In 1938 Jewish doctors were banned from treating German patients, a year before Jewish people were prohibited from running a retail or a wholesale business. Jewish newspapers were banned in 1935 and Jewish publishers were closed down. These events had huge implications on Jews in 1939. They had no national communications to each other such as newspapers and books. Their job prospects were also very limited; this meant that many Jews were living in squalor and poverty.
Jews lost their citizenship when the Nuremberg Laws were put into place in 1935. Jews had no rights, if they were treated badly they had no one to turn to, they didn’t have the police to turn to, they didn’t have any MP’s they could write to. Jews had their rights stripped from them and there was nothing they could do about it.
Having their rights and their dignity taken from them meant that firstly, they were then banned from sitting on public benches and instead having to sit on yellow benches, which were especially for Jews. This made Jews a target. They were forbidden to enter theatres, concerts, cinemas and exhibitions, therefore cutting off any cultural ties. An even simple thing like public transport was denied from them. The Nuremberg Race laws outlined that Germans and Jews were prohibited to marry or have sexual relations with each other. Those who did were punished accordingly to these laws. These laws also outlined who counted as a Jew, taking into consideration Grandparents and Parents. This decided whether someone was a 1st degree mixed Jew and so on. Also a person could be determined as a Jew by the way they looked and acted.
Jews were made to live in ‘Ghettos’. The most famous of these ghettos was The Warsaw Ghetto. Over half a million Jews were held in a 1.3 square mile of space. This meant there were averagely 7 families living each house. They had no running water and very little food. Money, gold and other such jewellery was useless in the ghettos. They could not trade with these things anymore. Food is what many of the Jews in the ghettos needed, so they traded with it. Many were starving and many were ill and dirty. This is just the start of how Jews were discriminated against.
Basically Jews had their civil rights, and dignity taken away from them by 1939. This meant they couldn’t vote, or even protest, they couldn’t change what was happening to them. This was the start to the Nazi’s answering the Jewish Question.
