What were the Nuremberg Race Laws?

 
On September 15, 1935, the Nazi regime announced two new laws: 
The Reich Citizenship Law
The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor
These laws informally became known as the Nuremberg Laws or Nuremberg Race Laws. This is
because they were first announced at a Nazi Party rally held in the German city of Nuremberg. 
Why did the Nazis enact the Nuremberg Race Laws? 
The Nuremberg Race Laws
Previous
Edward Adler describes arrest and imprisonment in prewar Germany for his relationship with a
non-Jewish woman
Edward was born to a Jewish family in Hamburg. In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws prohibited
marriage or sexual relations between German non-Jews and Jews. Edward was then in his mid-
twenties. Edward was arrested for dating a non-Jewish woman. Classified as a habitual offender,
he was later deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, near Berlin. He was forced to
perform hard labor in construction projects. Edward had married shortly before his
imprisonment, and his wife made arrangements for their emigration from Germany. Edward was
released from custody in September 1938 and left Germany. He stayed with relatives in
Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and later immigrated to the United States.
Massed crowds at the 1935 Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg
Spectators in the stands of the Zeppelinfeld look on as Adolf Hitler's car moves towards the
speakers' platform at the opening of Reichsparteitag (Reich Party Day) ceremonies in
Nuremberg. The Zeppelinfeld was part of the Nazi Party rally grounds. Nuremberg, Germany,
September 1935.
Samples of the Nuremberg Race Laws
Samples of the Nuremberg Race Laws (the Reich Citizenship Law and the Law for the
Protection of German Blood and Honor). Germany, September 15, 1935.
Passports issued to a German Jewish couple
Passports issued to a German Jewish couple, with "J" for Jude (the German word for Jew)
stamped on the cards. Karlsruhe, Germany, December 29, 1938.
Hotel Reichshof flyer
1939 flyer from the Hotel Reichshof in Hamburg, Germany. The red tag informed Jewish guests
of the hotel that they were not permitted in the hotel restaurant, bar, or in the reception rooms.
The hotel management required Jewish guests to take their meals in their rooms. Following the
Nuremberg Laws of 1935, Jews were systematically excluded from public places in Germany.
Ruth Gabriele Silten
Gabriele was the only child of Jewish parents living in the German capital of Berlin. Her
grandfather owned a pharmacy and a pharmaceuticals factory, where Gabriele's father also made
his living.
1933-39: In 1938 the Nazis forced Ruth's grandfather to sell his factory and pharmacy for very
little money to an "Aryan" German. After that, her father decided they should move to
Amsterdam where it was safer for Jews. She was 5 years old and wanted to stay in Berlin. She
didn't understand why she had to leave her toys and friends. In Amsterdam Ruth had to learn a
whole new language when she began elementary school, but she soon began to make new friends
there.
1940-44: In May 1940 Germany invaded the Netherlands. Ruth remembers being frightened
seeing the German troops march into the city. When she went to school she had to wear a yellow
Jewish star, and she couldn't play with her Christian friends anymore. When she was 9, her
family was deported to a camp in the eastern Netherlands called Westerbork. There, during the
day while her parents worked, Ruth learned to steal things to barter for food. A year later Ruth
and her family were sent to the Theresienstadt ghetto. In the ghetto she was hungry all the time.
Twelve-year-old Gabriele and her parents were liberated from Theresienstadt in May 1945. That
June, the Silten family returned to Amsterdam, where they resettled.

Henny Schermann
Henny's parents met in Germany soon after her father emigrated from the Russian Empire.
Henny was the first of the Jewish couple's three children. The family lived in Frankfurt am Main,
an important center of commerce, banking, industry and the arts.
1933-39: After the Nazis came to power, they began to persecute Jews, Roma (Gypsies), men
accused of homosexuality, people with disabilities, and political opponents. In 1938, as one way
of identifying Jews, a Nazi ordinance decreed that "Sara" was to be added in official papers as a
middle name for all Jewish women. Twenty-six-year-old Henny was working as a shop assistant,
and was living with her family in Frankfurt.
1940-44: In early 1940 Henny was arrested in Frankfurt and sent to
the Ravensbrück concentration camp for women. On the back of her prisoner photo was written:
"Jenny (sic) Sara Schermann, born February 19, 1912, Frankfurt am Main. Unmarried shopgirl in
Frankfurt am Main. Licentious lesbian, only visited such [lesbian] bars. Avoided the name 'Sara.'
Stateless Jew."
Henny was among a number of Ravensbrück prisoners selected for murder. In 1942 Henny was
gassed at the Bernburg killing facility.

Arthur Menke
Arthur was born to a Jewish family in Germany's largest port city, Hamburg. His father owned a
small factory that manufactured rubber stamps. In the early 1930s, Hamburg was home to the
fourth largest Jewish community in Germany, which had numerous social and cultural
institutions.
1933-39: By 1935 conditions for Hamburg's Jews were bad. Arthur's family was moved to
another part of town and in 1938, the Nazis seized his father's business. On national holidays
many German citizens unfurled red, white and black Nazi flags to show patriotism. Arthur and
his sister made their own "Nazi" flag and hung it out of the window. But his parents got angry
with them and reeled it back in. Arthur and his sister didn't understand why they couldn't support
their own country.
1940-44: In 1941 Arthur was deported 800 miles east to Minsk ghetto in the USSR.
The ghetto there was vast, with 85,000 people. He was put to work in a nearby German army
base, cutting peat for fuel. The soldiers were regular army and didn't abuse the prisoners as badly
as did the SS. Walking to and from our labor site, he would push the guard's bicycle for him.
Food was so scarce that one day he locked Arthur in the potato cellar so he could steal potatoes
for him. He let Arthur take some for himself. They smuggled them back to camp on his bike.
After two years in Minsk, Arthur was deported to various camps in Poland where he was put to
work welding planes. He was liberated while on a forced march to the Dachau camp in 1945.
Johanna Gerechter Neumann describes anti-Jewish measures in Hamburg, Germany
Amid intensifying anti-Jewish measures and the 1938 Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass")
pogrom, Johanna's family decided to leave Germany. They obtained visas for Albania, crossed
into Italy, and sailed in 1939. They remained in Albania under the Italian occupation and, after
Italy surrendered in 1943, under German occupation. The family was liberated after a battle
between the Germans and Albanian partisans in December 1944.
Edward Adler describes arrest and imprisonment in prewar Germany for his relationship with a
non-Jewish woman
Edward was born to a Jewish family in Hamburg. In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws prohibited
marriage or sexual relations between German non-Jews and Jews. Edward was then in his mid-
twenties. Edward was arrested for dating a non-Jewish woman. Classified as a habitual offender,
he was later deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, near Berlin. He was forced to
perform hard labor in construction projects. Edward had married shortly before his
imprisonment, and his wife made arrangements for their emigration from Germany. Edward was
released from custody in September 1938 and left Germany. He stayed with relatives in
Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and later immigrated to the United States.

Massed crowds at the 1935 Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg

Spectators in the stands of the Zeppelinfeld look on as Adolf Hitler's car moves towards the
speakers' platform at the opening of Reichsparteitag (Reich Party Day) ceremonies in
Nuremberg. The Zeppelinfeld was part of the Nazi Party rally grounds. Nuremberg, Germany,
September 1935.
Samples of the Nuremberg Race Laws
Samples of the Nuremberg Race Laws (the Reich Citizenship Law and the Law for the
Protection of German Blood and Honor). Germany, September 15, 1935.
Passports issued to a German Jewish couple
Passports issued to a German Jewish couple, with "J" for Jude (the German word for Jew)
stamped on the cards. Karlsruhe, Germany, December 29, 1938.
Hotel Reichshof flyer
1939 flyer from the Hotel Reichshof in Hamburg, Germany. The red tag informed Jewish guests
of the hotel that they were not permitted in the hotel restaurant, bar, or in the reception rooms.
The hotel management required Jewish guests to take their meals in their rooms. Following the
Nuremberg Laws of 1935, Jews were systematically excluded from public places in Germany.
Ruth Gabriele Silten
Gabriele was the only child of Jewish parents living in the German capital of Berlin. Her
grandfather owned a pharmacy and a pharmaceuticals factory, where Gabriele's father also made
his living.
1933-39: In 1938 the Nazis forced Ruth's grandfather to sell his factory and pharmacy for very
little money to an "Aryan" German. After that, her father decided they should move to
Amsterdam where it was safer for Jews. She was 5 years old and wanted to stay in Berlin. She
didn't understand why she had to leave her toys and friends. In Amsterdam Ruth had to learn a
whole new language when she began elementary school, but she soon began to make new friends
there.
1940-44: In May 1940 Germany invaded the Netherlands. Ruth remembers being frightened
seeing the German troops march into the city. When she went to school she had to wear a yellow
Jewish star, and she couldn't play with her Christian friends anymore. When she was 9, her
family was deported to a camp in the eastern Netherlands called Westerbork. There, during the
day while her parents worked, Ruth learned to steal things to barter for food. A year later Ruth
and her family were sent to the Theresienstadt ghetto. In the ghetto she was hungry all the time.
Twelve-year-old Gabriele and her parents were liberated from Theresienstadt in May 1945. That
June, the Silten family returned to Amsterdam, where they resettled.

Henny Schermann
Henny's parents met in Germany soon after her father emigrated from the Russian Empire.
Henny was the first of the Jewish couple's three children. The family lived in Frankfurt am Main,
an important center of commerce, banking, industry and the arts.
1933-39: After the Nazis came to power, they began to persecute Jews, Roma (Gypsies), men
accused of homosexuality, people with disabilities, and political opponents. In 1938, as one way
of identifying Jews, a Nazi ordinance decreed that "Sara" was to be added in official papers as a
middle name for all Jewish women. Twenty-six-year-old Henny was working as a shop assistant,
and was living with her family in Frankfurt.
1940-44: In early 1940 Henny was arrested in Frankfurt and sent to
the Ravensbrück concentration camp for women. On the back of her prisoner photo was written:
"Jenny (sic) Sara Schermann, born February 19, 1912, Frankfurt am Main. Unmarried shopgirl in
Frankfurt am Main. Licentious lesbian, only visited such [lesbian] bars. Avoided the name 'Sara.'
Stateless Jew."
Henny was among a number of Ravensbrück prisoners selected for murder. In 1942 Henny was
gassed at the Bernburg killing facility.

Arthur Menke
Arthur was born to a Jewish family in Germany's largest port city, Hamburg. His father owned a
small factory that manufactured rubber stamps. In the early 1930s, Hamburg was home to the
fourth largest Jewish community in Germany, which had numerous social and cultural
institutions.
1933-39: By 1935 conditions for Hamburg's Jews were bad. Arthur's family was moved to
another part of town and in 1938, the Nazis seized his father's business. On national holidays
many German citizens unfurled red, white and black Nazi flags to show patriotism. Arthur and
his sister made their own "Nazi" flag and hung it out of the window. But his parents got angry
with them and reeled it back in. Arthur and his sister didn't understand why they couldn't support
their own country.
1940-44: In 1941 Arthur was deported 800 miles east to Minsk ghetto in the USSR.
The ghetto there was vast, with 85,000 people. He was put to work in a nearby German army
base, cutting peat for fuel. The soldiers were regular army and didn't abuse the prisoners as badly
as did the SS. Walking to and from our labor site, he would push the guard's bicycle for him.
Food was so scarce that one day he locked Arthur in the potato cellar so he could steal potatoes
for him. He let Arthur take some for himself. They smuggled them back to camp on his bike.
After two years in Minsk, Arthur was deported to various camps in Poland where he was put to
work welding planes. He was liberated while on a forced march to the Dachau camp in 1945.
Johanna Gerechter Neumann describes anti-Jewish measures in Hamburg, Germany
Amid intensifying anti-Jewish measures and the 1938 Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass")
pogrom, Johanna's family decided to leave Germany. They obtained visas for Albania, crossed
into Italy, and sailed in 1939. They remained in Albania under the Italian occupation and, after
Italy surrendered in 1943, under German occupation. The family was liberated after a battle
between the Germans and Albanian partisans in December 1944.
Edward Adler describes arrest and imprisonment in prewar Germany for his relationship with a
non-Jewish woman
Edward was born to a Jewish family in Hamburg. In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws prohibited
marriage or sexual relations between German non-Jews and Jews. Edward was then in his mid-
twenties. Edward was arrested for dating a non-Jewish woman. Classified as a habitual offender,
he was later deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, near Berlin. He was forced to
perform hard labor in construction projects. Edward had married shortly before his
imprisonment, and his wife made arrangements for their emigration from Germany. Edward was
released from custody in September 1938 and left Germany. He stayed with relatives in
Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and later immigrated to the United States.
Next
The Nazis enacted the Nuremberg Laws, because they wanted to put their ideas about race into
law. They believed in the false theory that the world is divided into distinct races that are not
equally strong and valuable. The Nazis considered Germans to be members of the supposedly
superior “Aryan” race. They saw the so-called Aryan German race as the strongest, and most
valuable race of all. 
According to the Nazis, Jews were not Aryans. They thought Jews belonged to a separate race
that was inferior to all other races. The Nazis believed that the presence of Jews in Germany
threatened the German people. They believed they had to separate Jews from other Germans to
protect and strengthen Germany. The Nuremberg Laws were an important step towards
achieving this goal. 
What was the Reich Citizenship Law? Click here to copy a link to this section
The Nazi Party had always promised that, if they came to power, only racially pure Germans
would be allowed to hold German citizenship. The Reich Citizenship Law made this a reality.
This law defined a citizen as a person who is “of German or related blood.” This meant that
Jews, defined as a separate race, could not be full citizens of Germany. They had no political
rights. 
What was the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor? Click here to copy a
link to this section
The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor was a law against what the
Nazis viewed as race-mixing or “race defilement” (“Rassenschande”). It banned future
intermarriages and sexual relations between Jews and people “of German or related blood.” The
Nazis believed that such relationships were dangerous because they led to “mixed race”
children. According to the Nazis, these children and their descendants undermined the purity of
the German race. 
Who was Jewish according to the Nuremberg Laws?Click here to copy a link to this section
According to the Nuremberg Laws, a person with three or four Jewish grandparents was a Jew. A
grandparent was considered Jewish if they belonged to the Jewish religious community. Thus,
the Nazis defined Jews by their religion (Judaism), and not by the supposed racial traits that
Nazism attributed to Jews. 
The laws also categorized some people in Germany as “Mischlinge” (“mixed-race
persons”). According to law, Mischlinge were neither German nor Jewish. These were people
who had one or two Jewish grandparents.
The Nazi regime required individuals to prove their grandparents’ racial identities. To do so,
people used religious records. These included baptism records, Jewish community records, and
gravestones. 
Did the Nuremberg Laws apply to other groups?Click here to copy a link to this section
Yes. While initially focused on Jews, the Nazi government clarified that the Nuremberg Laws
also applied to Roma View This Term in the Glossary (also called Gypsies), Black people, and
their descendants. They could not be full citizens of Germany. Nor could they marry or have
sexual relations with “people of German or related blood.”
What were the consequences of the Nuremberg Laws? Click here to copy a link to this section
The Nuremberg Laws changed the everyday lives of Jews in Germany by making Jews legally
different from their non-Jewish neighbors. In the years that followed, the Nazi regime enacted
more and more anti-Jewish laws and decrees. These later laws relied on the definition of “Jew”
as defined in the Nuremberg Laws. Examples of these other laws or decrees include: 
The Law on the Alteration of Family and Personal Names (August 1938)
The Decree on Passports of Jews (October 1938)
The Police Regulation on the Marking of Jews (September 1941)
The Nuremberg Laws were an important step in the Nazi regime’s process of isolating and
excluding Jews from the rest of German society. 
Key Dates Click here to copy a link to this section
August 17, 1938
Law on the Alteration of Family and Personal Names 
On August 17, 1938, the Law on the Alteration of Family and Personal Names sets new name
requirements for Jews in Germany. This law states that Jews can only be given specific Jewish
first names. New Jewish parents must choose a name from a government-approved list. Also,
any Jew who does not already have a name from this list, must add an additional first name:
“Israel” (for men) and “Sara” (for women). Individuals have to report their new names to
government offices. They also have to use both their given and added first names for business
transactions. 
October 5, 1938
Decree on Passports of Jews
The Nazi regime invalidates the German passports of all German Jews. For their passports to
become valid again, German Jews must submit them to a passport office so that they can be
stamped with the letter “J.” The decree specifies that this applies to the passports of German
Jews as defined by the Nuremberg Laws. 
September 1, 1941
Police Regulation on the Marking of Jews 
Beginning in September 1941, all Jews in Nazi Germany are required to wear a special yellow
badge in public. The badge must be a palm-sized, yellow six-pointed star with black lines
outlining the Star of David. View This Term in the Glossary The star must have the word “Jude”
(German for “Jew”) written in the middle. It must be visible anytime a Jew appears in public.
Specifically, Jews are required to sew this yellow star View This Term in the Glossary onto the
left breast of their clothes. This order applies to all German Jews (as defined by the Nuremberg
Laws) who are six years old and older. Germans categorized as Mischlinge do not have to wear
the star.

The Nuremberg Laws (German: Nürnberger Gesetze, pronounced [ˈnʏʁnbɛʁɡɐ ɡəˈzɛtsə] (

listen)) were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September
1935, at a special meeting of the Reichstag convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of
the Nazi Party. The two laws were the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German
Honour, which forbade marriages and extramarital intercourse between Jews and Germans and
the employment of German females under 45 in Jewish households; and the Reich Citizenship
Law, which declared that only those of German or related blood were eligible to be Reich
citizens. The remainder were classed as state subjects without any citizenship rights. A
supplementary decree outlining the definition of who was Jewish was passed on 14 November,
and the Reich Citizenship Law officially came into force on that date. The laws were expanded
on 26 November 1935 to include Romani and Black people. This supplementary decree defined
Romanis as "enemies of the race-based state", the same category as Jews.
Out of foreign policy concerns, prosecutions under the two laws did not commence until after
the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in Berlin. After Hitler rose to power in 1933, they began to
implement their policies, which included the formation of a Volksgemeinschaft (people's
community) based on race. Chancellor and Führer (leader) Adolf Hitler declared a national
boycott of Jewish businesses on 1 April 1933, and the Law for the Restoration of the
Professional Civil Service, passed on 7 April, excluded the so-called non-Aryans from the legal
profession, the civil service, and from teaching in secondary schools and universities. Books
considered un-German, including those by Jewish authors, were destroyed in a nationwide book
burning on 10 May. Jewish citizens were harassed and subjected to violent attacks. They were
actively suppressed, stripped of their citizenship and civil rights, and eventually completely
removed from German society.
The Nuremberg Laws had a crippling economic and social impact on the Jewish community.
Persons convicted of violating the marriage laws were imprisoned, and (subsequent to 8 March
1938) upon completing their sentences were re-arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Nazi
concentration camps. Non-Jews gradually stopped socialising with Jews or shopping in Jewish-
owned stores, many of which closed due to a lack of customers. As Jews were no longer
permitted to work in the civil service or government-regulated professions such as medicine and
education, many middle-class business owners and professionals were forced to take menial
employment. Emigration was problematic, as Jews were required to remit up to 90% of their
wealth as a tax upon leaving the country.[1] By 1938 it was almost impossible for potential Jewish
emigrants to find a country willing to take them. Mass deportation schemes such as
the Madagascar Plan proved to be impossible for the Nazis to carry out, and starting in mid-
1941, the German government started mass exterminations of the Jews of Europe.