{"id":659,"date":"2018-11-19T12:19:01","date_gmt":"2018-11-19T12:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world-uncensored.com\/blog\/?p=659"},"modified":"2022-07-03T08:28:19","modified_gmt":"2022-07-03T08:28:19","slug":"legislature-and-the-holocaust-how-the-rule-of-law-paved-the-way-and-garnered-support-for-the-murder-of-more-than-six-million-long-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world-uncensored.com\/blog\/legislature-and-the-holocaust-how-the-rule-of-law-paved-the-way-and-garnered-support-for-the-murder-of-more-than-six-million-long-read\/","title":{"rendered":"Legislation and the Holocaust \u2013 how the \u201cRule of Law\u201d paved the way and garnered support for the murder of more than six million (Long Read)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Introduction<\/h2>\n

Adolf Hitler\u2019s \u201cMachtergreifung\u201d[1]<\/a> on the 30th<\/sup> of January 1933 created the foundation for open anti-Semitic violence, which would eventually pave the way into what became known as the holocaust: the \u201csystematic, state-organized persecution and murder of at least six million Jews \u2026 by Nazi-Germany\u201d.[2]<\/a>
\nAntisemitism was nothing new when the NSDAP[3]<\/a> gained power in 1933, nor was it a uniquely German phenomenon. However, the German state had legally regarded Jews as equal to all other citizens since 1871[4]<\/a>. After this 30th<\/sup> of January 1933, that would change dramatically. Countless laws were awaiting, leading to the increased isolation of Jews within Germany, ever decreasing liberties and rights, miserable living conditions, and most crucially, the expulsion, persecution and execution of the Jews. [5]<\/a><\/p>\n

The NSDAP was always strictly anti-Semitic, evidenced by their 25-point party program. Point four stated that:<\/p>\n

\u201ca citizen[6]<\/strong><\/a> can only be [an individual who is] a national comrade[7]<\/strong><\/a>. A national comrade can only be [an individual] of German blood \u2026 Therefore, no Jew can be a national comrade.\u201d[8]<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The party program then went on to say that all public offices were to be held exclusively by \u201ccitizens\u201d \u2013 ruling out all Jews and members of other \u201cundesirable\u201d groups. First proclaimed by Hitler in the infamous Munich beer cellar as early as February 1920, the Nazis would immediately spring into action to turn their words into actions after seizing power 13 years later.<\/p>\n

Despite people declaring themselves of Jewish faith making up just 0.9%[9]<\/a> of the population in the last census before the NSDAP\u2019s rise to power, the number of people who would be affected by the legislation was considerably higher; among other factors, due to the Nazi\u2019s identification of who was \u201ca Jew\u201d. [10]<\/a><\/p>\n

The Nazis used an effective method to not just normalize but legalize violence. Through the gradual implementation of laws, societal norms in Germany were changed, resulting in the eventual blind acceptance \u2013 or at least conscient inertia \u2013 of the German public.<\/p>\n

The concept of antisemitism did not spring out of nowhere but was deeply rooted and had long been present in Germany. What was different under the nationalist-socialists was that the fears and divisions already present were actively catered to as part of the regime\u2019s power politics.<\/p>\n

Hence, we will investigate the research question: \u201cin what ways & to what effect did the laws used in the German Reich between 1933-1941 contribute to the normalization of antisemitism and violence leading up the Holocaust?<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

This dissertation will look specifically at laws passed by the German government 1933-1941 and evaluate their impact: providing the legal framework for the holocaust.<\/p>\n

We will use primary sources: the original text of laws passed will be scrutinized and evaluated against the statements and later interpretations of historians (secondary sources).
\nOf particular importance to the evaluation of the path into the holocaust are the \u201cten stages of Genocide\u201d[11]<\/a>. Some of the laws which will be evaluated in this essay will be linked to specific stages of genocide.<\/p>\n

A note must be made regarding the nature of the anti-Jewish legislation. The targets of the individual laws and orders differed: some aimed at creating a divide between \u201cGermans\u201d and Jews, some were passed to rob the Jewish population on behalf of the state through measures such as expropriation, again others were passed for reasons of simply making life difficult for Jewish residents or taking away their sustenance.<\/p>\n

To outline the means taken by the Nazis to progress towards the elimination of Jews, we will look at a few specific categories of legislation.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Examples of Laws & Impacts<\/h2>\n

<\/a>Professions<\/h3>\n

50,000 Jews living in Germany had lost their work during the crisis of 1930, and the Nazi functionaries, both on a local and on a national level, did most everything to ensure that it would stay that way even as the rest of Germany recovered. One area of specific focus was commodity trading, as this was what sustained roughly 60% of the Jewish population. The authorities, especially on a local and regional level, used a plethora of inventive methods to push Jews towards closing and selling their stores. By 1935, a quarter of them had succumbed to the pressure; by 1938, that number had risen to 70%.<\/p>\n

Those fortunate enough to have a job in 1933 were, however, not immune from persecution. Jews serving the public was a concept which did not fit into the Nazis\u2019 view of the world. It was the basis of the NSDAP\u2019s ideology that all problems were to be solved if one simply removed Jews from the \u201cVolksgemeinschaft\u201d[12]<\/a> altogether.[13]<\/a><\/p>\n

The first steps were taken on a regional rather than a national level. The municipal government of Berlin, on the 18th<\/sup> of March 1933, issued the order:<\/p>\n

\u201cJewish attorneys and notaries may in future not be active regarding the legal affairs of the city of Berlin.\u201d[14]<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Along with Jews working in the legal system, Jewish doctors were targeted especially harshly and early on. On the 31st<\/sup> of March of the same year, the public health insurance company announced it would no longer reimburse the costs of treatment by a Jewish doctor, starting the following day.
\nThough technically not an employment ban, it was a decision aiming to severely limit the number of patients that Jewish doctors would receive, simply by making it uneconomical for the public to seek treatment from them.[15]<\/a> Jewish doctors were fully banned from practicing on the 25.07.1938.<\/p>\n

Various other employment bans followed: in 1933 for judges, teachers, civil servants, tutors; in 1934 actors, authors; in 1935 art dealers, musicians; in 1936 veterinarians, journalists (having to prove both their and their spouse\u2019s Aryan heritage starting 1800), and others.[16]<\/a><\/p>\n

Jews in the \u201cVolksgemeinschaft\u201d, were, according to the Nazis\u2019 propaganda, responsible for evils like Germany\u2019s WWI defeat and the hardship its people had to endure. Barring them from working, especially in the public sector, de-facto removed them from German society. Aside from public offices, intellectuals were the most targeted \u2013 Jewish doctors curing Germans\u2019 diseases and saving their lives or Jewish professors teaching Germany\u2019s future elite at the country\u2019s top universities didn\u2019t mix well with the light the Nazis were portraying the Jews in.<\/p>\n

The German arts were \u201ccleansed\u201d of the \u201cJewish threat\u201d, as it was called[17]<\/a>. Previously, Jewish representation in the arts had been disproportionately high, in the eyes of the new leaders posing a risk to be eliminated. Visual arts and literature had the ability to subvert NSDAP in a more subtle but unmistakable way, and therefore were a target for the Nazis. They replaced them with their own art styles, commonly showing strong, Aryan men in uniforms and BDM[18]<\/a> girls. \u201cDegenerate art\u201d was cracked down on.<\/p>\n

Overall, the occupational bans on Jews aimed at increasing the division in society between \u201cGermans\u201d and Jews, taking away financial and personal stability for Jewish families and individuals, and limiting their influence in Germany\u2019s civil society.<\/p>\n

Reactions to the initial Nazi advances were indifferent at best; acts of resistance, such as entering the Jewish stores blockaded by the 1933 boycott, were few and far between. Antisemitism was welcomed by sizable chunks of the population, not least importantly by the Catholic and Protestant churches.[19]<\/a> Marginalization of Jews was now perceived as the norm in German conscience.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Representation<\/h3>\n

\u201cNever forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.\u201d[20]<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Germany\u2019s Jews were persecuted through laws and decrees, agitation of the public and reinterpretation of legislation. Few of the steps that Hitler took to eliminate the Jews were illegal under German law at the time.<\/p>\n

In fact, Julius Streicher, publisher of the virulently anti-Semitic newspaper \u201cder St\u00fcrmer\u201d, announced in his speech in the Berlin Sportpalast:<\/p>\n

\u201cBy smashing shop windows, you only harm the insurances and not the Jews. And if you beat up Jews, you are not solving the Jewish question. We won\u2019t strike again, but the Jewish question will, through legal ways, be brought to a solution<\/strong> \u2026 whomever partakes in individual actions is an enemy of the state.\u201d[21]<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is interesting to note that this quote was highlighted by a German newspaper having a pro-NSDAP viewpoint. This source gives us an insight into what the party\u2019s supporters considered important in 1935. The harsh dismissal of anyone partaking in \u201cindividual actions\u201d as an enemy of the state is noteworthy; it highlights the NSDAP\u2019s perception that the prosecution should be a systematic and centralized endeavor meant to be supported by the people, but not executed through individual initiative. Perhaps even more relevant is that \u201cthe Jewish question will, through legal ways, be brought to a solution\u201d, supporting the notion that the NSDAP was trying to adhere to legal principles.
\nHowever, this being a speech by one individual member of the party means that it may be more of a personal than a collective opinion and we don\u2019t know the impact of factionalism within the party. Nonetheless, the idea seems to have resonated well enough with propagandists to be printed in a political column.<\/p>\n

It was of high importance to the Nazis to make what Hitler did appear legal.[22]<\/a> The \u201cErm\u00e4chtigungsgesetz\u201d following the Reichstag fire was a legal way to provide him with sweeping powers (though abolishing the position of President wasn\u2019t one of them).<\/p>\n

Hitler had signaled that he would keep the judiciary a separate entity from the government, as many senior jurists who had held their positions since the days of the Kaiserreich had a strong liking for the German \u201cRechsstaat\u201d[23]<\/a>. Their typically nationalist views aligned well with the NSDAP\u2019s own, though, therefore not posing a threat.[24]<\/a> Many of the judges were keen to strictly reflect the NSDAP\u2019s party line in their verdicts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe courts prepared, through their assiduous application of anti-Jewish legislation, the physical death of the Jews.\u201d[25]<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is logical that representation of Jews within the judiciary branch was one of the first targets for the nationalist-socialists. A relatively independent judiciary would have been one of the few entities with the potential to pose a serious threat to the legitimacy and therefore the rule of the Nazis.[26]<\/a>
\nAllowing Jews to be represented and therefore tried fairly would have been a potentially fatal mistake for the new German leadership as they were still in the process of consolidating their power in these early stages of their rule.<\/p>\n

Just a week after the \u201cErm\u00e4chtigungsgesetz\u201d, all Jewish judges were dismissed from their posts[27]<\/a>. Again, just a week later, Jewish civil servants faced the same fate[28]<\/a>. The \u201cAryan paragraph\u201d responsible for this, part of the \u201cLaw for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service\u201d[29]<\/a>, was applied independently by companies and organizations, forbidding non-Aryans to work for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis Aryan paragraph, meanwhile, did not stay limited to the civil servants, but rather in the following time was expanded to all public duties, the permit as a lawyer, notaries, panel doctors, editors, etc.\u201d[30]<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By eliminating Jews\u2019 representation in the justice system, the government avoided their measures being challenged legally. The methods taken – the Aryan paragraphs and others \u2013 appear to have been successful to an extent that satisfied the authorities, as it was only in 1943 that the prosecution of Jews and Poles was transferred exclusively to the SS and the police.[31]<\/a><\/p>\n

A judicial system was created that would persecute political opponents and especially Jews without them having any real chance of a legal victory, but in which civil law was \u2013 by measures of dictatorship \u2013 relatively independent.[32]<\/a><\/p>\n

Having a seemingly independent judiciary prosecute Jews for supposed \u201ccrimes\u201d as they would prosecute any German citizen was picked up in a much more positive light by the Germans than unclearly defined measures would have been. It not only strengthened the NSDAP\u2019s legitimacy, but also contributed to the normalization of antisemitism in a very subtle way \u2013 a lot subtler than the party\u2019s racial theories.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Ethnogenic Legislation \/ Racial Theory & Racial Hygiene<\/h3>\n

It was no secret that racial purification was the ultimate goal of the Nazi regime; it was a core part of its ideology, omnipresent in its propaganda and taught at schools.[33]<\/a> The elimination of the Jews was always the stated goal, as evidenced by this quote from a 1936 newspaper concerning the decree on the \u201cGerman blood\u201d law:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026with the goal of keeping the German blood clean and making the existing half-breeds vanish as soon as possible.\u201d[34]<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To persecute non-Aryans through legal means it was a necessity to define under what circumstances an individual would fall under which category.<\/p>\n

Hence, less than three months after taking power, the Nazis defined \u201cnon-Aryans\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u201cnon-Aryan is an individual who descended from non-Aryan, especially Jewish parents or grandparents. It suffices, if one parent or one grandparent is not Aryan. This is to be presumed especially when one parent or one grandparent is a member of the Jewish faith.\u201d[35]<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Due to Jews lacking any general \u201cracial characteristics\u201d, it was the Jewish faith that would determine whether someone was Aryan or not, creating absurd situations: had an individual\u2019s great-grandparents all been Jewish, but baptized their children as Christians, he would be considered Aryan[36]<\/a>. However, a German whose parents were both Christian, would remain a non-Aryan if just one of his grandparents was Jewish.<\/p>\n

Though anti-Semitism was already present in Germany, it was the National-socialists\u2019 goal to extend their racist mindset to the entirety of Germany. Of special significance was the German youth. In the Nazis\u2019 plans, it would be these children to one day become cadres within the NSDAP and tend to the racial purity of the \u201c1,000-year Reich\u201d. The fact that the Reich would end up lasting just twelve years[37]<\/a> was not anticipated by the Nazis.<\/p>\n

It was therefore a priority to convey their doctrine to the youth. In September 1939, German schools started teaching \u201cGenetic Heredity\u201d and \u201cRacial Theory\u201d, including final exams, which students couldn\u2019t be exempt from.[38]<\/a> The decree proclaimed that \u201cbiological thinking\u201d was to be made the foundation for all school subjects.
\nIn the same month, Saturday was declared \u201cstate youth day\u201d: all students were taken out of school to receive \u201ceducation on national policy\u201d.[39]<\/a>
\nIndoctrination took place outside of school as well, especially through the youth organizations Hitlerjugend[40]<\/a> and BDM[41]<\/a>. Following the \u201cHJ Law\u201d of 1936 (and two implementation provisions in 1939), it was a legal obligation to enter if you were between ten and 18 years of age.[42]<\/a> This led to the Hitler youth reaching 8.7 million active members – 98% of Germany\u2019s youth.[43]<\/a><\/p>\n

The Nuremberg laws of1935 are commonly seen as the fundamental piece of legislation for the legal prosecution of Jews under nationalism-socialism. Consisting of three separate laws, it was the \u201cLaw for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor\u201d that regulated marriages and relationships between Aryans and \u201cpeople of non-Aryan blood\u201d. It introduced prison sentences not just for Jewish individuals, but also to Germans who entered marriage or extra-marital affairs with a Jew and declared all \u201cmixed marriages\u201d between an Aryan and a non-Aryan obsolete.[44]<\/a><\/p>\n

In their racial hygiene fanaticism, the state sought to identify and classify all non-Aryans according to unscientific \u201cracial hygiene\u201d, enshrining classifications in the laws they passed. As the years progressed, these legal documents\u2019 wording was further refined, broadening their reach in terms of numbers impacted and authorities\u2019 competences.<\/p>\n

The first law releasing civil servants, for instance, had clauses exempting WWI veterans. the Nazis soon corrected their oversight after significantly fewer Jews left public service than they had expected. By 1936, even baptism and conversion from Judaism to Christianity would not suffice to save an individual from persecution; no matter whether they had converted to outrun the Nazis or whether they were devout Christians.[45]<\/a><\/p>\n

The gradual increase in the harshness of discriminatory laws, combined with the persistent bombardment of the population by anti-Jewish propaganda were of key importance in smoothing the way into a genocide \u2013 which is fundamentally based on division and dehumanization.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Division, Dehumanization<\/h3>\n

\u201cWith these regulations, it shall be reached that in future, there will only be \u201cGermans\u201d and \u201cJews\u201d in Germany.\u201d[46]<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Nationalist-socialists emphasized their idea of the \u201cunity of the German people\u201d, however their policies were based upon division. Nazi propaganda and worldview built almost entirely on an \u201cus versus them\u201d mentality. On the one hand, this enabled the Nazis to place the blame for anything that went wrong on outside forces \u2013 the Jews, and, especially initially, also the Communists and Social Democrats \u2013 but on the other hand, it paved the way into what would become the mass extermination of Europe\u2019s Jews by dehumanizing them and making discrimination and violence commonplace within and normal to the German public.<\/p>\n

The division between \u201cGermans\u201d and \u201cJews\u201d took place on two levels. The ideas propagated by the government resulted in many of the Aryan Germans largely excluding Jews from their everyday lives by choice. Simultaneously, laws passed by the government added a legally binding factor to these divisions \u2013 often long after they had already become social norms. As an example, German parents would often forbid their children to play with Jewish children[47]<\/a>. And though laws barring Jewish children from attending schools increasingly divided the few remaining mixed groups[48]<\/a>, it was only in 1938 that division was made an official directive.[49]<\/a><\/p>\n

Jews had lost their citizenship through the Nuremburg laws of 1935, and from 1938 on their passports were stamped with the infamous \u201cJ\u201d, immediately identifying them as Jews and placing them at the whim of any officials who got hold of them.[50]<\/a><\/p>\n

The Nazis also implemented a plethora of regulations that chipped away at the Jews\u2019 everyday rights. Each of the regulations on their own seemed like not much of a deal, however in sum, they were a key step to removing the Jews from German society, therefore strengthening the idea of a \u201cVolksgemeinschaft\u201d which must defend itself from \u201cthe Jew\u201d.
\nAlone in 1933, regulations were passed that:<\/p>\n