NUREMBERG RACE LAWS
Three Nazi laws were passed in September 1935 in Nuremberg, Germany: One defines citizenship in the German Reich, another prohibits marriage, cohabitation and other relations between Aryans and Jews, and the third mandates loyalty to the Nazi flag.
By not allowing Jews to be citizens, not allowing them to marry German citizens, and not allowing them to display the German/Nazi flag (and forcing Jews to display “Jewish colors,”), these laws isolated Jews from mainstream society, making them, legally, and very visibly, second-class citizens and targets of abuse. From there it was a short step until Jews were routinely accused of being enemies of the state simply for being Jewish. The Nuremberg Laws helped implement government-sanctioned actions such as seizing of property, businesses, bank accounts, and eventually widespread violence throughout Nazi occupied territory.
Here are samples from the U.S. Army translations of excerpts of the laws, dated Sept. 15, 1935. Violators of Paragraphs 1 and 2 were to be “punished with forced labor” and Paragraphs 3 and 4 were to be “punished with prison not exceeding one year and with a fine or with one of these punishments:”
Paragraph 1: Marriages between Jews and citizens of German or German-related blood are forbidden. Marriages which have been performed in spite of this law, even if they have been performed in a foreign country, are void….
Paragraph 2: Extramarital sexual intercourse between Jews and citizens of German or German-related blood are forbidden.
Paragraph 3: Jews are not allowed to employ female citizens of German or German- related blood under 45 years in their household.
Paragraph 4: Jews are forbidden to raise the Reich and National Flag and they cannot show the National colors. However, they are allowed to display the Jewish colors. The exercise of this disposition is under the state’s protection.
– Compiled by Jonathan Josephson, Dramaturg
