Nuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg Laws were two anti-Semitic 1935 laws in National Socialist Germany, approved at a NSDAP convention in Nuremberg. One deprived Jews of German citizenship. The other forbade marriage or sexual relations between Jews and “citizens of German or kindred blood." There were also later supplementary decrees and restrictions. The first defined Jews as persons with at least one Jewish grandparent. Later, two basic Jewish categories were established. A full Jew was anyone with three Jewish grandparents. Mixed Jews (Mischlinge) were eventually divided into two classes. First-degree mixed Jews had two Jewish grandparents, but did not practice Judaism and did not have a Jewish spouse. Second-degree mixed Jews had only one Jewish grandparent.
Introduction and history
A conference of ministers was held on 20 August 1935 to discuss the negative economic effects of NSDAP actions against Jews. Adolf Wagner, the Party representative at the conference, argued that such effects would cease, once the government decided on a firm policy against the Jews.
Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, the Economics Minister, criticized arbitrary behaviour by Party members as this inhibited his policy of rebuilding Germany's economy. 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 Jewish policy and advocated the passing of legislation to clarify the situation. The following month two measures were announced at the annual Party Rally in Nuremberg, becoming known as the Nuremberg Laws. Both measures were hastily improvised and Jewish experts from the Ministry of the Interior were ordered to Nuremberg by plane.
The first law, The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour,[2] prohibited marriages and extra-marital 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 households. The second law, The Reich Citizenship Law,[3] stripped persons not considered of German blood of their German citizenship and introduced a new distinction between “Reich citizens” and “nationals.” .
The Nuremberg Laws by their general nature formalised the unofficial and particular measures taken against Jews up to 1935. The Party leaders made a point of stressing the consistency of this legislation with the Party program which demanded that Jews should be deprived of their rights as citizens. The laws were passed unanimously by the Reichstag, or German Parliament, in a special session held during a Nuremberg Rally. The move was largely symbolic, as by this time Hitler had the power to pass laws without parliamentary approval, per the terms of the Enabling Act.
Law text
Nuremberg Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor, 15 September 1935
Moved by the understanding that purity of the 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:
Article 1.
1) Marriages between Jews and subjects of the state 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 initialed only by the State Prosecutor.
Article 2.
Extramarital intercourse between Jews and subjects of the state of German or related blood is forbidden.
Article 3.
Jews may not employ in their households female subjects of the state of German or related blood who are under 45 years old.
Article 4.
1) Jews are forbidden to fly the Reich or National flag or to display the Reich colors. They are, on the other hand, permitted to display the Jewish colors. The exercise of this right is protected by the State.
Article 5.
(1) Any person who violates the prohibition under §1 will be punished by a prison sentence with hard labor.
(2) A male who violates the prohibition under § 2 will be punished with a prison sentence with or without hard labor.
(3) Any person violating the provisions under § 3 or §4 will be punished with a prison sentence of up to one year and a fine, or with one or the other of these penalties.
Article 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.
Article 7.
The Law takes effect on the day following promulgations except for §3, which goes into force on 1 January 1936.
Nuremberg, 15 September 1935 at the Reich Party Congress of Freedom
- The Führer and Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler
- The Reich Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick
- The Reich Minister of Justice Dr. Franz Gürtner
- The Deputy of the Führer Rudolf Heß
See also
- Israel - On topics such as marriages between Jews and non-Jews as well as rights for non-Jews in Israel
- Holocaust motivations: Holocaust revisionist views on motivations for the camps and deportations
- Jewish influence: Germany
- More German than the Germans
- Weimar Republic: Jewish influence and anti-Semitism
- Wir Juden
- Yellow badge
- Mulattoes
- Racial homogeneity
- Racial Integrity Act of 1924 (Virginia state law)
References
- ↑ Bernard Lewis: Semites and Anti-Semites – An Inquiry into Conflict and Prejudice, W.W. Norton & Company, 1999, p. 148
- ↑ Nuremberg Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour, English translation at the University of the West of England
- ↑ Reich Citizenship Law, English translation at the University of the West of England
