Chronology of Hitler’s anti-semetic actions 1933-39

June 19, 2018

EXAMPLES OF ANTISEMITIC LEGISLATION, 1933–1939

During the first six years of Hitler’s dictatorship, government at every level—Reich, state and municipal—adopted hundreds of laws, decrees, directives, guidelines, and regulations that increasingly restricted the civil and human rights of the Jews in Germany.

Here are examples of anti-Jewish legislation in Nazi Germany, 1933–1939:

1933

March 31
Decree of the Berlin city commissioner for health suspends Jewish doctors from the city’s charity services.

April 7
Law for the Reestablishment of the Professional Civil Service removes Jews from government service.

April 7
Law on the Admission to the Legal Profession forbids the admission of Jews to the bar.

April 25
Law against Overcrowding in Schools and Universities limits the number of Jewish students in public schools.

July 14
De-Naturalization Law revokes the citizenship of naturalized Jews and “undesirables.”

October 4
Law on Editors bans Jews from editorial posts.

1935

May 21
Army law expels Jewish officers from the army.

September 15
Nazi leaders announce the Nuremberg Laws.

1936

January 11
Executive Order on the Reich Tax Law forbids Jews to serve as tax-consultants.

April 3
Reich Veterinarians Law expels Jews from the veterinary profession.

October 15
Reich Ministry of Education bans Jewish teachers from public schools.

1937

April 9
The Mayor of Berlin orders public schools not to admit Jewish children until further notice.

1938

January 5
Law on the Alteration of Family and Personal Names forbids Jews from changing their names.

February 5
Law on the Profession of Auctioneer excludes Jews from this occupation.

March 18
The Gun Law excludes Jewish gun merchants.

April 22
Decree against the Camouflage of Jewish Firms forbids changing the names of Jewish-owned businesses.

April 26
Order for the Disclosure of Jewish Assets requires Jews to report all property in excess of 5,000 Reichsmarks.

July 11
Reich Ministry of the Interior bans Jews from health spas.

August 17
Executive Order on the Law on the Alteration of Family and Personal Names requires Jews to adopt an additional name: “Sara” for women and “Israel” for men.

October 3
Decree on the Confiscation of Jewish Property regulates the transfer of assets from Jews to non-Jewish Germans.

October 5
The Reich Interior Ministry invalidates all German passports held by Jews. Jews must surrender their old passports, which will become valid only after the letter “J” had been stamped on them.

November 12
Decree on the Exclusion of Jews from German Economic Life closes all Jewish-owned businesses.

November 15
Reich Ministry of Education expels all Jewish children from public schools.

November 28
Reich Ministry of Interior restricts the freedom of movement of Jews.

November 29
The Reich Interior Ministry forbids Jews to keep carrier pigeons.

December 14
An Executive Order on the Law on the Organization of National Work cancels all state contracts held with Jewish-owned firms.

December 21
Law on Midwives bans all Jews from the occupation.

1939

February 21
Decree Concerning the Surrender of Precious Metals and Stones in Jewish Ownership.

August 1
The President of the German Lottery forbids the sale of lottery tickets to Jews


ANTISEMITISM

The word antisemitism means prejudice against or hatred of Jews. The Holocaust, the state-sponsored persecution and murder of European Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945, is history’s most extreme example of antisemitism.

In 1879, German journalist Wilhelm Marr originated the term antisemitism, denoting the hatred of Jews, and also hatred of various liberal, cosmopolitan, and international political trends of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries often associated with Jews. The trends under attack included equal civil rights, constitutional democracy, free trade, socialism, finance capitalism, and pacifism.

The specific hatred of Jews, however, preceded the modern era and the coining of the term antisemitism. Among the most common manifestations of antisemitism throughout history were pogroms, violent riots launched against Jews and frequently encouraged by government authorities. Pogroms were often incited by blood libels—false rumors that Jews used the blood of Christian children for ritual purposes.

In the modern era, antisemites added a political dimension to their ideology of hatred. In the last third of the nineteenth century, antisemitic political parties were formed in Germany, France, and Austria. Publications such as the Protocols of the Elders of Ziongenerated or provided support for fraudulent theories of an international Jewish conspiracy. A potent component of political antisemitism was nationalism, whose adherents often falsely denounced Jews as disloyal citizens.

The nineteenth century xenophobic “voelkisch movement” (folk or people’s movement)—made up of German philosophers, scholars, and artists who viewed the Jewish spirit as alien to Germandom—shaped a notion of the Jew as “non-German.” Theorists of racial anthropology provided pseudoscientific backing for this idea. The Nazi party, founded in 1919 and led by Adolf Hitler, gave political expression to theories of racism. In part, the Nazi party gained popularity by disseminating anti-Jewish propaganda. Millions bought Hitler’s book Mein Kampf (My Struggle), which called for the removal of Jews from Germany.

With the Nazi rise to power in 1933, the party ordered anti-Jewish economic boycotts, staged book burnings, and enacted discriminatory anti-Jewish legislation. In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws racially defined Jews by “blood” and ordered the total separation of so-called “Aryans” and “non-Aryans,” thereby legalizing a racist hierarchy. On the night of November 9, 1938, the Nazis destroyed synagogues and the shop windows of Jewish-owned stores throughout Germany and Austria (an event now known as the Kristallnacht pogrom or Night of Broken Glass). This event marked a transition to an era of destruction, in which genocide would become the singular focus of Nazi antisemitism.

Resources

Burleigh, Michael. The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Wistrich, Robert S. Antisemitism: The Longest Hatred. New York: Pantheon Books, 1991.

The word antisemitism means prejudice against or hatred of Jews. The Holocaust, the state-sponsored persecution and murder of European Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945, is history’s most extreme example of antisemitism.

In 1879, German journalist Wilhelm Marr originated the term antisemitism, denoting the hatred of Jews, and also hatred of various liberal, cosmopolitan, and international political trends of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries often associated with Jews. The trends under attack included equal civil rights, constitutional democracy, free trade, socialism, finance capitalism, and pacifism.

The specific hatred of Jews, however, preceded the modern era and the coining of the term antisemitism. Among the most common manifestations of antisemitism throughout history were pogroms, violent riots launched against Jews and frequently encouraged by government authorities. Pogroms were often incited by blood libels—false rumors that Jews used the blood of Christian children for ritual purposes.

In the modern era, antisemites added a political dimension to their ideology of hatred. In the last third of the nineteenth century, antisemitic political parties were formed in Germany, France, and Austria. Publications such as the Protocols of the Elders of Ziongenerated or provided support for fraudulent theories of an international Jewish conspiracy. A potent component of political antisemitism was nationalism, whose adherents often falsely denounced Jews as disloyal citizens.

The nineteenth century xenophobic “voelkisch movement” (folk or people’s movement)—made up of German philosophers, scholars, and artists who viewed the Jewish spirit as alien to Germandom—shaped a notion of the Jew as “non-German.” Theorists of racial anthropology provided pseudoscientific backing for this idea. The Nazi party, founded in 1919 and led by Adolf Hitler, gave political expression to theories of racism. In part, the Nazi party gained popularity by disseminating anti-Jewish propaganda. Millions bought Hitler’s book Mein Kampf (My Struggle), which called for the removal of Jews from Germany.

With the Nazi rise to power in 1933, the party ordered anti-Jewish economic boycotts, staged book burnings, and enacted discriminatory anti-Jewish legislation. In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws racially defined Jews by “blood” and ordered the total separation of so-called “Aryans” and “non-Aryans,” thereby legalizing a racist hierarchy. On the night of November 9, 1938, the Nazis destroyed synagogues and the shop windows of Jewish-owned stores throughout Germany and Austria (an event now known as the Kristallnacht pogrom or Night of Broken Glass). This event marked a transition to an era of destruction, in which genocide would become the singular focus of Nazi antisemitism.

Resources

Burleigh, Michael. The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Wistrich, Robert S. Antisemitism: The Longest Hatred. New York: Pantheon Books, 1991.