Chapter 6: 1934-1935 – The Nazi Party’s Racial Laws Define Who Is a German Citizen
Several years ago I read William L. Shirer’s Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1934-1941.”Thus when I recently came across mention of Shirer’s book in Leonard Gross’ The Last Jews in Berlin, I decided to share Shirer’s quote that Gross mentioned:
“Anti-Semitism aside, the most formidable problem faced by the renegade Jews was the slavish penchant for obedience to authority that seemed to exist within the mind of every German. In Berlin Diary, his eyewitness account of Nazi Germany between 1934 and 1941, William L. Shirer writes of the ‘highest state of being the Germanic man knows; the shedding of their individual souls and minds – with the personal responsibilities and doubts and problems – until under the mystic lights and at the sound of the magic words of the Austrian they were merged completely in the Germanic herd.’” (Think of the Borg in the Star Trek universe.)
“To compound matters, Shirer points out, the Germans’ sense of judgment derived from narrow provincial concerns. Their preoccupation with their own point of view to the exclusion of others’ interest was at the very heart of Hitler’s appeal. He told them that Germans, by virtue of their superiority over other Europeans, were entitled to more Lebensraum, or living space. He did not need to convince them. They believed that they had proved their superiority by virtue of their courage and their enterprise.”
In my own personal experience when my husband and I were stationed with the U.S. Army in Munich from September 1970 to May 1972, Germans were only orderly when being told what to do. In other words, we found Germans totally rude and disorderly on ski slopes or skating rinks or anywhere there was no one telling them to “line up.” The Germans’ reputation for orderliness seemed to us to come from submission to external forces rather than inherent traits.
And speaking of Lebensraum – I asked Miss Winkler, the German woman with whom I worked at the Army-Air Motion Picture Service in Munich in 1971, why the Germans had gone to war. She told me that Hitler said the Germans needed more living space (Lebensraum), and that made sense. (This is the same woman who, as a teen, was sent home early from night school classes in Munich before the “spontaneous” actions of Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938.)
Soon after I wrote here about Miss Winkler claiming that what Hitler said regarding Lebensraum “made sense,” I came across the same statement in the introduction to the Encyclopedia of the Second World War in which the aftermath of WWI is discussed:
“[…] The loss of territory, impossible levels of reparations, the transfer of German colonies, the restriction on the size of German land and sea forces, and the total air force ban were all seen as a calculated attempt to reduce Germany to the level of a Rumania or Bulgaria.
“The concept of the ‘Versailles Diktat’ was invented: the idea, fiercely exploited by the Nazis, of the November Criminals was born. Germany had been stabbed in the back. […]Such was the widely held view. It was Adolf Hitler’s particular gift to graft onto this genuine despair the long strand of intense anti-Semitism in central Europe. Jewish capitalism organized from London, Paris or New York, or Jewish Bolshevism in Moscow, was held responsible for the German condition. Evident contradictions in the thesis were brushed aside.
“Adolf Hitler’s solution was simple to understand: to destroy the power of the Jews in Germany; to rebuild the armed forces and to acquire by rough diplomacy and war, if appropriate, Lebensraum, living space, in the East. It seemed, to many Germans, to make sense.” (boldface mine)
Of course it boggles the mind that the Germans didn’t consider whose living space was to become Germany’s living space. Or perhaps they did consider that?
This concept of the collective in Nazi Germany is so important that I am adding here a selection from Edward Mowrer’s Germany Puts the Clock Back from the chapter that he added after the original 1933 publication date:
“Fascism, called National Socialism in Germany, is not only a clever device for enslaving a people; it is a collective religion. The individuals cease to exist: the hive counts more than the bees – not the physical hive, the metaphysical hive – the nation considered as a lasting reality rather than as a historical accident. This is nationalism in its ultimate spasm. Everyone, from top to bottom, even the Leader, must serve the idea, serve not as a volunteer freely assenting, but as part and parcel of it. Dissent becomes ‘impossible,’ heresy a destructive disease, obedience the greatest virtue.
“Therefore the insistence of discipline. Therefore the process of Gleichschaltung or turning all feet in the same direction. The aim is the greatness of the nation conceived as crude expansion. The Fascist does not think; he feels. And he feels that nothing is worth while but to win in an endless (perhaps ultimately aimless) striving of national groups to devour each other. In the Fascist theory each nation plays to win, gives no quarter and talks peace only as a blind to deceive an adversary. Politics becomes national biology.”
Yes, this is a rather intellectual passage, although the concept of “turning all feet in the same direction” is a helpful image for what’s to come.
1934: The Night of the Long Knives (Rohm Putsch):
For our purposes we will skip over much of the infighting in the Nazi Party, although this particular event between June 30 and July 2, 1934, is a good example of the ruthlessness of the Nazi Party even to its own members.
The Wiener Holocaust Library’s The Holocaust Explained says:
“In August 1932 there were approximately 445,000 members of the SA. By June 1934 this had grown to over 3,000,000 members. They were often given a free rein on their activities and were violent and difficult to control. Hitler feared that the SA and Ernst Röhm, their leader, were a potential threat to his leadership.
“On 30 June 1934 these tensions came to a head. The leaders of the SA were ordered to attend a meeting at a hotel in Bad Wiesse, Bavaria. Hitler arrived and personally placed Röhm and other high ranking SA leaders under arrest. Over the next two days, most of the SA leadership were placed under arrest and murdered without trial. Röhm, who was initially pardoned, was then given the choice of suicide or murder. Refusing to take his own life, he was shot on 1 July 1934 by two SS guards.
“Whilst the purge focused on the SA, the Nazis also used the event to eliminate other political opponents, such as the former chancellor Kurt von Schleicher. The Night of the Long Knives (in addition to [President] Hindenburg’s death a few months later) helped Hitler and the Nazi Party to consolidate absolute power in Germany by removing their political opposition.”
A Nazi putsch in Austria fails on July 25, 1934. As the Zachor Foundation explains:
“The policy of threats that Hitler applied against Austrian Premier Engelbert Dollfuss in 1933-1934 prompted the latter to conclude an alliance with Mussolini. After establishing an Italian-style dictatorship, Dollfuss began taking measures leading to the political liquidation of his opponents, including Austrian Nazis. In response, the latter assassinated Dollfuss on July 25, 1934, hoping thereby to exploit the assassination for a putsch. The putsch failed; Germany denied all involvement in the affair.”
And then President Hindenburg died on August 2, 1934, and Hitler becomes the Fuehrer (Leader).
As The Holocaust Explained states:
“Shortly after Hindenburg’s death, Hitler announced that offices of the chancellor and the president were to be combined to create one position, the Führer and chancellor. Hitler announced that he would occupy this new role.
“On 19 August 1934, the German people were asked to vote on whether or not they approved of the merging of the two offices and Hitler’s new role as Führer. 95.7% of the population voted. 89.93% voted in favor of Hitler.
“With Hindenburg gone, there was no longer a limit to Hitler’s power. He was now a dictator.” (boldface mine)
Next up – Germany gets back control of the coal mines of Saar (small area on the border in southwest Germany) from the League of Nations with a plebiscite that had been scheduled to take place after 15 years of the mandate. This will, of course, be helpful for war purposes.
As Wikipedia explains:
“The Territory of the Saar Basin was a region occupied and governed by the United Kingdom and France from 1920 to 1935 under a League of Nations mandate. After a plebiscite was held in 1935, it was returned to Germany.
“A referendum on territorial status was held in the Territory of the Saar Basin on 13 January 1935. Over 90% of voters opted for reunification with Germany, with 9% voting for the status quo as a League of Nations mandate territory and less than 0.5% opting for unification with France.” (boldface mine)
Two months later — the “Holocaust Encyclopedia” indicates:
In early 1935, Germany took its first public steps to rearm, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. On March 16, 1935, a new law reintroduced the draft and officially expanded the German army to 550,000 men.
“In May, a secret Reich Defense Law transformed the Reichswehr into the Wehrmacht and made Hitler its Commander-in-Chief, with a ‘Minister of War and Commander of the Wehrmacht’ under him. The name change was largely cosmetic, but the intent was to create a force capable of a war of aggression, rather than the defensive force created by the treaty. In addition, the conscription law excluded Jews, much to the disappointment of those Jewish men who wanted to prove their continuing loyalty to Germany. Military leaders worked with the Nazi regime to expand arms production.” (boldface mine)
Meanwhile, Encyclopedia Britannica explains how Germany got back a navy:
“Anglo-German Naval Agreement, (June 18, 1935) bilateral concord between Britain and Germany countenancing a German navy but limiting it to 35 percent of the size of the British navy. Part of the process appeasement before World War II, the agreement allowed Germany to violate restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, prompting international criticism and driving a wedge between the French and the British.”
And in the U.S. – 1935 was when the first of a series of isolationist laws are passed by the U.S. Congress aimed at keeping the U.S. out of overseas wars. The “Office of the Historian” shares:
“On August 31, 1935, Congress passed the first Neutrality Act prohibiting the export of ‘arms, ammunition, and implements of war’ from the United States to foreign nations at war and requiring arms manufacturers in the United States to apply for an export license.”
Now we have come to the pivotal historical point of the Nazi Party rally of September 1935. (It is important to remember that now Hitler has been chancellor for over two-and-a-half year years and he has been Fuehrer for over a year.)
As the Nuremberg museums website explains:
“The Nazi Party Rallies, held in Nuremberg from 1933 to 1938, served most of all to stage-manage the image of the regime and Adolf Hitler, and to theatricalize the racially rooted myth of the ‘community of the Volk’ and the population’s backing of the war. The rallies themselves, which could last for up to eight days, were only one highlight in a whole year of National Socialist ceremonies.”
(On a bus tour of Nuremberg our guide explained that Hitler had chosen Nuremberg for these rallies because the city had significance in the Holy Roman Empire.)
On September 15, 1935, two new “race” laws were announced at the Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg.
- The Reich Citizenship Law
- The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor
As the Holocaust Encyclopedia explains:
“What was the Reich Citizenship Law?
“The Nazi Party had always promised that, if they came to power, only racially pure Germans would be allowed to hold German citizenship. The Reich Citizenship Law made this a reality. This law defined a citizen as a person who is ‘of German or related blood.’ This meant that Jews, defined as a separate race, could not be full citizens of Germany. They had no political rights.
“What was the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor?
“The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor was a law against what the Nazis viewed as race-mixing or “race defilement” (“Rassenschande”). It banned future intermarriages and sexual relations between Jews and people ‘of German or related blood.’ The Nazis believed that such relationships were dangerous because they led to ‘mixed race’ children. According to the Nazis, these children and their descendants undermined the purity of the German race.”
We might wonder why these laws – which came to be known as the Nuremberg Laws — were not immediately promulgated after Hitler gained dictatorial powers.
The National WWII Museum in New Orleans has an answer:
“After becoming chancellor of Germany in January 1933, Hitler and his Nazi colleagues quickly learned that they needed to soft-peddle their antisemitic messaging when a nationwide boycott of Jewish businesses on April 1, 1933, largely failed to gain traction with the general public. Only in 1935, after Hitler had effectively consolidated power by purging external and internal enemies, winning over the support of the Wehrmacht’s generals, and combining the office of the president and chancellor into a singular role of Führer, did he feel emboldened enough to enact sweeping anti-Jewish legislation.” (boldface mine)
The same article has this interesting paragraph:
“Historian Thomas Childers writes, ‘it was also symptomatic of Hitler’s modus operandi that after firing off a sweeping ideological barrage against the Jews, party and state officials were left to translate his pronouncements into practical policy, and here—again typically—little agreement could be found.’ Nowhere was this more apparent than in defining who exactly was classified as a ‘Jew’ and who was not. By November 1935, Nazi ideologues had drawn up the scientific-looking chart […] to explain the Nazi construct of the ‘racial Jew.’”
And then the Holocaust Encyclopedia answers the question about the Nuremberg Laws applying to other groups:
“While initially focused on Jews, the Nazi government clarified that the Nuremberg Laws also applied to Roma (also called Gypsies), Black people, and their descendants. They could not be full citizens of Germany. Nor could they marry or have sexual relations with ‘people of German or related blood.’”
Before we move on to 1936, let’s note here that Italy – soon to join with Nazi Germany and Japan in the Anti-Comintern Pact – invaded Ethiopia in October 1935.
Why did Mussolini do this?
Alan K. Lathrop in his article “The EUR: Mussolini’s New Rome” in the summer 2012 issue of the WWII Quarterly, writes that in 1935 Mussolini was “planning his conquest of Ethiopia, whose capture would be the first step in Il Duce’s long-cherished dream of rebuilding the Roman empire of antiquity and making the Mediterranean an Italian lake.”