Nazi antisemitism is codified
By 1935 the fascist Nazi regime was well entrenched in power in Germany. Nazis had been preaching antisemitism since their inception in the 1920’s. Their ideology had spread throughout Germany and many people in the country blamed Jews for their loss in WWI and the subsequent economic disaster. Antisemitism was not just a Nazi problem in 1930’s Germany.
The Nazi party held a large series of now infamous rallies in Nuremberg from September 10-16th, 1935. It was at this rally that a special session of the Reichstag was called to pass a series of laws that persecuted German Jews.
The so-called Nuremberg Laws were passed on September 15, 1935. The object of the legislation was to introduce a “law for the protection of German Blood” as per a Nazi Party official.
The racist laws were broken up into two codes. The first, The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor, forbade marriage or sex between German citizens and Jews and forbade Jewish women from working in non-Jewish homes. The second, The Reich Citizenship Law, stated that only individuals with German or “Aryan” blood could be citizens. All others, including any Jew, was a state subject and not eligible for citizenship. This citizenship law also gave the government the power to remove citizenship from anyone who did not “faithfully serve the German people”. Political opponents could be stripped of rights without due process.
This law effectively removed legal rights of Jews and anyone who dared to defend them. As the world now knows, the Nazi legal system continued to mandate stricter and stricter laws against German Jews, until, finally, their very right to exist was removed. The results do not need to be detailed, they are known to the world and must never be forgotten. The greatest genocide in history was in motion.
Ten years later, the few surviving members of the Nazi Party were again in Nuremburg. This was not for a rally; those days were long gone. The Nuremburg Trials prosecuted the Nazi government for the Holocaust and WWII. Tens of millions of people had died at the hands of the criminal regime. Hitler’s murderous ideology had caused death and destruction never before seen.
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