World War II Day by Day

New York City, New York • July 26, 1935

On this date in 1935 in New York Harbor, a group of anti-Nazi acti­vists boarded the German pas­senger liner Bremen, tore from the ship’s jack­stay the red, white, and black Nazi Party flag, its swas­tika embla­zoned in the center, and pitched it into the Hudson River. When the German consul in New York City vigor­ously pro­tested the flag’s dese­cra­tion, U.S. offi­cials responded that the German black, red, and gold national flag—the colors of the old Weimar Republic—had not been harmed, but only a poli­ti­cal party sym­bol. On Septem­ber 15, 1935, during a ses­sion of the Reichs­tag held in the walled, centuries-old German city of Nurem­berg, where Nazi big-wigs and party mem­bers had opened their annual Party rally 3 days before, law­makers remem­bered the New York out­rage and declared the Nazi Party flag to be the national flag of Germany.

Of more significance was the Reichstag’s restric­tive legal meas­ures, known as the Nurem­berg Laws, intro­duced at the 1935 Nurem­berg party rally, a spectacle that mainly took place on a newly build reviewing stand and open-air stage at Zeppelin Field and which was chore­o­graphed and filmed by the talented movie actress, Leni Riefen­stahl. (The film was the propa­ganda docu­mentary Triumph des Willens, in English Triumph of the Will). One Nurem­berg law, “The Law for the Pro­tection of German Blood and Honor,” barred marri­ages and extra­marital sex between “Germans” and “Jews” (Juden), the latter name now offi­cially used in place of “non-Aryans,” and out­lawed the em­ploy­ment of “German” females under the age of 45 in Jewish house­holds. Persons con­victed of violating the law protecting German blood and honor faced hard labor, impri­son­ment with hard labor, and/or fines. (A secret decree in June 1937 stip­u­lated that those guilty of “mis­ce­ge­na­tion” were to be sent to con­cen­tra­tion camps following the completion of their sentence.) Another Nurem­berg law, “The Reich Citizen­ship Law,” classi­fied “Aryans” as Reichs­buerger (“Reich citizens”) and those not of “German or related blood” as “state subjects” (Staatsangehoerige) who henceforth lacked German citizenship rights.

The race laws were a legal embodi­ment of an already existing (since 1933) nation­wide boy­cott of Jewish busi­nesses and were tweaked numer­ous times from 1935 onward. For instance, in July 1935 Jews were “released” from the armed ser­vices and Jewish civil ser­vants who had been pro­tected by their status as World War I vet­er­ans were dis­missed from pub­lic ser­vice. In 1938 a total Berufs­verbot (“profes­sional disquali­fi­cation”) was extended to all aca­demi­cally trained Jewish pro­fes­sionals, and Jews had their state pen­sions reduced. The race laws pro­gres­sively lessened the status and human dig­nity of mem­bers of the Jewish com­munity in Germany and, after the 1938 Anschluss, in Austria as well.

Milestones on the Road to the Holocaust Began with Legally Margin­alizing German Jews

Above: The anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws estab­lished a pseudo­scien­tific basis for racial iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and with it state-sanctioned or state-sponsored social, polit­i­cal, and profes­sional ostra­cism, harass­ment, and oppres­sion. In their most warped and destruc­tive form, Nazi racial laws even­tually made it think­able to murder 6 mil­lion people of Jewish ances­try on an indus­trial scale, quite apart from murdering mil­lions of non-Germans. As shown in this chart from 1935, only people with four German grand­parents (four empty circles in top row left) were of “German blood” (deutsch­bluetig) and thus Aryans. A Jew (Jude [m] or Jüdin [f], pl.  Juden) was some­one who descended from three or four Jewish grand­parents (black circles in top row right). Stranded in a racial no-man’s land between Jews and Aryans were “Jewish mixed-breeds” (Misch­linge) of the “first or second degree” (1 Grades, 2 Grades). A Jewish grand­parent was defined as a per­son who is or was a mem­ber of the Jewish relig­ious com­munity. (Strangely, non-practicing Jews as most Misch­linge were raised to be, Chris­tians who had con­verted to Juda­ism, and Jews who had con­verted to Chris­tian­ity were all con­sidered mem­bers of the Jewish reli­gious com­mu­nity bio­log­i­cally and socially under the law.) The chart went on to list allowed mar­riages (“Ehe gestattet”) and forbidden marriages (“Ehe verboten”).

Above: The pages in the Ahnenpass (Proof of Aryan Ancestry) docu­mented the non-Jewish line­age of citi­zens of Nazi Germany and Aus­tria. A proven Aryan lin­e­age was required for working in the pro­fes­sions, attending high school or the uni­ver­sity, owning real estate, and even getting married.

Left: In a state-managed campaign, Nazi Storm­troopers (SA “brown­shirt” thugs who num­bered 3 mil­lion in 1934) affix a poster to the win­dow of a Berlin store with the words “Germans! Defend your­selves! Do not buy from Jews!” (“Deutsche! Wehrt Euch! Kauft nicht bei Juden!”), April 1, 1933. Other signs included “Who­ever Buys from a Jew Is Stealing the Nation’s Assets” (“Wer beim Juden kauft stiehlt Volks­ver­moegen”), “The Jews Are Our Mis­for­tune!” (“Die Juden sind unser Unglueck!”), and “Go to Pales­tine!” (“Geh nach Palaes­tina!”). German shop­keepers some­times placed signs on their front doors, “Jews Not Wel­come” (“Juden nicht erwuenscht”). Park benches bore labels “For Aryans Only” (“Nur fuer Arier”) and bathing beaches were touted as Judenfrei.

Right: German race laws required Jews to change their middle (second) name to “Israel” (male) or “Sara” (female) for use in all offi­cial commu­ni­ca­tion and in legal and busi­ness docu­ments. Por­trait photo­graphers, even Jewish ones, were kept busy pro­ducing photo­graphs for the new ID cards. German passport holder Betty Sara Loewen­stein, whose pass­port sprouted a large red “J” for “Jüdin” (Jewish female), was allowed to leave Germany but not return.

Photomontage of 1935 Nuremberg Nazi Party Rally and Its Outcome: The Nuremberg Race Laws (May want to mute the music)