Jewish Policies 1933-37 - The Nuremberg Laws, 1935

What were the Nuremberg Laws

• Laws used by the Nazi regime to extend the anti-Semitic legalisation

• Announced at the annual party rally at Nuremberg

What Nuremberg Laws were introduced

• Introduced on 15 September

• Reich Citizenship Law - meant someone could be a German citizen only if they had purely German blood - Jews and non-Aryans were classified as ‘subjects’ and had less rights

• The Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honour - outlawed marriage between Aryans and non-Aryans, illegal for German citizens to marry Jews, and for Jews to have any sexual relations with a German citizen

Impact of the Nuremberg Laws

• Laws made the enforcing of anti-Semitism a major concern of civil servants, judges and the Gestapo

Extension of the Nuremberg Laws

• Extended to cover almost any physical contact between Jews and Aryans

• Aryan women were pressured to leave their Jewish husbands, were told through propaganda that their Jewish husbands who had lost their jobs through anti-Semitic legalisation would be a burden

• Punishments were harsh for relationships that continued - sent to concentration camps if they broke the Law of the Protection of German Blood and Honour

November 1935 First Supplementary Decree on the Reich Citizenship Law

• Law that defined what constituted a ‘full Jew’

• Was someone who had 3 Jewish grandparents, or had two Jewish grandparents and was married to a Jew

• ‘Half Jews’ - labelled Mischlinge (meaning crossbreed)

• However this law was difficult to interpret as the definition of a Jew was based on the number of Jewish grandparents

• In many cases, Jews or Jewish grandparents had converted to Christianity - this confused situation meant that legal classifications were inconsistent

Position of Jews after the Nuremberg Laws

• Position of Jews without the rights of citizenship left them with obligations to the state, yet no political rights and powerless against the Nazi regime

• Possessing documentary proof of a person’s ancestry became a high priority for many

• Many non-practising Jews tried to prove their Aryan ancestry by acquiring falsified documents on black markets

• Further discrimination by local authorities and private companies who would not employ Jews

• Mischlinge were able to continue their lives ‘normally’ and could even serve in lower ranks of the military