The Nuremberg Race Laws	September 15, 1935

Source:	Rogasky, Barbara. Smoke and Ashes: The Story of the Holocaust. New York: Holiday House, 1988. summarized from pgs. 27-29

ordered to wear the yellow Star of David visibly on all clothing

all passports stamped with a "J" and all Jews given recognizable Jewish names

marriages and relations between Jews and non-Jews dissolved and forbidden

"defiling the race" could be punished by death

Jews may not employ Germans

Jews cannot be citizens of the Reich (Nazi empire) and have no political rights

Jews not allowed to display the German flag

signs like ARYANS ONLY or JEWS NOT PERMITTED HERE posted where Jews are banned from going

Jewish businesses, property and valuables seized by the government

Jews banned from public swimming pools, most businesses, restaurants, busses, trains, barber shops and beauty salons, schools, etc.

radios, telephones, and bikes confiscated from Jews

curfew for Jews established/ movement within towns and cities restricted

most Jews not allowed to emigrate (move to other countries)

those who did lost everything (house, bank accounts, valuables, etc.)

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The Nuremberg Race Laws

Source:	United States Holocaust Historical Museum

At the annual Nazi party rally held in Nuremberg in 1935, the Nazis announced new laws which institutionalized many of the racial theories.... The laws excluded German Jews from Reich citizenship and prohibited them from marrying or having intimate relations with persons of "German or related blood." Ancillary ordinances ...disenfranchised Jews and deprived them of most political rights.

After the Olympic Games (in which the Nazis did not allow German Jewish athletes to participate), the Nazis again stepped up the persecution of German Jews. In 1937 and 1938, the government set out to impoverish Jews by requiring them to register their property and then by "Aryanizing" Jewish businesses. This meant that Jewish workers and managers were dismissed, and the ownership of most Jewish businesses was taken over by non-Jewish Germans who bought them at bargain prices fixed by Nazis. Jewish doctors were forbidden to treat non-Jews, and Jewish lawyers were not permitted to practice law.

Like everyone in Germany, Jews were required to carry identity cards, but the government added special identifying marks to theirs: a red "J" stamped on them and new middle names for all those Jews who did not possess recognizably "Jewish" first names -- "Israel" for males, "Sara" for females. Such cards allowed the police to identify Jews easily.

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The Nuremberg Race Laws

Source: Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies

University of Minnesota

The second of the Nuremberg Laws, known as Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor, established membership in the Jewish race" as being anyone who either considered themselves Jewish or had three or four Jewish grandparents. People with one or two Jewish grandparents were considered to be Mischlinges of mixed race. Although at first there was some uncertainty as to how to treat Mischlinges, ultimately anyone with even a single Jewish grandparent was at risk in Nazi Germany. The Nuremberg Laws were unique in classifying Jews, not as a religion or culture, but as a race. This meant that even non-practicing Jews or Jews who had converted to Christianity could be defined as Jews.

The Nuremberg Laws governed the private lives of Jews in their interactions with non-Jews. For example, the laws prohibited intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews. Jews were prohibited from employing non-
Jewish women under age 45 as domestic helpers.

The Nuremberg Laws were part of the Nazi's belief in an Aryan "master race." "Inferior races" such as the Slavs were useful only as slaves. Jews, Roma (Gypsies) and the handicapped were considered to be serious biological threats to the purity of the German race, and therefore " unworthy of life." These ideas were based on eugenics, a racial theory popular in most western nations at the time, including Canada, Britain and the United States.

Today, geneticists dispute the ideas of racial superiority and have found very few genetic differences among races. Despite the superficial variations of hair and skin color, all people are more genetically alike than they are different.