About the Nuremberg Laws

The Nuremberg Laws on Citizenship and Race were created in 1935. They were a set of laws that were announced after a conference of ministers was held. These laws basically deprived Jewish people of their citizenship and made them subjects in Hitler's Reich. These laws were one of the first steps in the annihilation of the Jewish race in Germany.

History of

The Nuremberg Laws were created in 1935 in Nazi Germany. They were a set of denaturalization laws used to discriminate against Jewish citizens. The laws were based on a chart similar to a genealogy chart. All four grandparents had to be German to be classified as a German citizen. People were considered Jews if they had three or more Jewish grandparents. According to the Nuremberg Laws, a person could be considered a mixed blood if they had one or two Jewish grandparents.

Time Frame

On August 20, 1935, a conference of ministers was held to discuss economic effects against Jews. In the two months past this conference there were two measures announced at the Party Rally, which became the Nuremberg Laws. Nazi Germany held anti-Jewish themes intact during the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. After that time in 1937 and 1938, Nazi Germany tried to bankrupt Jewish citizens by having them register property and allowing them to only work with other Jewish people if they were in any type of industry such as medicine or law.

Effects

Jews were required to carry identification cards such as other citizens in Germany. However, Jewish identification cards had a special stamp on them with a red letter "J" and new names were given to those who had names that were not recognized as Jewish sounding. This was supposedly to make it easier to identify Jews by the police and government officials. The men were given the name "Israel" and the women, "Sarah."

Misconceptions

The Nuremberg Laws did not define a Jew as a person with a particular religion like some might think. It was all based on the chart that was created. The chart defined Jews by their lineage. The number of grandparents that were also Jews was how the Nuremberg Laws defined a Jew. It wasn't based on religion at all, rather the immediate family. Even if a person didn't consider himself part of the Jewish religion, as long as he had Jewish grandparents he was automatically considered a Jew.

The Facts

The first law of the Nuremberg Laws was called The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor. This regulation made it against the law for Germans and Jews to have sexual relations or marry. The second law was called The Reich Citizenship Law. This bylaw took away German citizenship from the Jews and caused a distinction between what they called Reich Citizens and Nationals.