Nuremberg Laws - Social Studies

 Nuremberg Laws

As part of our Holocaust learning in Social Studies this term, one of our task was to learn about the Nuremberg Laws. Below are some information about what the Nuremberg Laws are and how they affected society especially the daily lives of the Jewish People, and then are some question with my answers.

On september 15, 1935, the Nazi passed two new laws at their annual Reich Party Congress in Nuremberg, Germany. The Laws took German citizenship away from Jews and banned both marriage and sexual relationships between Jews and non-Jews.

The Nuremberg Laws did not idenitfy a "Jew" as someone with particular religion beliefs. Instead, the first amendment to the Nuremberg Laws defined anyone who had three or four Jewish grandparents as a Jew, regardless of whether that individual recognised himself or herself as a Jew or belonged to the Jewish religious community. Many Germans who had not practiced Judaism (the Jewish religion) or who had not done so for years found themselves caught in the grip of Nazi terror. Even people with Jewish grandparents who had converted to Christianity could be defined as Jews.

Why did the Nazis enact the Nuremberg Race Laws?

The Nazis enacted the Nuremberg Laws, because they wanted to put their ideas about race into law. They believed in the false theory that the world is divided into distinct races that are not equally strong and valuable. The Nazis considered Germans to be members of the supposedly superior "Ayran" race. They saw the so-called Aryan German race as the strongest, and most valueable race of all. According to the Nazis, Jews were not Aryans. They thought Jews belonged to a separate race that was inferior to all other races. The Nazis believed that the presence of Jews in Germany threatened the German people. They believed they had to separated Jews from other Germans to protect and strengthen Germany. The Nuremberg Laws were an important step towards achieving this goal.

Questions & Answers

1. Provide two examples of ways in which the Nuremberg Laws affected the rights of German Jews.

Due to the Nuremberg laws that German Jews were basically not human, they didn't have the equal freedom that everyone else did, such as they were no longer admitted to municipal hospitals, every human has a right to treatment for their health and Jewish university students were not allowed to sit for doctoral exams, I personally think that this is unfair and that is taking away education from someone.

2. What other actions were taken that discriminated against Jews in Germany?

In December 1935, the Reich Propaganda Ministry issued a decree forbidding jewish soldiers to be named among the dead in World War I memorials.

3. Why do you think that the Nazis passed these laws?

I think it's because they've been brainwashed with all this nonsense, and probably because the government needed someone or something to blame and therefore it has to be Jewish people.

4. If a New Zealand government passed a law that provided for different treatment of a named racial group in New Zealand, what do you think the reaction of most New Zealand people would be?

If the New Zealand government did pass a law like this, I think there would be conflit and war within the country, but luckily in a country like New Zealand there are many educated and understanding people that will oppose this law because it is wrong to treat other people differently.

5. Do you think these Nuremberg laws were racist?

I strongly believe that the Nuremberg laws were racist and showed discrimination against the Jews. Taking away human rights from someone is straight discrimination, not being able to ahve sexual relationships or be able to marry a Jew is racist, because your pointing someone out (or a group of people). Not giving them the right to basic living things such as education, careers, treatment for health is considered racist. For something to be racist it donesn't just have to be about their skin colour it can be how you treat them, how you consider them and in this case this is an extreme case of racism and discrimination.

Adapted from http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005681