Cirque Exotique du Monde: What Are the Nuremberg Laws?

In September of 1935 in the German town of Nuremberg, the Nazi party held a rally lasting several days. Out of this Nazi gathering came what are called the Nuremberg Race Laws. Essentially, they were a set of German laws that institutionalized Adolf Hitler's "Aryan first" ideology of the Nazi party. The Nuremberg laws defined a Jew a someone who had 3-4 Jewish grandparents, whether or not the person in question practiced Judaism themselves, and didn't care if someone in the family line had previously converted to a different religion.

The laws prevented Jews from having Reich citizenship, prevented them from marrying or having intimate relations with persons of "pure" German blood, and deprived them of many political rights.The Nazis then expanded the laws in November of 1935 to included a ban on relations with or marriage to Romani gypsies or people with black skin.

As the host of the 1936 Olympic Games, Germany ratcheted down the laws briefly, to put on a good face to the world and retain the games in Germany. However Jewish athletes were not allowed to compete on the German Olympic team. After the Olympics, however, more articles were added to the Nuremberg laws that required Jews to register their businesses on a special register and then required them to "Arayanize" the business. Jewish owners and workers were then fired, and Aryan Germans took over the businesses at incredibly low prices that were set by the Third Reich. The goal was to impoverish the Jews. Jewish doctors were not allowed to treat Aryan patients and Jewish lawyers were not allowed to practice law.

These laws were the foundation for the eventual holocaust and concentration camps.