What laws did the nazis pass against the jews and what affect did these laws have?

Craig Holburd 93

History Assessment

Why did the Nazis pass laws against the Jews and what

affect did these laws have?

Between 1933 and 1935 when the Nazis came to power, a series of laws were made which restricted the daily lives of Jewish people. In this assessment I am going to discuss the reasons the laws were created and what affect they had on Jews living in Germany at that time.

Before 1933 Jews were living happy lives since they had come to Europe over 2000 years ago. Most Jewish people lived in big families and inhabited in small towns in Eastern Europe. As most families were quite poor they only lived in small houses called shtetls. They had strong beliefs about their religion and life and they believed education was very important. Most Jews spoke Yiddish as their first language along with Hebrew. Their happy lives completely changed in 1933 when laws were changed by the Nazis.

Nearly every single Jew was affected by the law changes. The Nazis defined a "full Jew" as a person with three Jewish grandparents. The law changes probably had one of the biggest affects on children. These children were being brought up surrounded by discrimination and violence. Being a Jewish child at this time would be hugely difficult and confusing. It would be very hard to understand what was going on. The law change that had the biggest affect on children was that all Jewish children had to attend Jewish schools. This law was made by the Nazis so that Jewish children would not mix with non-Jewish children. They wanted to bring the children up thinking that Jews were the enemy. Although really they had done nothing wrong. Another law change that had a big affect was that children over 6 had to wear the Star of David on their arm to signify that they were Jewish. The law was made so Germans could tell who was Jewish and who wasn’t. Wearing the Star of David on your arm would be very bewildering for a small child because you wouldn’t understand what it meant and why you had to wear it. This could also make a child feel singled out. I do not agree with this law because I feel that it is discrimination and I think that you should be entitled to believe in any religion you want without being forced to wear something.

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As well as children, adults were badly hit by the law changes as well. I feel that the adults were affected more because unlike the children, all of the adults knew what was going to happen to them and they knew that they might be killed. Knowing that there’s a chance you will be killed would leave a devastating affect on your mind. Adults also had to change their daily lifestyles as they were treated differently. From December 1938 all Jews were banned from cinemas, shows, concerts, amusement places, museums and sports fields. So most of the time they could only stay in their own home. This also meant that some Jews had to leave their jobs. The Nazis made this rule to prevent Jews from socialising with non-Jews and so they couldn’t mix. The Nazis wanted to get rid of them so it would be an all-German society (Aryan Race). From 1935 the Germans also took away the Jews rights. This meant they had no longer the right to vote or the right to have freedom of speech. The law was made because they didn’t want Jews to have a say in what went on in politics, and they felt that the views of Jewish people were worthless.

Most of the laws made by the Germans involved splitting ‘blood’ Germans and Jews up. Germany wanted to wipe out all contact between German and Jewish people. This was the first part of the plan to drive all of the Jews out of the country. This meant Jewish people were restricted to going in certain areas of land. They no longer had the right to go anywhere they wanted as it would have been counted as trespassing. In 1935 a law was introduced which made it against the law for Jews and German blood citizens to get married. This was because the Nazis didn’t want any German people to be involved with the Jews. They were afraid that German people were married to Jews; they might convert to believing in the Jewish faith. If they were all ready married, then in some cases you would be forced to separate. To avoid this happening, some couples went as far as leaving the country just so they could be together. A similar law was introduced saying that there should be no sexual relations between Jews and ‘blood’ Germans. This was made because the Nazis didn’t want any more Jewish children to be born. The whole point of the law changes was to get the Jewish population down.

There were also law changes for non-Jews as well. Most of the changes affecting them involved them not being able to able to go on the small areas of Jewish property. One law that changed was that non-Jews were banned from shopping in Jewish shops. It was passed because the Nazis did not want German people giving money to the Jews. Although this law was directed at non-Jews, it would have had a bigger affect on Jewish shop owners. They would lose most of their customers and therefore would not be taking in as much money. This could have had a devastating financial affect on Jewish families. In the worst cases it could mean that they would not be able to afford food at a vital time. E.g: when hiding from Nazi soldiers for long periods of time.

During the time of the law changes, Jewish people would have been going through many different emotions. All of the laws were cruel and they made Jewish people humiliated. They would have felt cheated and angry because they had done nothing at all wrong. They were just being pushed aside by the Nazis and there was nothing they could do about it because they were defenceless. If they tried to fight back then they would have been killed. They just had to sit back and let their religion be discriminated.

In my view, all of the law changes were cruel and unfair and I don’t agree with any of them. I also believe that the actions Nazi soldiers did towards the Jewish people was inexcusable. I think that the worst law created was that from 1933, Jews not wanted signs were put up through out Germany and that all Jewish names were scratched off war memorials. I think this is the cruellest because having your name scratched off a war memorial would be very insulting and upsetting especially if you had fought for your country. However the Nazis did have reasons why they created the laws. They created them because they wanted to rid every Jew out of Europe by any means possible. They believed that Jewish people did not belong there and that they should have no right to stay there. They thought that if they made Jewish people look bad, then future generations would believe that Jewish people were actually bad people.