and forbade sexual relations and marriages between Jewish and non-Jewish Italians.{{sfn|Rodogno|2006|p=65}}
* Hungary passed laws on 28 May 1938 and 5 May 1939 banning Jews from various professions. A third law, added in August 1941, defined Jews as anyone with at least two Jewish grandparents, and forbade sexual relations or marriages between Jews and non-Jews.{{sfn|Frojimovics|2012|pp=250–251}}
* In 1940 the ruling ] in Romania passed the Law Defining the Legal Status of Romanian Jews.{{sfn|Fischer|2012|p=279}}
* In 1941 the ] was enacted in Slovakia.{{sfn|Matić|2002|p=174}}
* In 1941 Bulgaria passed the ].{{sfn|Dikovski|2000}}
* In 1941, the ] in Croatia passed legislation defining who was a Jew and restricting contact with them.{{sfn|Gilbert|2002|p=78}}
* While the ] did not draft or pass any legislation, they implemented policies targeting Jews in some occupied countries, like ] and ].{{sfn|Banka|2019}}{{sfn|Cheong Suk-Wai|2015}}

==Existing copy==
An original typescript of the laws signed by Hitler was found by the U.S. Army's ] in 1945. It ended up in the possession of General ], who kept it, in violation of orders that such finds should be turned over to the government. During a visit to Los Angeles in 1945, he handed it over to the ], where it was stored in a bomb-proof vault. The library revealed the existence of the document in 1999, and sent it on permanent loan to the ], which placed it on public display. The document was transferred to the ] in Washington in August 2010.{{sfn|Allen|2010}}{{sfn|Bradsher|2010}}

==See also==
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]

==References==
{{Reflist|25em}}

==Bibliography==
{{Refbegin|30em}}
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* {{cite book |last=Matić |first=Igor-Philip |title=Edmund Veesenmayer: Agent und Diplomat der nationalsozialistischen Expansionspolitik |year=2002 |publisher=Oldenbourg Verlag |location=München |language=de |isbn=978-3-486-56677-2}}
* {{cite book |last=McGarry |first=Aidan |title=Who Speaks for Roma?: Political Representation of a Transnational Minority Community |year=2010 |publisher=Bloomsbury |location=New York; London |isbn=978-0-8264-2880-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Milton |first=Sybil H. | editor1-last = Gellately | editor1-first = Robert | editor1-link = Robert Gellately | editor2-last = Stoltzfus | editor2-first = Nathan | editor2-link = Nathan Stoltzfus |title=Social Outsiders in Nazi Germany |chapter="Gypsies" as social outsiders in Nazi Germany |year=2001 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton |isbn=0-691-08684-2 | title-link = Social Outsiders in Nazi Germany}}
* {{cite book |last=Mommsen |first=Hans | author-link = Hans Mommsen | editor1-last = Marrus | editor1-first = Michael | editor1-link = Michael Marrus |title=The "Final Solution": The Implementation of Mass Murder |chapter=The Realization of the Unthinkable: The 'Final Solution of the Jewish Question' |pages=217–264 |volume=1 |series=The Nazi Holocaust, Part 3 |year=1989 |publisher=Meckler |location=Westport, CT |isbn=0-88736-255-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Morrison |first=Wayne |title=Criminology, Civilisation and the New World Order |year=2006 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon; New York |isbn=978-1-904-38512-7}}
* {{cite web |title=Reichsbürgergesetz und Gesetz zum Schutze des deutschen Blutes und der deutschen Ehre |language=de |url=http://www.1000dokumente.de/index.html?c=dokument_de&dokument=0007_nue&object=translation&st=&l=de |date=14 November 1935 |publisher=Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg |ref={{sfnRef|Nuremberg Laws|1935}} }}
*{{cite book |last=Rhodes |first=Richard | author-link = Richard Rhodes |year=2003 |title=Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust |place=New York |publisher=Vintage |isbn=978-0-375-70822-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Rodogno |first=David |title=Fascism's European Empire: Italian Occupation During the Second World War |year=2006 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-84515-1}}
* {{cite journal |last=Scheil |first=Stefan |url=http://jungefreiheit.de/kolumne/2012/arier/ |title=Arier |journal=Junge Freiheit |language=de |date=11 March 2012 | access-date = 11 March 2015}}
* {{cite book |last1=Schulz |first1=Edgar Hans |last2=Frercks |first2=Rudolf |title=Warum Arierparagraph? Ein Beitrag zur Judenfrage |trans-title=Why the Aryan Law? A Contribution to the Jewish Question |publisher=NSDAP Office of Racial Policy |location=Berlin |language=de |year=1934 |url=http://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/arier.htm |oclc=802537}}
* {{cite book |last=Shirer |first=William L. | author-link = William L. Shirer |title=The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |year=1960 |isbn=978-0-671-62420-0 | title-link = The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich}}
* {{cite web |title=Sinti and Roma: Victims of the Nazi Era |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |url=https://www.ushmm.org/m/pdfs/2000926-Roma-and-Sinti.pdf | access-date = 6 September 2016 |ref={{sfnRef|USHMM, "Sinti and Roma"}} }}
* {{cite news |author=Staff |title=Boycott Advocated to Curb Hitlerism; W.W. Cohen Says Any Jew Who Buys Goods Made in Germany Is a 'Traitor. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1933/03/21/archives/boycott-advocated-to-curb-hitlerism-ww-cohen-says-any-jew-who-buys.html |date=21 March 1933 |work=] |access-date=22 January 2009 |ref={{sfnRef|''New York Times'', 21 March 1933}} }}
*{{cite book |last1=Yahil |first1=Leni |last2=Friedman |first2=Ina |title=The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry: 1932-1945 |date=1991 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=London |isbn=9780195045239 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e_aRvKpLUf0C&pg=PA95}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |title=Nuremberg Race Laws |publisher=] |encyclopedia=Holocaust Encyclopedia |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nuremberg-laws#translation-4 | access-date = 4 December 2023 |ref={{sfnRef|USHMM, "Nuremburg Race Laws"}} }}
* {{cite book |last=Wildt |first=Michael |title=Hitler's Volksgemeinschaftand the Dynamics of Racial Exclusion: Violence Against Jews in Provincial Germany, 1919–1939 |publisher=Berghahn Books |year=2012 |isbn=978-0857453228}}
* {{cite book |last=Wolfe |first=Stephanie |title=The Politics of Reparations and Apologies |year=2014 |publisher=Springer |location=New York |isbn=978-1-4614-9184-2}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Bankier |first=David | editor1-last = Gutman | editor1-first = Israel | editor1-link = Israel Gutman |title=Encyclopedia of the Holocaust |volume=3 |pages= |year=1990 |publisher=Macmillan |location=New York |isbn=0-02-864527-8 | title-link = Encyclopedia of the Holocaust |ref=none}}
* {{cite journal |last=Gruchmann |first=Lothar |title='Blutschutzgestz' und Justiz: Zur Entstehung und Auswirkung des Nürnberger Gesetzes von 15 September 1935 |journal=Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte |language=de |date=July 1983 |volume=31 |pages=418–442 |publisher=Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag GmbH |location=München |jstor=30196462 |ref=none}}{{subscription required}}
* {{cite journal |last=Longerich |first=Peter |title=The Wannsee Conference in the Development of the 'Final Solution' |year=2000 |journal=Holocaust Educational Trust Research Papers |volume=1 |issue=2 |publisher=The Holocaust Educational Trust |location=London |url=http://www.ghwk.de/ghwk/engl/texts/wannsee-conference.pdf | access-date = 11 March 2015 |isbn=0-9516166-5-X | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150402115820/http://www.ghwk.de/ghwk/engl/texts/wannsee-conference.pdf | archive-date = 2 April 2015 |ref=none}}
* {{cite journal |last=Margaliot |first=Abraham|authorlink=Abraham Margaliot
|title=The Reaction of the Jewish Public in Germany to the Nuremberg Laws |journal=Yad Vashem Studies |year=1977 |volume=12 |pages=193–229 |publisher=] |location=Jerusalem |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Schleunes |first=Karl | author-link = Karl Schleunes |title=The Twisted Road to Auschwitz: Nazi Policy towards German Jews, 1933–1939 |year=1970 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |location=Urbana |isbn=978-0-252-00092-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/twistedroadtoaus00schl |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Whitman |first=James Q. |author-link=James Whitman |title=Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law |year=2017 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0691172422 |url=http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10925.html |ref=none}}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Nuremberg Laws}}
{{wikisourcelang|de|Nürnberger Gesetze|Nuremberg Laws}}
* on the ] website

{{The Holocaust}}
{{Segregation by type|state=collapsed}}{{Racism}}{{Discrimination}}{{Nationality laws}}

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Latest revision as of 10:15, 9 January 2025

Antisemitic and racist laws enacted in 1935 in Nazi Germany

For the set of guidelines for determining what constitutes a war crime, see Nuremberg principles. For the set of research ethics principles for human experimentation, see Nuremberg Code.
Title page of the German government gazette Reichsgesetzblatt issue proclaiming the laws, published on 16 September 1935 (RGBl. I No. 100)
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The Nuremberg Laws (German: Nürnberger Gesetze, pronounced [ˈnʏʁnbɛʁɡɐ ɡəˈzɛtsə] ) were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935, at a special meeting of the Reichstag convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. The two laws were the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour, which forbade marriages and extramarital intercourse between Jews and Germans and the employment of German females under 45 in Jewish households; and the Reich Citizenship Law, which declared that only those of German or related blood were eligible to be Reich citizens. The remainder were classed as state subjects without any citizenship rights. A supplementary decree outlining the definition of who was Jewish was passed on 14 November, and the Reich Citizenship Law officially came into force on that date. The laws were expanded on 26 November 1935 to include Romani and Black people. This supplementary decree defined Romani people as "enemies of the race-based state", the same category as Jews.

Out of foreign policy concerns, prosecutions under the two laws did not commence until after the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in Berlin. After Hitler rose to power in 1933, the Nazis began to implement antisemitic policies, which included the formation of a Volksgemeinschaft (people's community) based on race. Chancellor and Führer (leader) of the Nazi Party Adolf Hitler declared a national boycott of Jewish businesses on 1 April 1933, and the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, passed on 7 April, excluded so-called non-Aryans from the legal profession, the civil service, and from teaching in secondary schools and universities. Books considered un-German, including those by Jewish authors, were destroyed in a nationwide book burning on 10 May. Jewish citizens were harassed and subjected to violent attacks. They were actively suppressed, stripped of their citizenship and civil rights, and eventually completely removed from German society.

The Nuremberg Laws had a crippling economic and social impact on the Jewish community. Persons convicted of violating the marriage laws were imprisoned, and (subsequent to 8 March 1938) upon completing their sentences were re-arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Nazi concentration camps. Non-Jews gradually stopped socialising with Jews or shopping in Jewish-owned stores, many of which closed due to a lack of customers. As Jews were no longer permitted to work in the civil service or government-regulated professions such as medicine and education, many middle-class business owners and professionals were forced to take menial employment. Emigration was problematic, as Jews were required to remit up to 90% of their wealth as a tax upon leaving the country. By 1938 it was almost impossible for potential Jewish emigrants to find a country willing to take them. Mass deportation schemes such as the Madagascar Plan proved to be impossible for the Nazis to carry out, and starting in mid-1941, the German government started mass exterminations of European Jews.

Background

Main articles: Nazi eugenics and Nazism and race

The Nazi Party was one of several far-right political parties active in Germany after the end of the First World War. The party platform included removal of the Weimar Republic, rejection of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, radical antisemitism, and anti-Bolshevism. They promised a strong central government, increased Lebensraum (living space) for Germanic peoples, formation of a Volksgemeinschaft (people's community) based on race, and racial cleansing via the active suppression of Jews, who would be stripped of their citizenship and civil rights.

While imprisoned in 1924 after the failed Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler dictated Mein Kampf to his deputy, Rudolf Hess. The book is an autobiography and exposition of Hitler's ideology in which he laid out his plans for transforming German society into one based on race. In it, he outlined his belief in Jewish Bolshevism, a conspiracy theory that posited the existence of an international Jewish conspiracy for world domination in which the Jews were the mortal enemy of the German people. Throughout his life, Hitler never wavered in his worldview as expounded in Mein Kampf. The Nazi Party advocated the concept of a Volksgemeinschaft ("people's community") with the aim of uniting all Germans as national comrades, whilst excluding those deemed either to be community aliens or of a foreign race (Fremdvölkische).

Nazi Germany

Members of the SA picketing in front of a Jewish place of business with placards saying "Germans! Defend yourselves! Don't buy from Jews!" during the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses, 1 April 1933

Discrimination against Jews intensified after the Nazis came into power; a month-long series of attacks by members of the Sturmabteilung (SA; paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party) on Jewish businesses, synagogues, and members of the legal profession followed. On 21 March 1933, former U.S. congressman William W. Cohen, at a meeting of the executive advisory committee of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States, urged a strict boycott against all German goods. Later that month, a worldwide boycott of German goods was declared, with the support of several prominent Jewish organisations (though with the abstention of others, such as the Board of Deputies of British Jews). In response, Hitler declared a national boycott of Jewish businesses on 1 April 1933. By that time, many people who were not Nazi Party members were advocating for segregating Jews from the rest of German society. The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, passed on 7 April 1933, forced all non-Aryans to retire from the legal profession and civil service. Similar legislation soon deprived Jewish members of other professions of their right to practice. It also barred Jews from teaching at universities. In 1934, the Nazi Party published a pamphlet titled "Warum Arierparagraph?" ("Why the Aryan Law?"), which summarised the perceived need for the law. As part of the drive to remove what the Nazis called "Jewish influence" from cultural life, members of the National Socialist Student League removed from libraries any books considered un-German, and a nationwide book burning was held on 10 May. Violence and economic pressure were used by the regime to encourage Jews to voluntarily leave the country. Legislation passed in July 1933 stripped naturalised German Jews of their citizenship, creating a legal basis for recent immigrants (particularly Eastern European Jews) to be deported. Many towns posted signs forbidding entry to Jews. Throughout 1933 and 1934, Jewish businesses were denied access to markets, forbidden to advertise in newspapers, and deprived of access to government contracts. Citizens were harassed and subjected to violent attacks.

Other laws promulgated in this period included the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring (passed on 14 July 1933), which called for the compulsory sterilisation of people with a range of hereditary, physical, and mental illnesses. Under the Law against Dangerous Habitual Criminals (passed 24 November 1933), habitual criminals were forced to undergo sterilisation as well. This law was also used to force the incarceration in prison or Nazi concentration camps of "social misfits" such as the chronically unemployed, prostitutes, beggars, alcoholics, homeless vagrants, Black people, and Romani (referred to as Zigeuner "Gypsies").

Reich Gypsy Law

The Central Office for Combatting Gypsies was established in 1929, under the Weimar Republic. In December 1938 Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler issued an order for "combatting the Gypsy plague". Romani people were to be categorised in terms of their Roma ancestry as a racial characteristic, rather than in terms of their previous characterisation as an 'anti-social' element of society. This work was advanced by Robert Ritter of the Racial Hygiene and Population unit of the Ministry of Health, who by 1942, had produced a scale of ZM+, ZM of the first and second degree, and ZM- to reflect an individual's decreasing level of Romani ancestry. This classification meant that one could be classified as Roma and subject to anti-Roma legislation based on having two Roma great-great-grandparents. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the "Gypsy problem" could not be dealt with by forced resettlement or imprisonment within Germany, so they prepared a draft of a Reich "Gypsy Law" intended to supplement and accompany the Nuremberg Laws. The draft recommended identification and registration of all Roma, followed by sterilisation and deportation. In 1938, public health authorities were ordered to register all Roma and Roma Mischlinge. Despite Himmler's interest in enacting such legislation, which he said would prevent "further intermingling of blood, and which regulates all the most pressing questions which go together with the existences of Gypsies in the living space of the German nation", the regime never promulgated the "Gypsy Law". In December 1942, Himmler ordered that all Roma were to be sent to Nazi concentration camps.

"The Jewish problem"

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The SA had nearly three million members at the start of 1934.

Disenchanted with the unfulfilled promise of Nazi Party leaders to eliminate Jews from German society, SA members were eager to lash out against the Jewish minority as a way of expressing their frustrations. A Gestapo report from early 1935 stated that the rank and file of the Nazi Party would set in motion a solution to the "Jewish problem ... from below that the government would then have to follow". Assaults, vandalism, and boycotts against Jews, which the Nazi government had temporarily curbed in 1934, increased again in 1935 amidst a propaganda campaign authorised at the highest levels of government. Most non-party members ignored the boycotts and objected to the violence out of concern for their own safety. Israeli historian Otto Dov Kulka argues that there was a disparity between the views of the Alte Kämpfer (longtime party members) and the general public, but that even those Germans who were not politically active favoured bringing in tougher new antisemitic laws in 1935. The matter was raised to the forefront of the state agenda as a result of this antisemitic agitation.

Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick announced on 25 July that a law forbidding marriages between Jews and non-Jews would shortly be promulgated, and recommended that registrars should avoid issuing licences for such marriages for the time being. The draft law also called for a ban on marriage for persons with hereditary illnesses.

Hjalmar Schacht, Economics Minister and Reichsbank president, criticised the violent behaviour of the Alte Kämpfer and SA because of its negative impact on the economy. The violence also had a negative impact on Germany's reputation in the international community. For these reasons, Hitler ordered a stop to "individual actions" against German Jews on 8 August 1935, and Frick threatened to take legal action against Nazi Party members who ignored the order. From Hitler's perspective, it was imperative to quickly bring in new antisemitic laws to appease the radical elements in the party who persisted in attempting to remove the Jews from German society by violent means. A conference of ministers was held on 20 August 1935 to discuss the question. Hitler argued against violent methods because of the damage being done to the economy and insisted the matter must be settled through legislation. The focus of the new laws would be marriage laws to prevent "racial defilement", stripping Jews of their German citizenship, and laws to prevent Jews from participating freely in the economy.

Events in Nuremberg

The seventh annual Nazi Party rally, held in Nuremberg from 10 to 16 September 1935, featured the only Reichstag session held outside Berlin during the Nazi regime. Hitler decided that the rally would be a good opportunity to introduce the long-awaited anti-Jewish laws. In a speech on 12 September, leading Nazi physician Gerhard Wagner announced that the government would soon introduce a "law for the protection of German blood". The next day, Hitler summoned the Reichstag to meet in session at Nuremberg on 15 September, the last day of the rally. He then spoke with Hans Pfundtner, State Secretary in the Reich Interior Ministry, and Wilhelm Stuckart, a Ministerial Counselor, instructing them to draft a law forbidding sexual relations or marriages between Jews and non-Jews. They, in turn, summoned Franz Albrecht Medicus [de] and Bernhard Lösener of the Interior Ministry to Nuremberg to assist with the hurried drafting of the legislation. The two men arrived on 14 September. That evening, Hitler ordered them to also have ready by morning a draft of the Reich citizenship law. Hitler found the initial drafts of the Blood Law to be too lenient, so at around midnight Frick brought him four new drafts that differed mainly in the severity of the penalties they imposed. Hitler chose the most lenient version but left vague the definition of who was a Jew. Hitler stated at the rally that the laws were "an attempt at the legal settlement of a problem, which, if this proved a failure, would have to be entrusted by law to the National Socialist Party for a definitive solution". Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels had the radio broadcast of the passing of the laws cut short, and ordered the German media to not mention them until a decision was made as to how they would be implemented.

Text of the laws

Nuremberg Race LawsReich Citizenship LawLaw for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour

The two Nuremberg Laws were unanimously passed by the Reichstag on 15 September 1935. The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour prohibited marriages and extramarital intercourse between Jews and Germans, and forbade the employment of German females under 45 in Jewish households. The Reich Citizenship Law declared that only those of German or related blood were eligible to be Reich citizens; the remainder were classed as state subjects, without citizenship rights. The wording in the Citizenship Law that a person must prove "by his conduct that he is willing and fit to faithfully serve the German people and Reich" meant that political opponents could also be stripped of their German citizenship. This law was effectively a means of stripping Jews, Roma, and other "undesirables" of their legal rights and their citizenship.

Over the coming years, an additional 13 supplementary laws were promulgated that further marginalised the Jewish community in Germany. For example, Jewish families were not permitted to submit claims for subsidies for large families and were forbidden to transact business with Aryans.

Translations of the laws below are provided by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Reich Citizenship Law

German English
Reichsbürgergesetz Reich Citizenship Law
Der Reichstag hat einstimmig das folgende Gesetz beschlossen, das hiermit verkündet wird: The Reichstag has unanimously enacted the following law, which is promulgated herewith:
§1
(1) Staatsangehöriger ist, wer dem Schutzverband des Deutschen Reiches angehört und ihm dafür besonders verpflichtet ist.
(2) Die Staatsangehörigkeit wird nach den Vorschriften des Reichs- und Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetzes erworben.		 §1
(1) A subject of the state is a person who enjoys the protection of the German Reich and who in consequence has specific obligations toward it.
(2) The status of subject of the state is acquired in accordance with the provisions of the Reich and the Reich Citizenship Law.
§2
(1) Reichsbürger ist nur der Staatsangehörige deutschen oder artverwandten Blutes, der durch sein Verhalten beweist, daß er gewillt und geeignet ist, in Treue dem Deutschen Volk und Reich zu dienen.
(2) Das Reichsbürgerrecht wird durch Vereihung des Reichsbürgerbriefes erworben.
(3) Der Reichsbürger ist der alleinige Träger der vollen politischen Rechte nach Maßgabe der Gesetze.		 §2
(1) A Reich citizen is a subject of the state who is of German or related blood, and proves by his conduct that he is willing and fit to faithfully serve the German people and Reich.
(2) Reich citizenship is acquired through the granting of a Reich citizenship certificate.
(3) The Reich citizen is the sole bearer of full political rights in accordance with the law.
§3
Der Reichsminister des Innern erläßt im Einvernehmen mit dem Stellvertreter des Führers die zur Durchführung und Ergänzung des Gesetzes erforderlichen Rechts- und Verwaltungsvorschriften.		 §3
The Reich Minister of the Interior, in coordination with the Deputy of the Führer, will issue the legal and administrative orders required to implement and complete this law.


Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor

German English
Gesetz zum Schutze des deutschen Blutes und der deutschen Ehre Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor
Durchdrungen von der Erkenntnis, daß die Reinheit des deutschen Blutes die Voraussetzung für den Fortbestand des Deutschen Volkes ist, und beseelt von dem unbeugsamen Willen, die Deutsche Nation für alle Zukunft zu sichern, hat der Reichstag einstimmig das folgende Gesetz beschlossen, das hiermit verkündet wird: 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:
§1
(1) Eheschließungen zwischen Juden und Staatsangehörigen deutschen oder artverwandten Blutes sind verboten. Trotzdem geschlossene Ehen sind nichtig, auch wenn sie zur Umgebung dieses Gesetzes im Ausland geschlossen wird.
(2) Die Nichtigkeitsklage kann nur der Staatsanwalt erheben.		 §1
(1) Marriages between Jews and citizens of German or related blood are forbidden. Marriages nevertheless concluded are invalid, even if concluded abroad to circumvent this law.
(2) Annulment proceedings can be initiated only by the state prosecutor.
§2
Außerehelicher Verkehr zwischen Juden und Staatsangehörigen deutschen oder artverwandten Blutes ist verboten.		 §2
Extramarital relations between Jews and citizens of German or related blood are forbidden.
§3
Juden dürfen weibliche Staatsangehörige deutschen oder artverwandten Blutes unter 45 Jahren in ihrem Haushalt nicht beschäftigen.		 §3
Jews may not employ in their households female subjects of the state of Germany or related blood who are under 45 years old.
§4
(1) Juden ist das Hissen der Reichs- und Nationalflagge und das Zeigen der Reichsfarben verboten.
(2) Dagegen ist ihnen das Zeigen der jüdischen Farben gestattet. Die Ausübung dieser Befugnis steht unter staatlichen Schutz.		 §4
(1) Jews are forbidden to fly the Reich or national flag or display Reich colors.
(2) They are, on the other hand, permitted to display the Jewish colors. The exercise of this right is protected by the state.
§5
(1) Wer der Verbot des § 1 zuwiderhandelt, wird mit Zuchthaus bestraft.
(2) Der Mann, der dem Verbot des § 2 zuwiderhandelt, wird mit Gefängnis oder mit Zuchthaus bestraft.
(3) Wer den Bestimmungen der §§ 3 oder 4 zuwiderhandelt, wird mit Gefängnis bis zu einem Jahr und mit Geldstrafe oder mit einer dieser Strafen bestraft.		 §5
(1) Any person who violates the prohibition under Article 1 will be punished with a prison sentence with hard labor.
(2) A male who violates the prohibition under Article 2 will be punished with a jail term or a prison sentence with hard labor.
(3) Any person violating the provisions under Articles 3 or 4 will be punished with a jail term of up to one year and a fine, or with one or the other of these penalties.
§6
Der Reichsminister des Innern erläßt im Einvernehmen mit dem Stellvertreter des Führers und dem Reichsminister der Justiz die zur Durchführung und Ergänzung des Gesetzes erforderlichen Rechts- und Verwaltungsvorschriften.		 §6
The Reich Minister of the Interior, in coordination with the Deputy of the Führer and the Reich Minister of Justice, will issue the legal and administrative regulations required to implement and complete this law.
§7
Das Gesetz tritt am Tage nach der Verkündung, § 3 jedoch am 1. Januar 1936 in Kraft.		 §7
The law takes effect on the day following promulgation, except for Article 3, which goes into force on January 1, 1936.


Classifications under the laws

1935
Classification Translation Heritage Definition
Deutschblütiger German-blooded German Belongs to the German race and nation; approved to have Reich citizenship
Deutschblütiger German-blooded 1⁄8 Jewish Considered as belonging to the German race and nation; approved to have Reich citizenship
Mischling zweiten Grades Mixed race (second degree) 1⁄4 Jewish Only partly belongs to the German race and nation; approved to have Reich citizenship
Mischling ersten Grades Mixed race (first degree) 3⁄8 or 1⁄2 Jewish Only partly belongs to the German race and nation; approved to have Reich citizenship
Jude Jew 3⁄4 Jewish Belongs to the Jewish race and community; not approved to have Reich citizenship
Jude Jew Jewish Belongs to the Jewish race and community; not approved to have Reich citizenship
Special cases with first-degree Mischlinge
Date Decree
15 September 1935 A Mischling will be considered a Jew if they are a member of the Jewish religious community.
15 September 1935 A Mischling will be considered a Jew if they are married to a Jew. Their children will be considered Jews.
17 September 1935 A mixed-race child that is born of a marriage with a Jew, where the marriage date is after 17 September 1935, will be classified as a Jew. Those born in marriages officiated on or before 17 September 1935 will still be classified as Mischlinge.
31 July 1936 A mixed-race child originating from forbidden extramarital sexual intercourse with a Jew that is born out of wedlock after 31 July 1936 will be classified as a Jew.

Impact

See also: Anti-Jewish legislation in pre-war Nazi Germany
1935 chart shows racial classifications under the Nuremberg Laws: German, Mischlinge, and Jew (English translation).

While both the Interior Ministry and the Nazi Party agreed that persons with three or more Jewish grandparents would be classed as being Jewish and those with only one (Mischlinge of the second degree) would not, a debate arose as to the status of persons with two Jewish grandparents (Mischlinge of the first degree). The Nazi Party, especially its more radical elements, wanted the laws to apply to Mischlinge of both the first and second degree. For this reason Hitler continued to stall, and did not make a decision until early November 1935. His final ruling was that persons with three Jewish grandparents were classed as Jewish; those with two Jewish grandparents would be considered Jewish only if they practised the faith or had a Jewish spouse. The supplementary decree outlining the definition of who was Jewish was passed on 14 November, and the Reich Citizenship Law came into force on that date. Jews were no longer German citizens and did not have the right to vote. Jews and Gypsies were not allowed to vote in Reichstag elections or the 1938 Austrian Anschluss referendum. Civil servants who had been granted an exemption to the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service because of their status as war veterans were forced out of their jobs on this date. A supplementary decree issued on 21 December ordered the dismissal of Jewish veterans from other state-regulated professions such as medicine and education.

While Frick's suggestion that a citizenship tribunal before which every German would have to prove that they were Aryan was not acted upon, proving one's racial heritage became a necessary part of daily life. Non-government employers were authorised to include in their statutes an Aryan paragraph excluding both Mischlinge and Jews from employment. Proof of Aryan descent was achieved by obtaining an Aryan certificate. One form was to acquire an Ahnenpass, which could be obtained by providing birth or baptismal certificates that all four grandparents were of Aryan descent. The Ahnenpass could also be acquired by citizens of other countries, as long as they were of "German or related blood".

"Whoever wears this sign is an enemy of our people" – Parole der Woche, 1 July 1942

Under the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour (15 September 1935), marriages were forbidden between Jews and Germans; between Mischlinge of the first degree and Germans; between Jews and Mischlinge of the second degree; and between two Mischlinge of the second degree. Mischlinge of the first degree were permitted to marry Jews, but they would henceforth be classed as Jewish themselves. All marriages undertaken between half-Jews and Germans required the approval of a Committee for the Protection of German Blood. Few such permissions were granted. A supplementary decree issued on 26 November 1935 extended the law to "Gypsies, Negroes, and their bastards".

Persons suspected of having sexual relations with non-Aryans were charged with Rassenschande (racial defilement) and tried in the regular courts. Evidence provided to the Gestapo for such cases was largely provided by ordinary citizens such as neighbours, co-workers, or other informants. Persons accused of race defilement were publicly humiliated by being paraded through the streets with a placard around their necks detailing their crime. Those convicted were typically sentenced to prison terms, and (subsequent to 8 March 1938) upon completing their sentences were re-arrested by the Gestapo and sent to concentration camps. As the law did not permit capital punishment for racial defilement, special courts were convened to allow the death penalty for some cases. From the end of 1935 through 1940, 1,911 people were convicted of Rassenschande. Over time, the law was extended to include non-sexual forms of physical contact such as greeting someone with a kiss or an embrace.

Beginning in 1941, Jews were required by law to self-identify by wearing a yellow badge on their clothing.

For the most part, Germans accepted the Nuremberg Laws, partly because Nazi propaganda had successfully swayed public opinion towards the general belief that Jews were a separate race, but also because to oppose the regime meant leaving oneself open to harassment or arrest by the Gestapo. Citizens were relieved that the antisemitic violence ceased after the laws were passed. Non-Jews gradually stopped socialising with Jews or shopping in Jewish-owned stores. Wholesalers who continued to serve Jewish merchants were marched through the streets with placards around their necks proclaiming them as traitors. The Communist Party and some elements of the Catholic Church were critical of the laws. Concerned that international opinion would be adversely swayed by the new laws, the Interior Ministry did not actively enforce them until after the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in Berlin that August.

The Interior Ministry estimated there were 750,000 Mischlinge as of April 1935 (studies done after the war put the number of Mischlinge at around 200,000). As Jews became more and more excluded from German society, they organised social events, schools, and activities of their own. Economic problems were not so easily solved, however; many Jewish firms went out of business due to lack of customers. This was part of the ongoing Aryanisation process (the transfer of Jewish firms to non-Jewish owners, usually at prices far below market value) that the regime had initiated in 1933, which intensified after the Nuremberg Laws were passed. Former middle-class or wealthy business owners were forced to take employment in menial jobs to support their families, and many were unable to find work at all.

Although a stated goal of the Nazis was that all Jews should leave the country, emigration was problematic, as Jews were required to remit up to 90 per cent of their wealth as a tax upon leaving the country. Anyone caught transferring their money overseas was sentenced to lengthy terms in prison as "economic saboteurs". An exception was money sent to Palestine under the terms of the Haavara Agreement, whereby Jews could transfer some of their assets and emigrate to that country. Around 52,000 Jews emigrated to Palestine under the terms of this agreement between 1933 and 1939.

By the start of the Second World War in 1939, around 250,000 of Germany's 437,000 Jews had emigrated to the United States, the British Mandate of Palestine, Great Britain, and other countries. By 1938 it was becoming almost impossible for potential Jewish emigrants to find a country that would take them. After the 1936–39 Arab revolt, the British were disinclined to accept any more Jews into Palestine for fear it would further destabilise the region. Nationalistic and xenophobic people in other countries pressured their governments not to accept waves of Jewish immigrants, especially poverty-stricken ones. The Madagascar Plan, a proposed mass deportation of European Jews to Madagascar, proved to be impossible to carry out. Starting in mid-1941, the German government began resorting to mass exterminations of European Jews. The total number of Jews murdered during the resulting Holocaust is estimated at 5.5 to 6 million people. Estimates of the death toll of Romani people in the Porajmos range from 150,000 to 1,500,000.

Legislation in other countries

Decree of Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria for approval of the Law for Protection of the Nation

Some of the other Axis powers passed their own versions of the Nuremberg Laws.

  • In 1938, Fascist Italy passed the Italian racial laws and Manifesto of Race which stripped Jews of their citizenship and forbade sexual relations and marriages between Jewish and non-Jewish Italians.
  • Hungary passed laws on 28 May 1938 and 5 May 1939 banning Jews from various professions. A third law, added in August 1941, defined Jews as anyone with at least two Jewish grandparents, and forbade sexual relations or marriages between Jews and non-Jews.
  • In 1940 the ruling Iron Guard in Romania passed the Law Defining the Legal Status of Romanian Jews.
  • In 1941 the Codex Judaicus was enacted in Slovakia.
  • In 1941 Bulgaria passed the Law for Protection of the Nation.
  • In 1941, the Ustaše in Croatia passed legislation defining who was a Jew and restricting contact with them.
  • While the Empire of Japan did not draft or pass any legislation, they implemented policies targeting Jews in some occupied countries, like Indonesia and Singapore.

Existing copy

An original typescript of the laws signed by Hitler was found by the U.S. Army's Counterintelligence Corps in 1945. It ended up in the possession of General George S. Patton, who kept it, in violation of orders that such finds should be turned over to the government. During a visit to Los Angeles in 1945, he handed it over to the Huntington Library, where it was stored in a bomb-proof vault. The library revealed the existence of the document in 1999, and sent it on permanent loan to the Skirball Cultural Center, which placed it on public display. The document was transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington in August 2010.

See also

References

  1. ^ Longerich 2010, pp. 64, 66.
  2. Evans 2003, pp. 170–171.
  3. Goldhagen 1996, p. 85.
  4. Evans 2003, pp. 179–180.
  5. Bullock 1962, p. 121.
  6. Kershaw 2008, pp. 148–150.
  7. Wildt 2012, pp. 96–97.
  8. ^ Shirer 1960, p. 203.
  9. New York Times, 21 March 1933.
  10. Yahil & Friedman 1991, p. 95.
  11. Evans 2005, p. 539.
  12. ^ Longerich 2010, p. 40.
  13. Isaacson 2007, pp. 407–410.
  14. Schulz & Frercks 1934.
  15. Longerich 2010, p. 39.
  16. Longerich 2010, pp. 67–69.
  17. ^ Shirer 1960, p. 233.
  18. Longerich 2010, p. 41.
  19. Evans 2005, p. 507.
  20. Evans 2005, p. 511.
  21. Longerich 2010, p. 49.
  22. Morrison 2006, p. 80.
  23. Hilberg 2003, p. 1070.
  24. ^ McGarry 2010, p. 21.
  25. Hilberg 2003, pp. 1070–1071.
  26. Wolfe 2014, p. 96.
  27. Grenville 2002, p. 320.
  28. Burleigh & Wippermann 1991, p. 121.
  29. USHMM, "Sinti and Roma".
  30. Evans 2005, p. 22.
  31. ^ Kershaw 2008, p. 340.
  32. Kershaw 2008, p. 341.
  33. Marrus 2000, pp. 92–93.
  34. ^ Kershaw 2008, p. 342.
  35. Longerich 2010, pp. 57–58.
  36. ^ Gordon 1984, p. 122.
  37. Kershaw 2008, p. 343.
  38. ^ Longerich 2010, p. 59.
  39. Friedländer 2009, p. 45.
  40. ^ Evans 2005, p. 543.
  41. Kershaw 2008, p. 344.
  42. Kershaw 2008, pp. 344–345.
  43. Kershaw 2008, pp. 345–346.
  44. Longerich 2010, p. 60.
  45. Mommsen 1989, p. 225.
  46. ^ Evans 2005, p. 544.
  47. Kershaw 2008, p. 345.
  48. Wolfe 2014, p. 94.
  49. Burleigh & Wippermann 1991, p. 84.
  50. USHMM, "Nuremburg Race Laws".
  51. ^ Nuremberg Laws 1935.
  52. Friedländer 2009, p. 49.
  53. ^ Mommsen 1989, p. 224.
  54. Kershaw 2008, p. 347.
  55. ^ Friedländer 2009, p. 50.
  56. Milton 2001, p. 216.
  57. Friedländer 2009, p. 52.
  58. ^ Evans 2005, p. 547.
  59. Ehrenreich 2007, p. 68.
  60. Scheil 2012.
  61. ^ Friedländer 2009, p. 51.
  62. ^ Evans 2005, p. 551.
  63. Evans 2005, p. 540.
  64. Majer 2003, pp. 331–332.
  65. Longerich 2010, p. 217.
  66. ^ Evans 2005, p. 548.
  67. Gordon 1984, p. 180.
  68. Gordon 1984, p. 172.
  69. Evans 2005, pp. 548, 553.
  70. Gellately 1991, p. 105.
  71. Friedländer 2009, p. 55.
  72. Longerich 2010, pp. 65–66.
  73. Longerich 2010, p. 86.
  74. Longerich 2010, p. 66.
  75. Evans 2005, pp. 556–557.
  76. Longerich 2010, p. 127.
  77. Evans 2005, p. 555.
  78. Longerich 2010, p. 67.
  79. Friedländer 2009, p. 57.
  80. Evans 2005, pp. 560, 601.
  81. Longerich 2010, pp. 162–164.
  82. Rhodes 2003, pp. 159–160.
  83. Evans 2008, p. 318.
  84. Hancock 2012, p. 381.
  85. Rodogno 2006, p. 65.
  86. Frojimovics 2012, pp. 250–251.
  87. Fischer 2012, p. 279.
  88. Matić 2002, p. 174.
  89. Dikovski 2000.
  90. Gilbert 2002, p. 78.
  91. Banka 2019.
  92. Cheong Suk-Wai 2015.
  93. Allen 2010.
  94. Bradsher 2010.

Bibliography

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