1933-37 Further Anti-Semitic Legalisation in 1933

Anti-Semitic laws against legal profession

Anti-Semitic laws against legal profession

• Jewish lawyers made up about 16% of Germany’s legal profession - often working in family firms

• Of the non-Aryan lawyers practising in 1933, 60% were able to continue working in spite of the new regulations

• In the years that followed, the regime introduced stricter regulations to try and close these ‘loopholes’

• The exclusion of lawyers was a gradual process over several years

Anti-Semitic laws against doctors

• More than 10 of German doctors were Jews

• They were attacked by Nazi propaganda as a ‘danger to German society’

• Some local authorities began to remove Jewish doctors from their posts

• Anti-Semitic propaganda against Jewish doctors treating Aryans was filled with lurid stories about malicious actions supposedly carried out by Jewish doctors

• The Nazi regime announced a ban on Jewish doctors in April 1933

• However in reality many Jewish doctors carried on their normal practice several years after then 1933 ban

Anti-Semitic laws against education

• April 1933 - Law against Overcrowding of German Schools and Universities restricted the number of Jewish children who could attend state schools and universities

• Propaganda - said Aryans would be given more attention instead of wasting this on pupils who would ‘grow up to be enemies of Germany’

• Propaganda also stressed the danger that a well educated Jew was a greater threat than one who’s uneducated

• The April 1933 Law’s process was not complete until 1938

• Many Jewish professors and teachers lost their jobs and these were seized by German academics

Anti-Semitic laws against the press

• October 1933 - the Reich Press Law enabled the regime to apply strict censorship and close down publications they disliked

• Jews had a prominent role in journalism and publishing in Weimar Germany - but the Press Law effectively silenced the large number of Jewish journalists and editors

• Many of these had to leave the country

• Closing down of press wasn’t just laws and regulations, also involved instances of violence and intimidation