What is Wrong With This World–The Nuremberg Laws of 1935?

I started this current series to discuss what is wrong with our country and what we need to do to fix it. I have since expanded this series to not only include the United States but the rest of the world as well. While I have discussed some of the topics that I will be including in this series, they have been included in other articles. In this series I will concentrate on a single topic. This will also mean that some of the articles may be slightly shorter than my readers have grown accustomed to, however they will still be written with the same attention to detail. This series will have no set number of articles and will continue to grow as I come across additional subjects.

What were the Nuremberg Race Laws?

On September 15, 1935, the Nazi regime announced two new laws related to race:

The Reich Citizenship Law
The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor

One, the Reichsbürgergesetz (German: “Law of the Reich Citizen”), deprived Jews of German citizenship, designating them “subjects of the state.” The other, the Gesetz zum Schutze des Deutschen Blutes und der Deutschen Ehre (“Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour”), usually called simply the Blutschutzgesetz (“Blood Protection Law”), forbade marriage or sexual relations between Jews and “citizens of German or kindred blood.” These measures were among the first of the racist Nazi laws that culminated in the Holocaust.

These laws informally became known as the Nuremberg Laws or Nuremberg Race Laws. This is because they were first announced at a Nazi Party rally held in the German city of Nuremberg. These racist laws were directed against the Jews in Germany and essentially stripped them of their civil rights.

Based on family lineage, the laws determined who was Jewish and who was not. People with three or four Jewish grandparents were considered Jewish. Jews were no longer considered citizens and therefore could not claim certain civil rights, could no longer vote and could not work for the government.

Another section of the Nuremberg Laws was called the ‘Law for the protection of German blood and German honour’. Under this law, marriages between Jews and Germans were forbidden. Moreover, Jews were not permitted to employ female citizens of German blood under the age of 45 as domestic workers.

Why did the Nazis enact the Nuremberg Race Laws?

The Nazis enacted the Nuremberg Laws, because they wanted to put their ideas about race into law. They believed in the false theory that the world is divided into distinct races that are not equally strong and valuable. The Nazis considered Germans to be members of the supposedly superior “Aryan” race. They saw the so-called Aryan German race as the strongest, and most valuable race of all.

According to the Nazis, Jews were not Aryans. They thought Jews belonged to a separate race that was inferior to all other races. The Nazis believed that the presence of Jews in Germany threatened the German people. They believed they had to separate Jews from other Germans to protect and strengthen Germany. The Nuremberg Laws were an important step towards achieving this goal.

The Nazis were horrified by relationships between Jews and non-Jews. In July 1935, for example, Julius Wolff and his non-Jewish fiancé Christine Neumann were paraded through the streets of Norden by the SA. They were forced to carry signs saying “Ich bin ein Rassenschänder” (“I defile the race”) and “I am a German girl and I allowed a Jew to defile me”.

Christine was taken to a concentration camp and released after a month. Julius was locked up in the Esterwegen concentration camp. After his release, he fled to the United States.

What was the Reich Citizenship Law?

The Nazi Party had always promised that, if they came to power, only racially pure Germans would be allowed to hold German citizenship. The Reich Citizenship Law made this a reality. This law defined a citizen as a person who is “of German or related blood.” This meant that Jews, defined as a separate race, could not be full citizens of Germany. They had no political rights.

What was the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor?

The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor was a law against what the Nazis viewed as race-mixing or “race defilement” (“Rassenschande”). It banned future intermarriages and sexual relations between Jews and people “of German or related blood.” The Nazis believed that such relationships were dangerous because they led to “mixed race” children. According to the Nazis, these children and their descendants undermined the purity of the German race.

Under these laws, Jews could not fly the German flag and were forbidden “to employ in domestic service female subjects of German or kindred blood who are under the age of 45 years.” The first supplementary decree of November 14, 1935—one of 13 ordinances elaborating these laws—defined Jews as persons with at least one Jewish grandparent and declared explicitly that “a Jew cannot be a citizen of the Reich. He cannot exercise the right to vote; he cannot occupy public office.” The other enactments completed the process of Jewish segregation. Before long Jewish passports were stamped with a red “J” (for Jude; “Jew”), and Jews were compelled to adopt “Jewish” names. Jewish communities were deprived of their legal status by the decree of March 28, 1938, and steps were taken to exclude Jews completely from the practice of medicine.

Who was Jewish according to the Nuremberg Laws?

According to the Nuremberg Laws, a person with three or four Jewish grandparents was a Jew. A grandparent was considered Jewish if they belonged to the Jewish religious community. Thus, the Nazis defined Jews by their religion (Judaism), and not by the supposed racial traits that Nazism attributed to Jews.

The laws also categorized some people in Germany as “Mischlinge” (“mixed-race persons”). According to law, Mischlinge were neither German nor Jewish. These were people who had one or two Jewish grandparents.

The Nazi regime required individuals to prove their grandparents’ racial identities. To do so, people used religious records. These included baptism records, Jewish community records, and gravestones.

Did the Nuremberg Laws apply to other groups?

Yes. While initially focused on Jews, the Nazi government clarified that the Nuremberg Laws also applied to Roma View This Term in the Glossary (also called Gypsies), Black people, and their descendants. They could not be full citizens of Germany. Nor could they marry or have sexual relations with “people of German or related blood.”

The racial definition meant that Jews were persecuted not for their religious beliefs and practices but for a so-called racial identity transmitted irrevocably through the blood of their ancestors. These laws resolved the question of definition and set a legal precedent. The Nazis later imposed the Nürnberg Laws on territories they occupied. The laws also provided a model for the treatment and eventual genocide of the Roma (Gypsies).

Although the Nürnberg Laws divided the German nation into Germans and Jews, neither the term Jew nor the phrase German or kindred blood was defined. Because the laws contained criminal provisions for noncompliance, the bureaucrats had the urgent task of spelling out what the words meant. Two basic Jewish categories were established. A full Jew was anyone with three Jewish grandparents. That definition was fairly simple. Defining part-Jews—Mischlinge (“mongrels”)—was more difficult, but they were eventually divided into two classes. First-degree Mischlinge were people who had two Jewish grandparents but did not practice Judaism and did not have a Jewish spouse. Second-degree Mischlinge were those who had only one Jewish grandparent.

What were the consequences of the Nuremberg Laws?

The Nuremberg Laws changed the everyday lives of Jews in Germany by making Jews legally different from their non-Jewish neighbors. In the years that followed, the Nazi regime enacted more and more anti-Jewish laws and decrees. These later laws relied on the definition of “Jew” as defined in the Nuremberg Laws. Examples of these other laws or decrees include:

The Law on the Alteration of Family and Personal Names (August 1938)
The Decree on Passports of Jews (October 1938)
The Police Regulation on the Marking of Jews (September 1941)

The Nuremberg Laws were an important step in the Nazi regime’s process of isolating and excluding Jews from the rest of German society.

The efforts to prove one’s non-Jewish ancestry generated a new cottage industry employing hordes of “licensed family researchers,” offering their services to anxious Germans afraid of a skeleton in the family closet. These efforts also involved the Health Ministry and church offices, which had to provide birth and baptismal certificates.

Key Dates

August 17, 1938
Law on the Alteration of Family and Personal Names

On August 17, 1938, the Law on the Alteration of Family and Personal Names sets new name requirements for Jews in Germany. This law states that Jews can only be given specific Jewish first names. New Jewish parents must choose a name from a government-approved list. Also, any Jew who does not already have a name from this list, must add an additional first name: “Israel” (for men) and “Sara” (for women). Individuals have to report their new names to government offices. They also have to use both their given and added first names for business transactions.

October 5, 1938
Decree on Passports of Jews

The Nazi regime invalidates the German passports of all German Jews. For their passports to become valid again, German Jews must submit them to a passport office so that they can be stamped with the letter “J.” The decree specifies that this applies to the passports of German Jews as defined by the Nuremberg Laws.

September 1, 1941
Police Regulation on the Marking of Jews

Beginning in September 1941, all Jews in Nazi Germany are required to wear a special yellow badge in public. The badge must be a palm-sized, yellow six-pointed star with black lines outlining the Star of David. View This Term in the Glossary The star must have the word “Jude” (German for “Jew”) written in the middle. It must be visible anytime a Jew appears in public. Specifically, Jews are required to sew this yellow star View This Term in the Glossary onto the left breast of their clothes. This order applies to all German Jews (as defined by the Nuremberg Laws) who are six years old and older. Germans categorized as Mischlinge do not have to wear the star.

Resources

encyclopedia.ushmm.org, “The Nuremberg Race Laws.”; britannica.com, “Nürnberg Laws.” By Michael Berenbaum;

Common Sense and Ramblings In America

What is Wrong With This World–The Nuremberg Laws of 1935?

What were the Nuremberg Race Laws?

Why did the Nazis enact the Nuremberg Race Laws?

What was the Reich Citizenship Law?

What was the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor?

Who was Jewish according to the Nuremberg Laws?

Did the Nuremberg Laws apply to other groups?

What were the consequences of the Nuremberg Laws?

Key Dates

Like this:

What were the Nuremberg Race Laws?

Why did the Nazis enact the Nuremberg Race Laws?

What was the Reich Citizenship Law?

What was the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor?

Who was Jewish according to the Nuremberg Laws?

Did the Nuremberg Laws apply to other groups?

What were the consequences of the Nuremberg Laws?

Key Dates

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