The Nuremberg Laws, Essay Example

The 1935 Nuremberg Laws excluded the Jews from participating in the cultural and political life of Germany. The laws did not define Jews based on religion, but their ancestry. Jews were excluded from the cultural life, professors lost their jobs, and students were not allowed to participate in higher education. In November, a month after the Nuremberg Laws were extended to other people who were believed to be inferior to the Aryans, such as the Gypsies, and Black people.

The superiority of Aryans as an ideology was attractive for many people who held professional jealousy against Jewish intellectuals. By excluding Jewish people from the society, people felt that they gained an advantage by eliminating the dominance of Jewish people in education and culture.  Marriages between Aryans and Jewish or other (believed to be inferior) races were forbidden by law. Further, Jewish families were not allowed to hire German domestic help under the age of 45, to eliminate the risk of the woman becoming pregnant by a Jew. The Nuremberg Laws later included a “blood protection law”. Individuals had to present birth certificates clearly showing that they had no Jewish blood in their family for a number of generations to be considered Aryan and being allowed to marry.

The expansion of the Nuremberg Laws meant that Jews were no longer considered German citizens, but aliens. Their civil and human rights were stripped. Their representation in business and the legal system was negatively affected. The medical community of Germany backed the claims that Jews  and Roma Gypsies threatened the purity of the superior race. After Germany occupied Eastern Europe, the same laws and racial regulations were introduced in other parts of Euroe as well.