1. The Nuremberg laws
Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behaviour, accessed: 4/3/2015

2. Recap: Hitler’s rise to power
1933: Hitler became Chancellor – can use power of law to control German society
1934: Hitler gains dictatorial power – has power to make all rules without anyone/anything to stop him (e.g. parliaments, courts, elections)
Hitler took a gradual approach of eliminating the rights of Jewish people one step at a time

3. Early laws and rules
1933: Hitler proposed the “Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service”
Made it illegal for communists, Jewish people, and other individuals deemed “unfit” to work in the civil service as doctors, teachers, police, judges, or other state employees
Identified Jewish people as someone with at least three Jewish grandparents
1934: Hitler declared that all soldiers and government officials were obliged to recite an oath not to German law or nation, but to Hitler himself.

4. 1935 – The Nuremberg Laws
Nazi party begin stripping Jewish people of citizenship
Creating a legal distinction between Germans and their Jewish neighbours
Hitler announced three new laws, thereafter referred to as the Nuremberg laws
Laws redefined what it meant to be German.
Until this point, Jewish people living in Germany considered themselves to be German citizens, and were often treated accordingly
The Nuremberg laws explicitly stated that a Jewish person could no longer be a German citizen protected by German laws

5. 1935 – The Nuremberg Laws (cnt’d)
Nazis were preoccupied with protecting Aryan blood from contamination with Jewish blood
So, these laws also made it illegal for Jewish people and Aryans to share sexual relations
Being Jewish was no longer a matter of self-definition or self-identification.
Now a person was considered Jewish because of what his or her parents or grandparents had chosen to believe
The Nuremberg laws were crucial to the process of dehumanization (deprive of human qualities) of Jewish people
The laws helped set the stage for the organised violence and mass murder that would come later in the regime

6. “Alien blood”
While the Nuremberg laws explicitly mentioned Jewish people, the interpretation of these laws also accused Gypsies and blacks as having “alien blood”
Dozens of laws passed by the Nazis targeted other groups deemed undesirable, including communists, homosexuals, and Jehovah’s Witnesses
These policies established by Hitler reveal how widespread discrimination (the use of laws, policies, and practices to treat individuals differently based on their membership in a specific group) became a foundation of Hitler’s governing strategy

7. German Reaction
The majority of Germans reacted to these laws with enthusiasm, or at least passivity
Explicit resistance to the Nuremberg Laws, and other discriminatory policies instituted by the Nazis, was virtually unheard of
WHY? Remember…
In many German towns and cities, Jewish and German people had lived together in relative peace.
Germans had Jewish teachers and Jewish doctors. They attended schools with Jewish people and had served in the military with them.
Because of intermarriage, some German families had members who identified as Jewish or were now being identified as Jewish by the Nazis

8. Obedience
In Nazi Germany, children, men, and women were rewarded for obeying Nazi policies and faced consequences for refusals to obey
The desire to belong (conformity) and the fear of ostracism may have motivated some people to follow laws, even laws that they knew were unjust
“When the masses were shouting ‘Heil,’ what could the individual person do? You went with it. We were the ones who went along.” (Erna Kranz)

9. Opportunism
While minority groups were being denied basic civil and human rights, many Germans benefited from these discriminatory practice
e.g. Germans were given the jobs that were held by Jewish and others who were forcibly fired in accordance with the “Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service.”
Germans claimed property, including homes, paintings, jewelry, and other valuables, that were confiscated from Jewish, communists, and other political prisoners

10. Something to think about…
The lack of resistance to discriminatory laws, and the cooperation of institutions, including churches, raise the question of how much the Jewish population had really been accepted in German society prior to Hitler coming to power…?

11. Difficulty challenging the Führer
Once Hitler became Führer, it was certainly more difficult for Germans to resist following Nazi laws
By 1935, Hitler had already established many mechanisms aimed at preventing a grassroots protest movement
He had instituted an active secret service and state police, had opened a well-known concentration camp for those who opposed Nazi ideals
He had bombarded public spaces, including schools, with Nazi propaganda aimed at convincing the public that Hitler was acting in the best interests of Germany
The Nazis monitored public opinion and when they learned of reservations among people they were often willing to modify policies and change the timetable for their implementation

12. Minority reactions
The Jewish people and other minority groups in Germany did not have access to “levers of power” that groups have used during other struggles for civil rights
These targeted groups could not find meaningful ways to oppose the Nuremberg Laws, because they did not have access to a free press, an independent judiciary, and the right to vote
Studying the history of Nazi Germany illuminates how minority groups become especially vulnerable to discrimination when they live under a dictatorship