ABSTRACT
After securing full legislative power through the Enabling Act in March 1933 the Nazis acted on their pledge to remove Jews from public life. In contrast to the provisions for social and economic reform, which were ignored in practice, the anti-Semitic provisions of the Nazi program were enacted into law. Anti-Semitic legislation could be used to divert public attention from the absence of real social and economic reform. The Civil Service Law of 7 April 1933 removed from public employment all persons of "non-Aryan descent," defined as persons with one or more Jewish parents or grandparents. This so-called "Aryan paragraph" of the Civil Service Law was widely applied by professional organizations even before Jews were legally excluded from the professions. In the course of GleichschaltunB in 1933--4 Jews were excluded from employment in education, the entertainment industry, the arts, journalism, and the stock exchange. Jewish doctors and dentists were removed from health insurance panels and lost their eligibility to treat patients under the national health insurance plans. Proof of" Aryan descent" was eventually required by law even for membership in athletic clubs. A decree of February 1934 made Aryan descent a prerequisite for service in the Wehrmacht (after the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 men of mixed descent were permitted to serve in the enlisted ranks). Jews were forbidden to own farmland or deal in livestock. In
April 1933 Jewish enrollment in German secondary schools and universities was restricted. The number of newly admitted Jews was not to exceed the proportion of Jews in the total population. 1 Measures to bar Jews from German universities were soon escalated. After July 1934 Jewish law students were no longer permitted to take the qualifying exams for a career in law. A similar edict was issued against Jewish medical students in February 1935.2
This legislative campaign to exclude Jews from German society reached a preliminary climax in the two Nuremberg Laws proclaimed at the annual Nazi Party Rally in September 1935 and passed by the Reichstag by acclamation. The Reich Citizenship Law reduced Jews to the status of alien subjects without any political rights. Jews were no longer allowed to call themselves Germans. The Reich Representation of German Jews (Reichsvertretung der deutschen Juden) , the Jewish umbrella organization founded in 1933 under the leadership of Leo Baeck (1873-1956) to combat Nazi anti-Semitism, was forced to change its name to Reich Representation of Jews in Germany. A Certificate of Descent, popularly called Ariernachweis (Aryan certificate) was required as a precondition of German citizenship. Jews were also forbidden to display the German flag, to proffer the Hitler salute, or to give any other manifestation of membership in the German community.
