Nuremberg Race Laws Were Murderous

More precisely, not the laws proper, but a supplementary decree issued two months later. This decree was murderous because it defined who was the Jew. If one fit that definition, it meant one way trip to death factory (killing center).

Consequently, this decree (de-facto part of Nuremberg Laws) became a major step on the Road to Holocaust – and a heavy slab in the slab stack that six years later triggered the “Holocaust Avalanche” that killed four million Jews.

The laws got their name because they were enacted (on September 15, 1935), at a special meeting of the Reichstag convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party.

There were two Nuremberg Laws: Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor, and Reich Citizenship Law. The first one forbade marriages and extramarital intercourse between Jews and Germans and the employment of German females under 45 in Jewish households.

The second one declared that only those of German or related blood were eligible to be Reich citizens. The remainder were defined as state subjects without any citizenship rights. A supplementary decree outlining the definition of who was Jewish was passed on November 14.

The laws were expanded on 26 November 1935 to include Romani and Black people. This supplementary decree defined Romani people as “enemies of the race-based state”, the same category as Jews (which led to the genocide of the former).

Out of foreign policy concerns, enforcement of both Nuremberg laws did not commence until after the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in Berlin.

The Nuremberg Laws had a crippling economic and social impact on the Jewish community. Individuals convicted of violating the marriage laws were imprisoned, and upon completing their sentences were re-arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Nazi concentration camps.

Non-Jews gradually stopped socializing with Jews or shopping in Jewish-owned stores, many of which closed due to a lack of customers. As Jews were no longer permitted to work in the civil service or government-regulated professions such as medicine and education, many middle-class business owners and professionals were forced to take menial employment.

Interestingly, antisemitic violence all but ceased after the Nuremberg laws were passed and enacted.