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) Followups directed to alt.revisionism Work Cited Noakes, Jeremy, and Geoffrey Pridham. Documents on Nazism 1919-1945. New York: Viking Press, 1974
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