After watching Schindlers List for the umpteenth time I started wondering did the Jews have any rights in Nazi Germany? Other than flying the Jewish colors?
For instance, could a German citizen assault or kill a Jewish person with impunity?
I looked through the Nuremberg Laws but didn’t really find what I was looking for.
“Flying the Jewish colors”?
The question of what consequences unsanctioned violence against Jews would have had, had not been put to the test at the time AFAIK. My speculation is that it would have been prosecuted but prosecutors would have been instructed to be understanding of the defendant.
Generally freelance violence against Jews was not encouraged, as being against an orderly society. It was the preserve of the organs of the state and of the party.
The only time that the Nazi government bothered to try legislate the legality of murder was in regard to the killings of 30 June-1 July 1934. Otherwise the MO was not legality but impunity.
All laws needed to be published in the Reichsgesetzblatt to come in force, and the Nazi government was not so oblivious to appearances as that. Otherwise it would have been a fine legal quandary for postwar German jurispudence to address.
Violence was condoned and even encouraged by the government. They lost the right to have government contracts, be employed by the government, and even the right to medical treatment. Jews couldn’t become doctors, and “Aryan” doctors were only allowed to treat “Aryan” patients. Check out this little bit of a much great article about the plight of German Jews: History of the Jews in Germany - Wikipedia
Not generally, no, except in a context where this was being encouraged or authorised by party or government officials.
While the Nazi government had no interest whatsoever in defending or protecting Jews, it did have an interest in maintaining a monopoly on the use of force, so violent actions not controlled or directed by the party were likely to be supressed and punished, regardless of the identity of the victims.
So I couldn’t just, on my own initiative, walk into the home of my Jewish neighbour, kill him and seize his home and its contents for myself. The party would decide when was the right time for this and, when that time came, I might or might not be encouraged to full the role of the instrument of the party. And regardless of that, the party would decide who got the home and contents.
Right up until the final collapse of the Nazi state, the simple murder of a Jewish person was just as illegal as the simply murder of any other person; the German Criminal Code had no exemptions for acts directed against Jewish people. But, in the application of the Führherprinzip (the notion that the will, intention or wishes of the leader is the highest law) if the killing was done in execution of the Führer’s will, that “trumped” ordinary criminal law. Hence party and state officials could bring about the murder of Jews with legal impunity, but ordinary citizens could not.
When? In 1933 or 1938? Or do you mean during the war? Or during the Holocaust? The answer is going to vary dramatically depending upon which you are talking about.
Also, having rights de facto or de jure? Again, depending upon the date you are talking about will give you a different answer.
Could Jews be killed with de facto impunity by an ‘average’ German citizen? In theory not in 1933, but on the night of 9-10 November 1938? Absolutely.
This is what it said on one of the sites I looked on
Article 4
1. Jews are forbidden to fly the Reich or national flag or display Reich colors.
2. They are, on the other hand, permitted to display the Jewish colors. The exercise of this right is protected by the state.
I’m thinking some kind of flag? Also I’m thinking this was meant as less of an actual “right” and more of a way to identify where a Jewish person lived.
Nuremberg Laws | Holocaust Encyclopedia.
I just noticed on the movie the SS and other Nazis shot Jews at will, even for sport. And was wondering if the average German could do that.
I’d guess a yellow Davids star.
“Flying the Jewish colours” was not something Jews wanted, or did (there was no such thing as a Jewish flag), rather something that underlined that supposedly Jews did not really want to identify with the German nation, and that if they were to fly the German flag that would be a false pretense.
Exactly. That law is saying “the right of Jews to acknowledge their perfidious disloyalty to Germany is protected by the state.”
Nobody had any rights in Nazi Germany with the possible exception of you know who.
No, because shooting Jews for sport took place outside Germany - in occupied Poland, Russia, etc., which were under military rule and had few if any German civilians. Shooting civilians was fine in war zones, but was considered too… messy to do back at home.
So it was pretty much a fake “right” designed to show the world that Jews were separate but equal.
The law, in its majestic equality, permits Gentile and Jew alike to make huge public displays of their religion.
If you look at the 1936 constitution of the Soviet Union it looks pretty good on paper. Their constitution guaranteed them a right to housing, education, healthcare, and unversal suffrage for all people regardless of their race or nationality. Spoiler alert, that’s not really how things worked out. Even if Jewish people living in Germany technically had some rights according the law, it doesn’t mean those rights were recognized by those in power.
From what I recall reading there was a slow tightening of the laws - Jews were forbidden to operate certain businesses, then they were forbdden from doing transactions with gentiles, then assorted businesses were confiscated, then they were moved to ghettos, then to camps, etc.
It was the proverbial “frog in a boiling pot” process, where each tightening seemed not such a large increment from the last one.
Not so much what rights did they have, as what they were slowly restricted from doing or going, year by year.
Unequivocally not. Jews were stripped of citizenship effective January 1, 1936, under the Nuremburg Law. They were very explicitly not only not equal, but they were also no longer citizens of the German Reich and enjoyed none of the rights that such citizenship granted.
Again, this goes to the question of when exactly between 1933-45 are we talking about? 1933, 1938, during the war, or during the Holocaust? The answer is going to be very different depending upon when we are talking about.
Czarcasm‘s remark was specifically with reference to flying the German national flag vs a notional „Jewish flag“ and is correct in that regard.
With reference to flying flags:
No, Czarcasm’s remark very deliberately used the language “separate but equal,” which is inextricably tied to Jim Crow laws in the post reconstruction South of the United States designed to keep blacks ‘in their place’ despite the 14th Amendment granting them citizenship, and states further that this was " pretty much a fake “right” designed to show the world that Jews were separate but equal." This is the exact opposite of what the Nuremburg Laws did to the Jews in Germany. Jews were German citizens until the Nuremburg Laws stripped them of their German citizenship, and the Nazis gave fuck-all about showing that the Jews were ‘separate but equal’. Under Nazi ideology they were explicitly subhuman (Untermensch), not equal. They were not allowed to fly the flag of the German Reich because they were no longer citizens, and were subhuman to boot.
ARTICLE 4.
- A Jew cannot be a citizen of the Reich. He cannot exercise the right to vote; he cannot hold public office.
- Jewish officials will be retired as of December 31, 1935. In the event that such officials served at the front in the World War either for Germany or her allies, they shall receive as pension, until they reach the age limit, the full salary last received, on the basis of which their pension would have been computed. They shall not, however, be promoted according to their seniority in rank. When they reach the age limit, their pension will be computed again, according to the salary last received on which their pension was to be calculated.
- These provisions do not concern the affairs of religious organizations.
- The conditions regarding service of teachers in public Jewish schools remains unchanged until the promulgation of new laws on the Jewish school system.
Iirc even the Nazis tried to maintain the facade of law and order up until the very end. Regular prisons still had lots of people awaiting sentencing for major crimes until the last month of the war when finally the Nazis decided to just execute them all en-masse to save resources.