At Nuremberg Laws were approved in September 1935 by direct order of adolf hitler. Altogether, the Nuremberg Laws were a set of three laws, which were approved on the same day and expanded the apparatus of persecution against Jews in Germany. Through these laws, the exclusion of Jews from that society was made official, since Jews lost their right to citizenship.
The Nuremberg Laws were fundamental in construction and consolidation of hatred against Jews in German society. These small long-term violence against Jews resulted in the Holocaust, the genocide of Jews carried out during the Second World War.
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Historical context
The Nazi Party program was created with the anti-Semitism one of its ideological pillars. They took power in Germany in 1933, and thereafter began to implement measures against the Jews little by little. At first, the Nazis focused on eugenic policy rather than anti-Semitism.
THE eugenics is an ideology that sought to promote the “purification” of the German race and thus groups such as gypsies, homosexuals, mental patients, people with physical disabilities or hereditary diseases, were the target of intense discrimination. Anti-Semitism was, however, used from 1934 onwards to rescue the Nazi regime's popularity.
From 1935 onwards, violence against Jews increased precisely because of this. The Nazi regime suffered a unpopularity, because unemployment and prices were still high and, with that, part of German society turned against the Jews. These groups demanded that segregation measures be passed against Jews.
This is because the Nazi Party program, written in 1920, stipulated in its Article 4 that Jews were not considered members of the race (Aryan/German). Thus, as historian Ian Kershaw claims, Germany's most radical group of anti-Semites began to demand that the party's program be carried out and discriminatory laws were approved|1|.
The greatest demands of this group of radical anti-Semites was that marriages and sexual relations between Germans (Aryans) and Jews be prohibited. As a result, as early as 1935, many registries in Germany began to deny interracial marriages. It also began to become common for Jewish shops to begin to be boycotted and anti-Semitic sayings began to be spread in many cities.
The radicals' demand led to a law banning interracial marriages passed in May 1935. In the same month, another law on citizenship applications for foreigners was passed that excluded Jews. This type of action through legislation was approved by members of the government, such as the Minister of Economy, HjalmarSchacht.
As of early September, there is evidence to suggest that Hitler still did not want to pass new discriminatory laws against Jews, but two developments convinced Hitler otherwise. First, in August, the VII Congress of the Communist International and in it communism had declared war on fascism in the world.
The second event was due to an encounter between Hitler and the dr. Gerhard Wagner, a physician enthusiastic about discriminatory laws against Jews. The combination of the two events is believed to have convinced Hitler to pass new laws against the Jews. Thus, Hitler took advantage of the rally held annually in Nuremberg to present the new laws.
hitler summoned Wilhelmfrick, Minister of the Interior, and two other employees of that ministry, FranzAlbrechtmedicus and BernhardLosener, to draft laws that would address issues of citizenship and miscegenation. At 2:30 am, Hitler gave approval to one of the bills handed over by Frick, and then the bill was sent to Parliament.
What were the Nuremberg Laws?
The Nuremberg Laws were made by direct order of Adolf Hitler.*
The Nuremberg Laws were a set of laws that dealt with issues related to miscegenation and German citizenship. As mentioned, they were drawn up by direct order of Adolf Hitler, having his personal approval on 15 September 1935 and the German Parliament, the Reichstag, the following day.
Altogether, the Nuremberg Laws grouped three laws that were known as “German Blood and Honor Protection Act” (Gesetz zum Schutze des deutschen Blutes und der deutschen Ehre), “Reich Citizenship Law” (Reichsburgergesetz) and "Reich Flag Law” (Reichsflaggengesetz).
German Blood and Honor Protection Act
This law operated in balltoilet of German society and determined the prohibition of interracial marriage between Germans and Jews. Interracial sexual relations between Jews and Germans were also prohibited, and the law also stated that Jews could only hire German maids who were 45 years of age or older.
All those who did not respect the provisions of this law were accused of "corruptionsexual”, in German the term used was “rassenschande”, which literally translated meant “racial disgrace”. Through this law, about 420 people were convictedper annum, between 1936 and 1939, of sexual corruption|2|.
Reich Citizenship Law
This law was one of the most awaited demands of radical anti-Semitic supporters of Nazism and defined who was entitled to receive the german citizenship and who would not receive it. Based on each person's genealogical descent, it would be defined whether they would receive German citizenship or not. Those who were not considered German citizens were known as “subjectsinstate” had no rights of any kind, but were obliged to continue to fulfill their obligations to the State.
This definition of who was Jewish and who was not, according to the Reich Citizenship Act, dragged on until December 1935, at which point it was actually decided. It was decided that those who had ¾ of Jewish blood would be considered Jews, that is, if three of his four grandparents were Jews. Other factors that defined whether a person was Jewish or not:
If you practiced the Jewish religion;
Marry a Jew after the passing of the Nuremberg Laws;
Had a Jewish mother or father (whether in a legitimate marriage or in an “illegitimate” relationship);
Furthermore, those with ½ or ¼ of Jewish blood were classified as belonging to a breedmestizo who was entitled to German citizenship. These mixed races were classified into two grades, which varied in the amount of Jewish blood present in the person's genealogy. It is important to mention that there were members of the Nazi government who argued that ¼ would be enough to declare a person as a Jew, but Hitler ended up opting for ¾.
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Reich Flag Law
This law basically defined the colors of the German flag and it was decided that the swastika would be the integral symbol of the country's flag. The colors chosen were red, white and black.
night of crystals
The Night of Crystals was another chapter of violence against Jews in Nazi Germany.
The Nuremberg Laws were a big step towards consolidating the exclusion of Jews from society German. These laws still had the role of controlling the violence of that society against the Jews, since the following year (1936) Germany would host in Berlin the Olympics. The exclusion of Jews continued and violence increased over time and one of the demonstrations clearest of violence against Jews in Nazi Germany came in 1938 in what became known like night of crystals.
Holocaust
The Nazi hate speech added to all the actions taken against the Jews, such as the laws that excluded them from society, and the violence encouraged by the summit long-term result was the Holocaust, the genocide of Jews carried out during World War II that resulted in the death of six million people. people. The steps of the Holocaust included the use of death squads it's from concentration camps. To learn more about, read: Holocaust: what was it, consequences, death toll and movies.
|1| KERSHAW, Ian. Hitler. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2010, p. 373.
|2| EVANS, Richard. J. The Third Reich in Power. São Paulo: Planet, 2014, p. 620.
*Image credit: Everett Historical and Shutterstock
By Daniel Neves
Graduated in History