A Plan of the investigation

The aim of this investigation is to research, analyze and evaluate the Nuremberg Race laws
and their effect on life of Jews in Germany. Books about history of Nazi Germany will be
examined, as well as many different Internet sources, specifically Nuremberg Laws. In part B, the
description of the discrimination of Jews when Hitler’s policies took place will be looked into,
making emphasis on and analyzing the Nuremberg Laws and changes that these laws made in the
life of Jews. To be more precise, laws that will be used, will be of time 1933-1935. This
investigation is limited in word count so it will not allow to cover wider time period.

B Summary of evidence

When Hitler came to power in 1933, the book “Mein Kampf” made it available for his
ideology to become widely popular. The first law that came out after the Nazi victory in the
Germany was the “Law for the Restoration of a Professional Civil Service” that was put through
in 7th April of 1933. The law stated that every Jew that was working at the Reich had to be fired
right away.1
“In the next six years the Jews of Germany had their citizenship taken from them, they
were executed from professional life and their properties were taken from them.” 2 From year 1933
until 1939 there were more than 250 laws and consequently policies processed. The “Law for the
Restoration of a Professional Civil Service” was made by an official of Ministry of Interior Achim
Gercke who earlier tried to form the archive of all Jewish population of Germany.3
Further on Nazi government tried strictly to discriminate Jews, new laws were signed. Jews
could not go to Universities, pools, theatres, parks. They could not hold radios or drivers licenses,
cars or motorcycles. Because of that thousands of Jews went abroad. If in 1933 there were five
hundred thousand Jews in Germany, in 1939 there were only two hundred thousand left.4
In September of 1935 the most important part of anti-Jewish legislature was made – The
Nuremberg Laws. This was a further addition of law of July 13, 1933 – „Law for the Protection of
Hereditary Health”. This document was about sterilization of handicapped and otherwise sick
people. This included people with schizophrenia, congenital feeble-mindedness, manic-depression,
chronic alcoholism, epilepsy and other hereditary illnesses5. Further on, these laws were
accompanied with laws against Jews, putting them in the same level with people with deathly and
dangerous diseases.
To stress the importance of the document and the seriousness of it, it was signed not only
by The Reich Minister of the Interior Frick, The Reich Minister of Justice Dr. Goertner and The
Deputy of the Fuehrer R. Hess, but by Adolph Hitler himself. The copy of the documents is put in
the Appendix.

C Evaluation of sources
1
http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/The_Holocaust/id/1895419
2
Ričards Overijs “Diktatori” (page 558)
3
Ričards Overijs “Diktatori” (page 564)
4
Ričards Overijs “Diktatori” (page 564)
5
http://www.mtsu.edu/~baustin/nurmlaw1.html

1
The Holocaust: Encyclopedia - The Holocaust
(http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/The_Holocaust/id/1895419)

This source is said to be an adapted version of an article from wikipedia.org. There are
various sources – books and Internet articles, mainly these articles are secondary sources so this
article is so as well. The source was written in 2005 from materials previously published. The
authors are not listed, but it is clear that they are living in our time so they basically retell the
History, trying not to evaluate or analyze it. These articles are put in quite spiritual home-page
which’s basic concern is to try to unite the world with religion. This source is a working material,
made in a form of encyclopedia to make it easier to understand. It seemed like this article was put
there to emphasize the cruelty of Nazi Germany to preserve the World from the same mistakes in
the future. This Internet page was valuable, because it had information from different sources
coherently put together which made this material available for different people. This was a
compilation of facts with no deeper analysis provided so that these facts could be interpreted
differently by every person.

Ričards Overijs “Diktatori” Izdevniecība “Atēna” 2006. gads (Published in 2004)

This source was written by a British historian Richard Overy. Being born in 1947, he has
known many people who had seen the events of 1935. This book has various references to
different sources that include speeches of Hitler and his representatives, photos and documents. It
is written to give the view on the life in Soviet Russia and Germany during dictatorship of Stalin
and Hitler. Although the Laws of Nuremberg were not the central theme of this book, it also gives
brief information about the events and the effect of this legislation on life of Jews at that time. This
book is very valuable because it was written by a British professional historian and so there were
no limitations like censorship when this work was written. It is based upon a thorough research and
investigation of sources and is written by an author who is very interested in German history and
has written other books about German history (as well others). This book was issued in 2004, with
the time distance understanding of certain details could be omitted.

D Analysis

The discrimination of Jews in 20th century was an important problem in all of Europe. The
Laws of Nuremberg were a turning point of this discrimination because it was one of the first legal
and documented actions that were taken to exclude Jews from the society. Without those laws it
would be harder to prove the extent of discrimination.
The extent in which Jews were affected by this legislature was very destructive. They were
fully isolated and excluded from all actions and social life. They could not participate in public
cultural activities and even could not work in governmental institutions. It lead to a massive
degradation of Jews in Germany. They could not integrate or communicate with non-Jews and that
was a big loss not only to Jews but to all Germany in whole. Because of this ruling out Germany
lost many excellent workers and scientists that were Jews or even descendants of Jews, for
example, an excellent doctor R.Bárány, a great industrial chemist and entrepreneur Nikodem Caro and
others.

2
 The Nuremberg laws were an important part of anti-Jewish movement, because further,
until the end of the Second World War in 1945, Jews were further discriminated, put in Ghettos
and killed. These laws made discrimination and extermination of Jews legal. Maybe many of
Germans did not agree with this legislature, but the extent of propaganda and fear of execution
stirred up the hatred.
Nuremberg laws and euthanasia program made not only lives of Jewish men but as well
women and children miserable. As Himmler said in 1943: “What about the women and children? I
decided to find an absolutely clear solution here too. I regard myself as having no right to
exterminate (ausrotten) the men—in other words, to kill them or have them killed—and to let the
avengers in the form of the children grow up for our sons and grandsons to deal with. The difficult
decision had to be taken to make these people disappear from the earth."
First law, which was the “Law of Protection of Hereditary Health” was illogical from its
core. Instead of attempting to cure sick people, German officials ordered to sterilize them trying to
avoid these illnesses to spread. With this German Reich tried to achieve the goal of Aryan race,
clean from illnesses and sub-humanity of other races.
Further laws that were centered to identify the place of Jews in German society. They were
aimed to stripped Jews from their citizenships and prohibit them to vote, as well ruling them out of
German society. Jews, according to these laws, were considered not only people with Jewish
beliefs, but as well people whose both grandparents were Jews. So it really did not matter, whether
you were a Jew, as long as your grandparents were them. The retirement of all Jewish officials had
to be made until 31 December, 1935, three months after the laws were signed.
Not only Jews were excluded from German societies, but as well they were
forbidden from communication with non-Jewish people, or ‘Aryans’. This was the second Law of
Nuremberg – “Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor”. It stated that all
marriages between Jews and ‘Aryans’ must be forbidden, as well as employment of German
women in Jewish households. Jews could not even use German flags or other German symbols, for
example, swastika, iron cross and others.
Those, who did not obey these laws, were to be punished by hard labor or even with
imprisonment. There were no negotiation about these laws, they were signed by Reichstag and
became valid, making lives of Jews miserable and setting up ground for further discrimination and
extermination of Jews all around the German occupied territories.

E Conclusions

To conclude, the extent to which the lives of Jews of Nazi Germany were affected by the
Nuremberg Laws was enormous. The Laws of Nuremberg were highly illogical, antihuman and
unnecessary. This is an unacceptable example of government’s policy against minority in the
whole human history. Because of this legislature all of Jews were humiliated and excluded from
German society and set stage for further discrimination that reached the point where Jews were just
killed for no reason. Because of that Jews had to run or backside from their beliefs to survive.

F List of sources

3
Used literature

1. Overijs, Ričards. Diktatori. Apgāds “Atēna”, Rīga, 2006.

2. http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/The_Holocaust/id/1895419 - “The Holocaust: The
Encyclopedia” (Visited on 20th of January, 2008)
3. http://www.mtsu.edu/~baustin/nurmlaw1.html - “Nuremberg Laws” (Visited on 15th of
January, 2008)

Read literature

1. Dawidowicz, Lucy. The War Against the Jews, 1933 - 1945. Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
New York, 1975.
2. Documents on the Holocaust. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, and Yad
Vashem, Jerusalem, 1999.
3. Lowe, Norman. Mastering Modern World History. Macmillan Master Series, Biddles Ltd.,
London, 1997.
4. Traynor, John. Challenging History, Europe 1890 – 1990. Nelson Thornes Ltd, London,
1993.

5. http://cghs.dadeschools.net/ib_holocaust2001/Persecution_early_years/nuremberg_laws.ht
m - “The Nuremberg Laws” (Visited on 15th of January, 2008)
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_policy_of_Nazi_Germany - “Racial policy of Nazi
Germany” (Visited on 4th of January, 2008)
7. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005681 – “Holocaust
th
Encyclopedia” (Visited on 26 of January, 2008)
8. http://www.wsg-hist.uni-linz.ac.at/Auschwitz/HTML/Rassegesetze.html#top – “The Laws
of Nuremberg” (Visited on 12th of January, 2008)
9. http://www.wzaponline.com/GermanLawsDiscriminatingAgainstJews.pdf - “German Laws
Discriminating Against Jews” (Visited on 25th of December, 2007)
10. http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205741.pdf – “Anti-
Jewish Legislation” (Visited on 16th of January, 2008)

Word count: 1566

Appendix

4
 Law for the Protection of Hereditary Health:
The Attempt to Improve the German
Aryan Breed, July 14, 1933

Article I. (1.) Anyone who suffers from an inheritable disease may be surgically sterilized if in
the judgment of medical science, it could be expected that his descendants will suffer from serious
inherited mental or physical defects.
(2.) Anyone who suffers from one of the following is to be regarded as inheritably
diseased within the meaning of this law:
1. congenital feeble-mindedness
2. schizophrenia
3. manic-depression
4. congenital epilepsy
5. inheritable St. Vitus dance
(Huntington's Chorea)
6. hereditary blindness
7. hereditary deafness
8. serious inheritable malformations
(3.) In addition, anyone suffering from chronic
alcoholism may also be sterilized.

Article II. (1.) Anyone who requests sterilization is entitled to it. If he be incapacitated or under
a guardian because of low state of mental health or not yet 18 years of age, his legal guardian is
empowered to make the request. In other cases of limited capacity the request must receive the
approval of the legal representative. If a person be of age and has a nurse, the latter's consent is
required.
(2.) The request must be accompanied by a certificate from a citizen who is accredite
by the German Reich stating that the person to be sterilized has been informed about the nature and
consequence of sterilization.
(3.) The request for sterilization can be recalled.

Article III. Sterilization may also be recommended by:

(1.) the official physician
(2.) the official in charge of a hospital,
sanitarium, or prison.

Article IV. The request for sterilization must be presented in writing to, or placed in writing by
the office of the Health Inheritance Court. The statement concerning the request must be certified
by a medical document or authenticated in some other way. The business office of the court must
notify the official physician.
Article VII. The proceedings of the Health Inheritance Court are secret.
Article X. The Supreme Health Insurance Court retains final jurisdiction

The Nuremberg Laws on Citizenship and Race:

September 15, 1935

5
 The Reich Citizenship Law of September 15, 1935

THE REICHSTAG HAS ADOPTED by unanimous vote the following law which is herewith
promulgated.

ARTICLE 1. (1) A subject of the state is one who belongs to the protective union of the German
Reich, and who, therefore, has specific obligations to the Reich.
(2) The status of subject is to be acquired in accordance with the provisions of the
Reich and the state Citizenship Law.

ARTICLE 2. (1) A citizen of the Reich may be only one who is of German or kindred blood, and
who, through his behavior, shows that he is both desirous and personally fit to serve loyally the
German people and the Reich.
(2) The right to citizenship is obtained by the grant of Reich citizenship papers.
(3) Only the citizen of the Reich may enjoy full political rights in consonance with
the provisions of the laws.

ARTICLE 3. The Reich Minister of the Interior, in conjunction with the Deputy to the Fuehrer,
will issue the required legal and administrative decrees for the implementation and amplification of
this law.

Promulgated: September 16, 1935. In force:

September 30, 1935.

First Supplementary Decree of November 14, 1935

On the basis of Article III of the Reich Citizenship Law of

September 15, 1935, the following is hereby decreed:

ARTICLE 1. (1) Until further provisions concerning citizenship papers, all subjects of German
or kindred blood who possessed the right to vote in the Reichstag elections when the Citizenship
Law came into effect, shall, for the present, possess the rights of Reich citizens. The same shall be
true of those upon whom the Reich Minister of the Interior, in conjunction with the Deputy to the
Fuehrer shall confer citizenship.
(2) The Reich Minister of the Interior, in conjunction with the Deputy to the Fuehrer,
may revoke citizenship.

ARTICLE 2. (1) The provisions of Article I shall apply also to subjects who are of mixed Jewish
blood.
(2) An individual of mixed Jewish blood is one who is descended from one or two
grandparents who, racially, were full Jews, insofar that he is not a Jew according to Section 2 of
Article 5. Full-blooded Jewish grandparents are those who belonged to the Jewish religious
community.

6
 ARTICLE 3. Only citizens of the Reich, as bearers of full political rights, can exercise the right
of voting in political matters, and have the right to hold public office. The Reich Minister of the
Interior, or any agency he empowers, can make exceptions during the transition period on the
matter of holding public office. The measures do not apply to matters concerning religious
organizations.

ARTICLE 4. (1) A Jew cannot be a citizen of the Reich. He cannot exercise the right to vote; he
cannot hold public office.
(2) Jewish officials will be retired as of December 31, 1935. In the event that such officials
served at the front in the World War either for Germany or her allies, they shall receive as pension,
until they reach the age limit, the full salary last received, on the basis of which their pension
would have been computed. They shall not, however, be promoted according to their seniority in
rank. When they reach the age limit, their pension will be computed again, according to the salary
last received on which their pension was to be calculated.
(3) These provisions do not concern the affairs of religious organizations.
(4) The conditions regarding service of teachers in public Jewish schools remains unchanged
until the promulgation of new laws on the Jewish school system.

ARTICLE 5 (1) A Jew is an individual who is descended from at least three grandparents who
were, racially, full Jews...
(2) A Jew is also an individual who is descended from two full-Jewish grandparents if:
(a) he was a member of the Jewish religious community when this law was issued, or joined the
community later;
(b) when the law was issued, he was married to a person who was a Jew, or was subsequently
married to a Jew;
(c) he is the issue from a marriage with a Jew, in the sense of Section I, which was contracted
after the coming into effect of the Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor of
September 15, 1935;
(d) he is the issue of an extramarital relationship with a Jew, in the sense of Section I, and was
born out of wedlock after July 31, 1936.

ARTICLE 6. (1) Insofar as there are, in the laws of the Reich or in the decrees of the National
Socialist German Workers' Party and its affiliates, certain requirements for the purity of German
blood which extend beyond Article 5, the same remain untouched....
ARTICLE 7. The Fuehrer and Chancellor of the Reich is empowered to release anyone from the
provisions of these administrative decrees.

Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor

September 15, 1935

Thoroughly convinced by the knowledge that the purity of German blood is essential for the
further existence of the German people and animated by the inflexible will to safe-guard the
German nation for the entire future, the Reichstag has resolved upon the following law
unanimously, which is promulgated herewith:

SECTION 1

7
 1. Marriages between Jews and nationals 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 are
concluded abroad.
2. Proceedings for annulment may be initiated only by the Public Prosecutor.

SECTION 2
Relation outside marriage between Jews and nationals for German or kindred blood are forbidden.

SECTION 3
Jews will not be permitted to employ female nationals of German or kindred blood in their
households.

SECTION 4
1. Jews are forbidden to hoist the Reich and national flag and to present the colors of the Reich.
2. On the other hand they are permitted to present the Jewish colors. The exercise of this
authority is protected by the State.

SECTION 5
1. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of section 1 will be punished with hard labor.
2. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of section 2 will be punished with imprisonment
or with hard labor.
3. A person who acts contrary to the provisions of section 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 of the Fuehrer will issue the legal
and administrative regulations which are required fro the implementation and supplementation of
this law.

SECTION 7
The law will become effective on the day after the promulgation, section 3 however only on 1
January, 1936.

Nuremberg, the 15th day of September 1935 at the Reich

Party Rally of Freedom.

The Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor

Adolph Hitler
The Reich Minister of the Interior
Frick
The Reich Minister of Justice
Dr. Goertner
The Deputy of the Fuehrer
R. Hess
http://www.mtsu.edu/~baustin/nurmlaw1.html