Nuremberg Laws: Legalised discrimination

Nazi overview (1933-1945)

• nazi regime systematically persecuted and murdered Europe’s Jews (the Holocaust)

• persecuted groups: the mentally ill, physically disabled, politcal opponents (communists and socialists), Jehovah’s witnesses and the Roma.

Nazi used propaganda and laws to justify discrimination.

Early days in the nazi regime

• Hitler became chancellor on the 30th of January 1933: many believed the nazi wouldn’t last.

• Anti semitism was fundamental to nazi ideology, leading to early persecution

• Reichstg Fire (27th of February 1933) was used to justify suppression on politcal opponents.

Using the law (1933-1938)

• hitler’s SA (storm troopers) violently targeted politcal opponents in early 1933.

• March 1933: enabling Act granted hitler’s dictatorial powers

• July 1933: all politcal parties banned expect the nazi party

• gestapo created to implant fear and suppress resistance.

Policies and laws (1933-1935)

• laws restricted jewish civil rights (e.g april 1933 ban on jews in the civil service)

• Jewish doctors, lawyers and students faced increasing restrictions

• President Hindenburg restrained hitler intially, protecting jewish war veterns.

Terror and repression

• SA enforced Nazi terror; by 1934, SA and Gestapo took over

• politcal opponents arrested, sent to concentration camps

• jews increasingly marginalised and attacked.

First anti-semitic laws

• april 1933: laws for the restoration of the professional civil service.

• april 1933: jewish doctors banned from treating non-jewish patients

• mid 1930s; segregation for jews in schools, universities and public life.

Policies and laws (1936 - 1938)

• over 2000 laws and regulations restricting Jewish life

• “Germany for the Germans” propaganda campaign encouraged Jewish emigration (pushed to leave)

• Jews fored to register property (april 1933)

Jewish emigration

• Nazis encouraged Jewish emigration (e.g Einstein, Freud fled.)

• jews could not take wealth/assets, leading to hardship abroad.

• other nations imposed strict immigration quotas, limiting space

Laws for protection of german blood and honour

• banned marriages and relationships between jews and non-jews

• forbade (ban) jews from displaying the german flag

Reich citizenship law

• stripped jews of citizenship making them stateless (not recongised as a citizen from any country)

• defined who was considered jewish.

social and economic impact.

• jews expelled from professions (medicine, law and education)

• boycott and destruction of jewish business.

• segregation in schools, transport restrictions.

• increased jewish isolation in society.