Hitler's laws. Nuremberg racial laws. Reich Citizenship Law
In September 1935, Nazi Germany passed two separate pieces of legislation, collectively known as the Nuremberg Laws, the Reich Citizenship Law and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor. These laws embodied many of the racist theories underlying Nazi ideology. The Nuremberg Laws became the legal basis for the systematic persecution of Jews in Germany.
On September 15, 1935, Adolf Hitler came forward with the postulates underlying the Nuremberg Laws. German Parliament ( Reichstag), which consisted exclusively of Nazis, passed these bills. Anti-Semitism was at the core of the Nazis' beliefs, so Hitler called an emergency meeting of parliament at the annual Nazi Party meeting in the German city of Nuremberg.
REICH CITIZENSHIP LAW
The Nazis had long sought a legal definition that would identify Jews not on the basis of religion, but on the theory of racial anti-Semitism. Jews living in Germany were not easy to identify by appearance alone. Many of them abandoned the rituals and traditional Jewish appearance, integrating into mainstream society. Some Jews no longer practiced Judaism and even began to celebrate Christian holidays with their non-Jewish neighbors - especially Christmas. And even more Jews began to marry Christians or convert to Christianity.
According to the Reich Citizenship Law and numerous explanatory regulations on its implementation, only people of “German or related blood” had the right to be German citizens. The law determined who was (or was not) a German, and also who was (or was not) a Jew. The Nazis rejected traditional views according to which a person was considered a Jew if he was a member of the Jewish religious or cultural community. Instead, they argued that Jews were a race defined by birth and blood.
Despite the persistent statements of Nazi ideologists, there was no scientific basis for separating Jews into a separate race. Thus, to determine a person's race, the Nazis legislatures based on his family's genealogy. Individuals with three or more second-generation ancestors (grandparents) born into the Jewish religious community were legally considered Jews. Grandparents born into the Jewish religious community were considered to be part of the “Jewish race.” Their “racial status” was passed on to their children and grandchildren. In accordance with the law, Jews living in Germany were not citizens, but “subjects” of the country.
This legal definition of "Jew" in Germany included tens of thousands of people who did not consider themselves Jewish or had no religious or cultural ties to the Jewish community. For example, according to this definition, Jews were considered to be persons who converted from Judaism to Christianity. In addition, in this case, people whose parents or grandparents converted to Christianity were also recognized as Jews. By law, they were deprived of German citizenship and their basic rights.
To further complicate the situation, a number of people living in Germany were not classified by the Nuremberg Laws as either Germans or Jews - this applied to those people who only had one or two second-generation ancestors (grandparents) born in the Jewish religious community. These persons of "mixed racial origin" were called "half-breeds" (German: Mischlinge). They had the same rights as "racial" Germans, but their rights were continually curtailed as further laws were passed.
LAW FOR THE PROTECTION OF GERMAN BLOOD AND GERMAN HONOR
The Second Nuremberg Law, a law for the protection of German blood and German honor, prohibited marriages between Jews and German citizens. Sexual relations between these groups were also criminalized. Such relations were called "racial pollution" ( German Rassenchande).
Besides, this law prohibited Jews from hiring German women under 45 as servants. This was done to prevent men from inducing servants to commit “racial pollution.” Thousands of people were accused of committing “racial pollution” or simply disappeared in concentration camps.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NUREMBERG LAWS
The Nuremberg Laws reversed the process of Jewish emancipation, during which Jews living in Germany became full members of society and full citizens of the country. More significantly, they laid the groundwork for further anti-Semitic measures by drawing a legal distinction between Germans and Jews. For the first time in history, Jews were persecuted not because of their beliefs, but because of their birth - theirs or their parents'. In Nazi Germany, nothing could make a Jew a German: neither profession, nor beliefs, nor actions, nor statements. As a result, many Germans who had never practiced Judaism or had not practiced it for many years fell victims to Nazi terror.
Although the Nuremberg Laws only mentioned Jews, they also applied to the black and gypsy populations of Germany. The assignment of racial outcast status to Jews, blacks and Roma gypsies contributed to the persecution of these categories of the population in Germany.
During World War II, many countries that entered into an alliance with Germany or found themselves dependent on it adopted laws similar to Nuremberg. By 1941, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, the Vichy regime in France, and Croatia had passed anti-Jewish legislation similar to the Nuremberg Laws of Nazi Germany.
Nuremberg racial laws(German: Nürnberger Rassengesetze) - two racist (primarily anti-Jewish) pieces of legislation ("basic laws") - " Reich Citizen Law" (German: Reichsbürgergesetz) and " Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor"(German) Gesetz zum Schutze des deutschen Blutes und der deutschen Ehre), proclaimed on the initiative of Adolf Hitler on September 15, 1935 at the National Socialist Party Congress in Nuremberg in accordance with the secret program () and unanimously adopted by the Reichstag session, specially convened in Nuremberg on the occasion of the Party Congress.
Description of laws
The closest attention during the creation and implementation of these laws was paid to the Jews. Thus, the “Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor,” among a number of prohibitions, prohibited, as “desecration of the race,” marriage and extramarital cohabitation between Jews and “citizens of German or related blood,” and the hiring of domestic servants by Jews from women of “German or related blood.” under 45 years of age, as well as the display by Jews of the national or imperial flag and the use of fabrics of similar colors. Violation of the law entailed criminal prosecution. It should be noted that the right of Jews to wear national clothing was under state protection (for example, paragraph 4.2 of the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor), and was not declared separately for other nationalities.
Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor
“Moved by the understanding that the purity of German blood is an indispensable condition for the continued existence of the German people, inspired by an unshakable determination to guarantee the existence of the German nation for all time, the Reichstag unanimously passed the following Law, which is hereby communicated to the people.”
1.1 Marriages between Jews and subjects of German or related blood are prohibited. Marriages entered into contrary to the law are invalid, even if they are registered abroad in order to circumvent the law.
1.2 Only a prosecutor can bring a claim to invalidate an already concluded marriage.
2. Extramarital affairs between Jews and subjects of German or related blood are prohibited.
3. Jews are not allowed to hire female domestic servants of German or related blood from among subjects under 45 years of age.
4.1 Jews are prohibited from raising the flags of the Reich and the states and using the colors of the national flag.
4.2 They are allowed to use the colors of Jewish symbols, and this right is protected by the state.
5.1 Violation of the prohibition indicated in paragraph 1 is punishable by hard labor.
5.2. Violation of the prohibition indicated in paragraph 2 will be punishable by hard labor or imprisonment.
5.3. Violation of the prohibition specified in paragraphs. 3 and 4 shall entail imprisonment of up to one year and a fine or one of these penalties.
6. The Reich Minister of the Interior, in consultation with the Deputy Fuehrer and the Reich Minister of Justice, issues the necessary legal and administrative regulations for the implementation and addition of this Law.
6. The law comes into force the next day after its promulgation, and § 3 only from January 1, 1936.
Definition of the concept Jew
Since the Nuremberg Laws did not define the concept of “Jew,” an amendment to the Reich Citizenship Law was adopted by decree of November 14 of the same 1935:
4. (1) A Jew cannot be a citizen of the Reich. He has no vote on political matters; he is prohibited from holding public office. (...)
(1) Jewish officials resign after December 31, 1935. (...)
5.(1) A Jew is someone who, in the third generation, descends from at least three purebred Jewish grandparents.
A) one who, when the Law was issued, belonged to the Jewish religious community or was later accepted into it; b) one who was married to a Jew when the Law was issued or married a Jew later; V) one who is born of a marriage with a Jew within the meaning of paragraph 1, which was concluded after the entry into force of the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor of September 15, 1935; G) one who is born from an extramarital affair with a Jew within the meaning of paragraph 1 and is born illegitimate after July 31, 1936.
(2) Face with a mixture Jewish blood(“half-breed”) is considered to be someone who, in the third generation, descends from one or two pure-blooded Jews - grandparents:
Thus, the categories of Jews and “persons with an admixture of Jewish blood” were established, and the concept of “non-Aryan” was introduced. This decree replaced the so-called “Aryan paragraph” (April) of the previously existing anti-Jewish legislation. According to this directive, only those who had at least three Jewish grandparents were considered Jews. “Halves” were considered Jews only if they professed Judaism or themselves married a Jew, that is, they took a conscious step towards Jewish people. The “quarters” were not considered Jews. They were subject to restrictions, but retained full citizenship.
Meaning and Action
Tightening laws at the Wannsee Conference
Subsequently, the rules regarding half-breeds (German: Mischlinge) were tightened. The minutes of the Wannsee Conference record:
“There is a special attitude towards these half-breeds of the 1st degree on the part of the highest authorities of the party and state. Each such case must be examined individually, and the decision must be as unfavorable as possible for the half-breed. The precondition taken into account when they receive special permission will always be the merits of the half-breed himself - not the merits of his parents or spouse of German blood.”
In some cases (those with “inferior appearance from a racial point of view"), even half-breeds of the 2nd degree (“quarters”) were classified as Jews. But all these cases were decided individually, and the Nuremberg laws were not changed.
A series of laws that deprived the Jewish population of the Third Reich of all rights was commented on by lawyer Hans Globke Photo by Deutsches Bundesarchiv
On September 15, 1935, in Germany, on the initiative of the Nazis, the “Nuremberg Laws” were adopted, which effectively deprived German Jews of all rights. However, it was not a Nazi who wrote the legal commentaries on the laws, giving them coherence. He turned out to be the jurist Hans Globke, whose fate was completely different in the two German states that emerged after the Second World War.
Universal conscription, abolition of Reichstag regulations and the “Nuremberg laws”
In mid-September 1935, Reichstag deputies gathered in Nuremberg for a regular meeting. By this time, almost all of them were members of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, led by Adolf Hitler. The latter, naturally, also appeared in Nuremberg. “Members of the Reichstag on September 15 greeted the Fuhrer with a triple “Heil” and stood listening to the first verse of the song Horst Wessel (Pravo.Ru wrote about it and the history of its creator),” is recorded in the minutes of the meeting.
This day was remembered by posterity for two events: firstly, universal conscription was introduced in Germany and the country openly headed for war, and secondly, they adopted a package of laws that went down in history under the name “Nuremberg”.
In addition, a method of forming the parliamentary agenda, unprecedented in Germany, was introduced. The Minister of the Interior of the Third Reich and at the same time the head of the National Socialist faction in the Reichstag, Wilhelm Frick, said in his speech that the Reichstag regulations are outdated and completely do not correspond to modern realities. “Therefore,” he said, “the current regulations will lose force until a new one is published, and until that moment the head of the Reichstag will independently decide which issues to include on the agenda and which not.” Taking into account the composition of the Reichstag deputies, this proposal met with universal support, and the new rules of the chamber were never published: there were no disagreements on the surface political life There was no Germany of that era, but its leaders disliked any form of collegiality, even if controlled.
Composition and essence"Nuremberg Laws"
The three “Nuremberg Laws” were adopted unanimously and immediately came into force. "Law on national flag"(Reichsflaggengesetz, see German text) - the first of the "Nuremberg Laws" - assigned the swastika the role of "the flag of the nation and the Reich", and the other two formulated a new racial ideology, according to which all German citizens were divided into several categories. Each had its own rights, and some lost everything.
The second of the "Nuremberg laws" - the "Citizenship Law" (Reichsbürgergesetz, German text available) - divided all people living in Germany into two groups. “Only a German can be a citizen of the Reich,” it says, “who has proven loyalty to his people and the Reich in practice.” Only citizens of the Reich were granted political rights. The second largest national group in the country - Jews - found themselves outside the legal framework.
But perhaps the most important law was the third - "Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor" (Gesetz zum Schutze des deutschen Blutes und der deutschen Ehre, available in German, in Russian). Its purpose was to ensure the so-called " purity of German blood." To achieve this, the Nazis banned marriages and extramarital affairs between pure-blooded Germans and Jews.
Official commentator on Hitler's will
In March 1935, Wilhelm Stuckart became Secretary of State of the German Ministry of the Interior. This official and one of his subordinates, Hans Globke, were tasked with making a legal commentary on the Nuremberg Laws, which, as one of the Nazi bosses put it, “was to be included in all jurisprudence textbooks.”
Globke actually did all the work. He approached her with all the thoroughness of which a German is capable. At first, he explained who, in fact, the adopted laws concern. The task was not an easy one, because it was necessary to legally define exactly who “full Jews”, “half Jews” and “quarter Jews” were, because in the law they all had a different place. Particular confusion could arise when it came to marriages between purebred Germans and, for example, “one-quarter Jews.” Who are their children?
Globke found an “elegant” way out. He introduced the concept of "one-eighth Jew." “For example, a three-eighths Jew is someone who had a Jewish grandmother and a half-Jewish grandfather, or vice versa,” the lawyer illustrates his theory.
In developing it, he even makes it clear how Germans who converted to Judaism should be classified: “A German who converted to Judaism should still be considered a German, but in relation to his grandchildren he will be half Jewish.”
What is a "relationship"? Globke's explanation and real practice
It remained not entirely clear what the laws meant by the word “relationships” (in the German original, the rather ambiguous “Verkehr”).
In December 1936, one of the German courts clarified that “relations” should be understood as “all contacts between opposite sexes, the purpose of which is to obtain sexual pleasure for at least one of the participants." Globke warmly welcomed this interpretation.
However, in practice, German justice went further. A few months later, a Hamburg court sentenced an impotent man to two years in prison just for kissing a Jewish woman. Statistics show that already in 1937 at least 400 people were convicted of similar, at first glance, completely innocent actions. Moreover, under pressure from the Gestapo and the Reich Ministry of Justice, the courts gave even longer sentences to Germans who even slightly violated the “Nuremberg Laws” and eventually began to punish even a simple touch of a Jew with prison.
Different destinies of one person
After the end of World War II, Wilhelm Stuckart was convicted as a war criminal. After serving his time in prison, he was released and died in a car accident in November 1953. Today, few people remember this man. Another thing is his former colleague and subordinate Globke.
During all post-war trials, he served only as a witness, and in 1953 he became one of the closest advisers to Chancellor Adenauer. The opposition subjected this appointment to severe criticism. In the heat of controversy, Globke was even called a “legal prostitute.”
And in the GDR, Globke was generally declared a war criminal. Cartoons with his participation appeared in newspapers, accompanied by captions such as “Hitler’s executioner in the service of Adenauer.” In addition, a whole book entitled “Globke and the Extermination of the Jews” (Globke und die Ausrottung der Juden) was published in East Germany, which was prepared by the “Committee of German Unity” financed by the GDR government.
The publication combined documented facts with outright lies. For example, Globke was accused of massacres almost Jews with my own hands. Probably the goal of the authors was to destabilize the political situation in Germany, causing a wave of indignation against Globke.
To top it all off, the Supreme Court of the GDR sentenced Globke in absentia to life imprisonment “for war crimes and crimes against humanity” (see documents on this case). However, the western neighbor did not pay attention to all this fuss. In any case, it did not bring any visible harm to Globka’s career. In 1963, Adenauer, at the zenith of his glory, resigned as chancellor, having previously awarded his adviser the Order of Merit for the new Germany.