Nuremberg Laws

Context

The Nuremberg Laws represented an early culmination of Nazi racist ideology. This ideology, however, did not originate in Germany or with the Nazi (National Socialist) Party but rather had its roots in the nineteenth century, particularly in England. Under the influence of Darwinism, which advanced the concepts of natural selection and the survival of the fittest in the natural order, many anthropologists and pseudoscientists were attracted to the belief that there was a natural hierarchy of races. One of the earliest proponents of this view was Sir Francis Galton, who became interested in the science of eugenics in the late nineteenth century. Those who advocated eugenics believed that it was possible to improve the human race by encouraging the birth of children to genetically fit parents and conversely by discouraging reproduction by those who were less genetically fit.

Numerous other scientists in Europe took a similar line, extending eugenics to the study of human populations and racial groups. In 1853, for example, the French scientist Arthur de Gobineau published The Inequality of Human Races. In 1916 Madison Grant published The Passing of the Great Race; or, The Racial Basis of European History, and in 1920 Lothrop Stoddard published The Rising Tide of Color against White World Supremacy. Grant's book, which the German chancellor Adolf Hitler highly praised, was the first non-German book translated and published by the Nazis. These and numerous other books and lectures created fear that the white race was in danger of being overrun by so-called inferior races, particularly those from Africa and Asia. The texts provided intuitive justification for empire building in Africa and Asia; the alleged superiority of Europeans made their hegemony over “lesser” peoples part of the natural order of things.

Another branch of the eugenics movement was Rassenhygiene (racial hygiene), a term coined by Alfred Ploetz in 1895. Ploetz was less concerned with Jews and other “undesirables” than he was with a decline in the German birthrate and what he saw as an increasing number of mentally unfit people who were becoming a burden on the German state. He was not alone in his belief that, if necessary, the state should take coercive measures, such as involuntary sterilization of the “unfit,” to improve the physical, mental, and moral qualities of future generations; such views were also held by British prime minister Winston Churchill and the U.S. presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge, among many others. By defining eugenics as a public health problem, Nazi ideologists moved toward condemning miscegenation (racial mixing) and promoting Aryan ethnic purity.

By the 1930s the myth of the superiority of the Nordic, or Aryan, races had become almost mainstream. One of the most influential documents reflecting this view was Alfred Rosenberg's book The Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930). Rosenberg went on to become one of the chief architects of Nazi racist ideology. In his book he argues that the Nordic race originated on a now-lost landmass north and west of Europe. The Nordic peoples migrated south and east, settling the countries of Scandinavia and Germany. In time, however, these peoples intermingled with inferior peoples, causing the Nordic peoples to lose their dynamic spirit—in effect, to degenerate. The purpose of Nordic ideology in the German state was to restore the German people to purity by eliminating the elements that led to degeneration. These elements included Jews and Gypsies as well as homosexuals, Slavs, and anyone who was mentally ill or physically imperfect.

For the Nazis and their sympathizers, evidence of degeneration was provided by World War I and its aftermath. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Germany was the most technologically advanced nation on earth. At the Paris Peace Conference after the war, however, the victorious Allies blamed German aggression for the war, with its massive destruction and loss of life. Under the terms of the peace accord, Germany was stripped of its arms and was required to pay reparations to the Allies. These reparations proved to be ruinous to the German economy. To settle its massive debts, the German government simply printed money, causing a devaluation of the German currency. The devaluation was extreme, and it was said that a person needed a wheelbarrow full of currency to buy a loaf of bread. In the social and economic turmoil that followed the war, numerous groups tried to fill the power vacuum. Labor unrest was common, and fears arose that Communists would seize power, as they had in Russia in 1917. Chaos reigned in the streets. Bankruptcies, poverty, unemployment, and crime were commonplace. Germans lived in fear that their country was disintegrating, and a succession of weak governments seemed unable to resolve any of the nation's problems. In a period of just a few years, Germany had fallen from its preeminent position in Europe, becoming a defeated and demoralized country.

It was in this environment that Adolf Hitler rose to power, winning appointment as chancellor of Germany in 1933. He quickly moved to consolidate his power and remained the nation's dictator until his death in 1945. History remembers Hitler as the embodiment of evil, but at the time he was an extremely gifted orator whom the German people perceived to be the only person able to restore Germany to stability and strength. He adopted a strong nationalist policy and was able to direct all of Germany's energy and resources to the reestablishment of German superiority. One of the ways in which he accomplished this goal was to promote the view that Germans were racially superior to others. This superiority extended not only over Jews and other “undesirable” racial categories but over other European populations as well, all based on an elaborate scheme for classifying of European peoples as Nordics, “Alpines,” and other groups. Ironically he regarded the British as his natural racial allies, and one of his goals was to subdue England, convert it into a military ally, and then use the combined might of Germany and England to defeat the inferior Slavic races to the east. Hitler's goal was to restore the purity of European blood, a view that was expressed, somewhat inarticulately, by Heinrich Himmler, the head of Nazi Germany's feared secret police, the Schutzstaffel (SS):

The ultimate aim … has been invariably the same: To create an order of good blood which is able to serve Germany.… To create an order which will spread the idea of Nordic blood so far that we will attract all Nordic blood in the world, take away the blood from our adversaries, absorb it so that never again, looking at it from the viewpoint of grand policy, Nordic blood … will fight against us.… The SS also is only a means to an end, always the Reich, the ideology, created by the Fuehrer, the Reich, created by him, the Reich of all Teutons. (Himmler’s Address to Officers of the SS-Leibstandarte)

The ideology for the anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws was in place, but as of 1935 the German government had taken few steps to convert that ideology into law. The Nuremberg Laws were, in effect, a solution to a political problem that Hitler and the government faced. Beginning in 1933 assaults, boycotts, and vandalism against Jews were becoming commonplace; a major boycott of Jewish doctors, lawyers, and stores was called for April 1 of that year. Days later, the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service was passed to prevent Jews and others of “non-Aryan descent” from filling government posts, and in May legislation was passed to bar Jews from the German military. The perpetrators of the violence against Jews were largely those Nazis who had joined the party prior to 1930, the so-called Alte Kämpfer, or “Old Fighters.” These rank-and-file Nazis were among the most strident anti-Semites in the party, and they were disappointed that Hitler had not taken firmer steps to solve the so-called Jewish problem.

The government, however, was hesitant to take extreme steps against Jews. The economics minister Hjalmar Schacht, for example, recognized that the Jewish community, however much it was despised, had skills that could be used to help Germany in its rebuilding effort. Further, the German public was troubled by violence against Jews. On August 8, 1935, Hitler actually ordered that violence against Jews stop, and the government threatened harsher punishments against party members who ignored the order. Hitler, however, sympathized with those who were committing violence against Jews, and he knew that he had to take concrete action with regard to the Jewish problem. At the Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, the Nuremberg Laws were hastily drafted by officials in the Interior Ministry; in an odd footnote, the officials were unable to find paper, so they drafted the laws on the backs of menus. Hitler announced the laws in a speech to the assembled multitude.