Nuremberg Laws

The Nuremberg Laws or Nürnberg Laws () of 1935 were antisemitic laws in Nazi Germany introduced at the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. After the takeover of power in 1933 by Hitler, Nazism became an official ideology incorporating scientific racism and antisemitism. There was a rapid growth in German legislation directed at Jews, such as the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service which banned "non-Aryans" from the civil-service.

The lack of a clear legal method of defining who was Jewish had, however, allowed some Jews to escape some forms of discrimination aimed at them. The enactment of laws identifying who was Jewish made it easier for the Nazis to enforce legislation restricting the basic rights of German Jews.

The Nuremberg Laws classified people with four German grandparents as "German or kindred blood", while people were classified as Jews if they descended from three or four Jewish grandparents. A person with one or two Jewish grandparents was a Mischling, a crossbreed, of "mixed blood".In many cases a person with exactly two Jewish grandparents was deemed a "Jew". There were a number of legal tests used, to determine if such a person—with precisely two Jewish grandparents—was to be classified as a "Jew" or a "Mischling". See Mischling Test. These laws deprived Jews of German citizenship and prohibited marriage between Jews and other...
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