NUREMBERG LAWS

The 'Nuremberg Laws' of 1935 were denaturalization laws passed in Nazi Germany. They used a pseudoscientific basis for racial discrimination against Jews. People with 4 German grandparents (white circles on the chart) were of "German blood", while people were classified as Jews if they descended from three or four Jewish grandparents (black circles in top row right). A person with one or two Jewish grandparents was a Mischling, a crossbreed, of "mixed blood".

Contents

Introduction and History

The Laws for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour

The Reich Citizenship Law

Existing Copies

References

See also

External links

Introduction and History

A conference of ministers was held on August 20, 1935, to discuss the negative economic effects of Party 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. 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 (there was even a shortage of drafting paper so that menu cards had to be used) 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 Honor,'^[1] 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' ^[2], 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 formalized the unofficial and particular measures taken against Jews up to 1935. The Nazi 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 by the Reichstag, even though Hitler had the power to pass laws without their approval, given to him by the Enabling Act.
After the example of the Nuremberg Laws,
The Law for Protection of the Nation was passed in Bulgaria during World War II, which also had a strong antisemitic character.

The Laws for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour

The Reich Citizenship Law

The ''Reich Citizenship Law'' stripped persons not considered of German blood, including Jews, of their German citizenship and introduced a new distinction between “Reich citizens ” and “nationals.” Certificates of Reich citizenship were in fact never introduced, and all Germans other than Jews were provisionally classed as Reich citizens until 1945.

Existing Copies

An original typescript of the laws signed by Hitler himself was found by the 203rd Detachment of the U.S. Army's Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC), commanded by Martin Dannenberg, in Eichstätt, Bavaria, Germany on April 27, 1945. It was appropriated by General George S. Patton, in violation of JCS 1067. During a visit to Los Angeles, California, he secretly handed it over to the Huntington Library. The document was stored until June 26, 1999 when its existence was revealed. Although legal ownership of the document has not been established, it is on permanent loan to the Skirball Cultural Center, which placed it on public display three days later.

References

1. Nuremberg Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour, English translation at the University of the West of England
2. Reich Citizenship Law, English translation at the University of the West of England

See also

★ Mischling

★ Rhineland Bastards

★ German Blood Certificate

★ Racial policy of Nazi Germany

★ Useful Jew

★ cleanliness of blood

★ Second-class citizen

★ T-4 Euthanasia Program

★ Nazi eugenics

★ Aryanization

★ Wilhelm Stuckart

External links

★ The Nuremberg Laws on Citizenship and Race text, translated into English

★ Race Laws