Newsgroups: alt.revisionism,soc.history
Subject: Holocaust Almanac: Nuremberg Laws
Summary: Nazi anti-Semitism becomes offical policy as government moves
         to restrict rights of Jews through various laws relating to
         citizenship
Reply-To: kmcvay@oneb.almanac.bc.ca
Followup-To: soc.history
Organization: The Old Frog's Almanac, Vancouver Island, CANADA
Keywords: Schact,Wagner

Archive/File: holocaust/germany/nuremberg nuremberg.003
Last-modified: 1993/09/23 

   "A conference of ministers was held on 20 August 1935 to discuss the
   economic effects of Party actions against Jews.  Adolf Wagner, the
   Party representative at the conference, argued that such actions
   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 had certain
   entrepreneurial skills which 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 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: 

    Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour, 15
                           September 1935 

      Entirely convinced that the purity of German blood is essential to
      the further existence of the German people, and inspired by the
      uncompromising determina- tion to safeguard the future of the
      German nation, the Reichstag has unanimously resolved upon the
      following law, which is promulgated herewith: 

      Section 1

      1. Marriages between Jews and citizens of German or kindred blood
      are forbidden.  Marriages concluded in defiance of this law are
      void, even if, for the purpose of evading this law, they were
      concluded abroad.  

      2. Proceedings for annulment may be initiated only by the Public
      Prosecutor. 

      Section 2 

      Sexual relations outside marriage between Jews and nationals of
      German or kindred blood are forbidden.  

      Section 3 

      Jews will not be permitted to employ female citizens of German or
      kindred blood as domestic servants.  

      Section 4 

      1. Jews are forbidden to display the Reich and national flag or
      the national colours.  

      2. On the other hand they are permitted to display the
      Jewish colours.  The exercise of this right is protected by the
      State.  

      Section 5 

      1. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of Section 1
      will be punished with hard labour.  

      2. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of Section 2
      will be punished with imprisonment or with hard labour.  

      3. A person who acts contrary to the provisions of Sections 3 or
      4 will be punished with imprisonment up to a year and with a fine,
      or with one of these penalties.  

      Section 6 

      The Reich Minister of the Interior in agreement with the Deputy
      Fuhrer and the Reich Minister of Justice will issue the legal and
      administrative regulations required for the enforcement and
      supplementing of this law.  

      Section 7 

      The law will become effective on the day after its promulgation;
      Section 3, however, not until 1 January 1936.  

           The Reich Citizenship Law, 15 September 1935 

   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 programme which demanded that Jews should be deprived
   of their rights as citizens.  The Reich Citizenship Law stripped 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
   until 1945 provisionally classed as Reich citizens.

      Article I 

      1. A subject of the State is a person who belongs to the
      protective union of the German Reich, and who therefore has
      particular obligations towards the Reich.  

      2. The status of subject is acquired in accordance with the
      provisions of the Reich and State Law of Citizenship.  

      Article 2 

      1. A citizen of the Reich is that subject only who is of German
      or kindred blood and who, through his conduct, shows that he is
      both desirous and fit to serve the German people and Reich
      faithfully.

      2. The right to citizenship is acquired by the granting of Reich
      citizenship papers.  

      3. Only the citizen of the Reich enjoys full political rights in
      accordance with the provision of the laws.  

      Article 3 

      The Reich Minister of the Interior in conjunction with the Deputy
      of the Fuhrer will issue the necessary legal and administrative
      decrees for carrying out and supplementing this law.  

   First Regulation under the Reich Citizenship Law, 14 November 1935

   These laws also paved the way for a more systematic persecution of
   the Jews, for the Reich Citizenship Law was followed during the Third
   Reich by a series of supplementary regulations.  A major outstanding
   problem was that of the definition of a 'Jew'.  Since the beginning
   of 1935 the matter had been discussed by Party leaders, who pressed
   for the application of legislation to all half-Jews.  The Nuremberg
   Laws, drafted by civil servants, failed to provide a clear answer
   (Hitler had struck out the term 'full Jews' from the draft of the
   Citizenship Law as it involved a new classification).  Dr Bernhard
   Losener, a high official in the Reich Ministry of the Interior who
   had assisted in the drafting of the Nuremberg Laws, produced a
   memorandum on 1 November which discussed the position of half-Jews.
   Lo"sener proposed the inclusion of those half-Jews who were married
   to a Jewish person and who adhered to the Jewish religion.  (The
   choice of religion for want of a better alternative was inconsistent
   with Nazi ideology which saw the Jew as a racial rather than a
   religious being.) Lo"sener's suggestions were included in the first
   regulation under the Citizenship Law, issued on 14 November 1935:

      Article 1

      1.  Until further regulations regarding citizenship papers are
      issued, all subjects of German or kindred blood, who possessed the
      right to vote in the Reichstag elections at the time the
      Citizenship Law came into effect, shall for the time being possess
      the rights of Reich citizens.  The same shall be true of those to
      whom the Reich Minister of the Interior, in conjunction with the
      Deputy of the Fuhrer, has given preliminary citizenship.  

      2.  The Reich Minister of the Interior, in conjunction with the
      Deputy of the Fuhrer, can withdraw the preliminary citizenship.  

      Article 2 

      1 The regulations in Article 1 are also valid for Reich subjects
      of mixed Jewish blood.  

      2 An individual of mixed Jewish blood is one who is descended from
      one or two grandparents who were racially full Jews, in so far as
      he or she does not count as a Jew according to Article 5,
      paragraph 2 One grandparent shall be considered as full-blooded if
      he or she belonged to the Jewish religious community. 

      Article 3

      Only the Reich citizen, as bearer of full political rights,
      exercises the right to vote in political affairs or can hold
      public office.  The Reich Minister of the Interior, or any agency
      empowered by him, can make exceptions during the transition
      period, with regard to occupation of public office.  The affairs
      of religious organizations will not be affected.  

      Article 4 

      1.  A Jew cannot be a citizen of the Reich.  He has no right to
      vote in political affairs and he cannot occupy public office.  

      2.  Jewish officials will retire as of 31 December 1935.  If these
      officials served at the front in the world war, either for Germany
      or her allies, they will receive in full, until they reach the age
      limit, the pension to which they were entitled according to the
      salary they last received; they will, however, not advance in
      seniority.  After reaching the age limit, their pensions will be
      calculated anew, according to the salary last received, on the
      basis of which their pension was computed.  

      3.  The affairs of religious organizations will not be affected.  

      4.  The conditions of service of teachers in Jewish public schools
      remain unchanged until new regulations for the Jewish school
      systems are issued.  

      Article 5 

      1. A Jew is anyone who is descended from at least three
      grandparents who are racially full Jews.  Article 2, para.  2,
      second sentence will apply.  

      2.  A Jew is also one who is descended from two full Jewish
      parents, if (a) he belonged to the Jewish religious community at
      the time this law was issued, or joined the community later, (b)
      he was married to a Jewish person, at the time the law was issued,
      or married one subsequently, (c) he is the offspring of a marriage
      with a Jew, in the sense of Section I, which was contracted after
      the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour
      became effective, (d) he is the offspring of an extramarital
      relationship with a Jew, according to Section I, and will be born
      out of wedlock after 31 July 1936.

      Article 6 

      1.  Requirements for the pureness of blood as laid down in Reich
      Law or in orders of the NSDAP and its echelons--not covered in
      Article 5--will not be affected.  

      2.  Any other requirements for the pureness of blood, not covered
      in Article 5, can be made only by permission of the Reich Minister
      of the Interior and the Deputy Fu"hrer.  If any such demands have
      been made, they will be void as of 1 January 1936, if they have
      not been requested by the Reich Minister of the Interior in
      agreement with the Deputy Fu"hrer.  These requests must be made by
      the Reich Minister of the Interior.  

      Article 7 

      The Fu"hrer and Reich Chancellor can grant exemptions from the
      regulations laid down in the law.  

   The administration of this regulation proved complicated because the
   necessary evidence on family background was not always readily
   available for distinguishing between the various categories of Jews.
   Bodies of 'family researchers' were employed to look into the matter
   but selection was often arbitrary." (Noakes, 463-467)

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                              Work Cited

Noakes, Jeremy, and Geoffrey Pridham. Documents on Nazism 1919-1945. New
York: Viking Press, 1974

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