Document 30-2: The Nuremberg Laws: The Centerpiece of Nazi Racial Legislation (1935)

Legislating Racial Purity

Adolf Hitler’s beliefs about Germanic racial superiority, first articulated in his 1925 book Mein Kampf, became the foundation for the Nuremberg Laws, enacted after Hitler (1889–1945) seized power as German chancellor in 1933. Designed to preserve the purity of the German race, the laws — which were a manifestation of Hitler’s fierce anti-Semitism — deemed Jews inferior, defined who was a Jew, and prohibited intermarriage between Germans and non-Germans (especially Jews). In the end, Jews lost not only citizenship rights and jobs but also their freedom and lives; ultimately, six million perished in the Holocaust.

Article 5

  1. A Jew is anyone who descended from at least three grandparents who were racially full Jews. Article 2, par. 2, second sentence will apply.
  2. A Jew is also one who descended from two full Jewish parents, if: (a) he belonged to the Jewish religious community at the time this law was issued, or who 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 from a marriage with a Jew, in the sense of Section 1, which was contracted after the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor became effective . . . ; (d) he is the offspring of an extramarital relationship, with a Jew, according to Section 1, and will be born out of wedlock after July 31, 1936. . . .

Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor of 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 Reichstag1 has resolved upon the following law unanimously, which is promulgated herewith:

Section 1

  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. . . .

Section 2

Relation[s] outside marriage between Jews and nationals of German or kindred blood are forbidden.

Section 3

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

Section 4

  1. Jews are forbidden to hoist the Reich and national flag and to present the colors of the Reich. . . .

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 Sections 3 or 4 will be punished with imprisonment up to a year and with a fine or with one of these penalties. . . .

U.S. Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946), vol. 4, doc. no. 1417-PS, 8–10; vol. 4, doc. no. 2000-PS, 636–638.

READING AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  1. What makes someone a Jew, according to the Nuremberg Laws?
  2. Why do you think so much attention is paid to “relations” between Germans and Jews in these laws?
  3. Within the laws, what restrictions render Jews different from and inferior to other Germans?
  4. What do the laws suggest about the place of race in Nazi ideology?