Nuremberg Laws
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The Nuremberg Laws (German: Nürnberger Gesetze) 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".
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[edit] 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. 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 (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 extramarital 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 unanimously by the Reichstag, or German Parliament, in a special session held during a Nuremberg Rally. 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 Nuremberg Laws were inspired partly by the anti-miscegenation laws of the United States of America.[3]
[edit] The Laws for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor
(September 15, 1935)
Entirely convinced that the purity of German blood is essential to the further existence of the German people, and inspired by the uncompromising determination to safeguard the future of the German nation, the Reichstag has unanimously resolved upon the following law, which is promulgated herewith:
- Section 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.
- Proceedings for annulment may be initiated only by the Public Prosecutor.
- Section 2
- Extramarital intercourse between Jews and subjects of the state of German or related blood is forbidden.
(Supplementary decrees set Nazi definitions of racial Germans, Jews, and half-breeds or Mischlinge --- see the latter entry for details and citations. Jews could not vote or hold public office.)
- Section 3
- Jews will not be permitted to employ female citizens of German or kindred blood as domestic workers under the age of 45.
- Section 4
- Jews are forbidden to display the Reich and national flag or the national colours.
- On the other hand they are permitted to display the Jewish colours. The exercise of this right is protected by the State.[4]
- Section 5
- A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of Section 1 will be punished with hard labour.
- A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of Section 2 will be punished with imprisonment or with hard labor.
- 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] References
- ^ Nuremberg Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor, English translation at the University of the West of England
- ^ Reich Citizenship Law, English translation at the University of the West of England
- ^ [1] David Hollinger (2003) Amalgamation and Hypodescent: The Question of Ethnoracial Mixture in the History of the United States, American Historical Review, Vol. 108, Iss. 5]
- ^ As J. Boas notes in "German-Jewish Internal Politics under Hitler" (see [2]), the "Jewish colours" referred to in this article were the Blue-and-White Zionist banner which is presently the national Flag of Israel.
[edit] External links
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