It happened on the initiative of Adolf Hitler at the National Socialist Party of Germany congress held annually in Nuremberg. In accordance with the adopted legislative acts – the Law on the Reich Citizen and the Law on the Protection of German Blood and German Honor - Jews were deprived of citizenship (but were considered subjects of the country) and the right to enter into marital or extramarital relations with Aryans. Illegal marriages were declared void, even if they were solemnized outside Germany. Violators were liable to one year of imprisonment with forced labor. In the case of extramarital contact, the punishment (imprisonment without hard labor) was imposed only on the husband. Jews were also prohibited from hiring women of “German or related blood” under the age of 45 to work in their homes – apparently with the aim of reducing the likelihood of adulterers.
The laws were unanimously passed by a session of the Reichstag specially convened in Nuremberg. In this way, the policy of racial discrimination and xenophobia, which began in 1933, was continued, since even then “non-Aryans” were deprived of the right to engage in advocacy and civil service, medical practice; quotas were introduced for Jews in educational institutions; “racially inferior” citizens were dismissed from army service. They were forbidden to have their own business, and any Jewish property was subject to confiscation.
According to the amendments to the Reich Citizen Law, the concept of “Jew” was legally defined as a person who had at least three Jewish ancestors in the third generation (among the grandparents). For clarity, special racial tables were developed, which were massively reproduced in textbooks, school diaries, and notebooks. The “Student Calendar” donated by World War II veteran Saveliy Bas (this trophy was won by a soldier during the Korsun-Shevchenkov operation) is displayed in Museum's “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” exhibit. In it, along with the anthem of the Reich, the most important mathematical formulas, a table of chemical elements, a list of territories acquired during the war, on page 119, a table for the definition of "Jewish blood" developed in accordance with the Nuremberg Laws is published.
Subsequently, the law of August 17, 1938 in the Third Reich introduced a special mark in passports for Jews – “J” (Jude). “Israel” was added to each man's name, Jewish women received the middle name "Sara" in their passports. This was done so that Jews could not hide their nationality through Aryan names. The exhibition of the Museum shows the foreign passport of Theodore Israel Schlepenberg, issued in Landsberg on May 6, 1939. The owner of the passport, who had an “Aryan” name – Theodore – received a mark in the document that did not allow him to hide his ethnic origin.
People of mixed origin belonged to the category of so-called “Mishlings”. Among them, Mishlings of the first degree, or half-Jews, were distinguished – this was the name given to a person with two Jewish grandparents who did not practice Judaism and was not married to a Jew on September 15, 1935. A Mishling of the second degree, a quarter Jew, was a person with one Jewish grandfather or one Jewish grandmother, or an Aryan who married a Jew. It is worth noting that the policy of the Nazis with regard to the Mishlings was not distinguished by consistency: against the background of general discrimination, exceptions were made for the most valuable personnel (good professionals, brave soldiers, people with good connections, etc.). However, if a Mishling married a Jew or followed Jewish traditions, he lost his special status and became equal to the Jews. Discrimination against Mishlings gave rise to corruption: for a certain amount you could declare yourself Aryan. Many German women married to Jews were forced to slander themselves for allegedly committing adultery with German men. In this way, mothers saved their half-Jewish children from discrimination. Therefore, the Nuremberg Laws fully corresponded to the concept of “racial hygiene”, which determined the need to separate people according to artificially developed criteria. These laws became the basis for the mass extermination of Jews at the stage of the “final solution of the Jewish question”.
The situation in the modern Russian Federation is somewhat reminiscent of the mentality that existed in Nazi Germany. For example, sincere confidence in the right to unlimited further expansion of one's own “living space”, to erase other peoples from the map of the world with impunity. Poisoning people with blind ambitions has been going on for a very long time. Now, it seems, the collapse of the entire system of life support and worldview is needed, so that Russians en masse get rid of contempt for other peoples, especially peoples previously enslaved by them. Defeats on the battlefield perfectly overcome the existing distortion of reality and restore order in the heads of the victims, involuntarily teach respect and tolerance.
Olena Ishchenko