Anti-Jewish laws

Anti-Jewish Laws were adopted in the 1930s and 40s in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy and exported to the European Axis powers and puppet states. Such legislation generally defined Jews, deprived them of a variety of civil, political, and economic rights, and laid the groundwork for expropriation, deportation, and ultimately the Holocaust.

Nazi Germany

1935 chart used to explain the Nuremberg Laws

There was a variety of anti-Jewish legislation in prewar Nazi Germany. The 1933 Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service barred non-"Aryans" from the civil service. The 1935 Nuremberg Laws classified Jews by blood quantums, deprived them of citizenship, and prohibited intermarriage between Jews and "Aryans".

Fascist Italy

Main article: Manifesto of Race

Italy passed its racial laws, the Manifesto of Race, on November 18, 1938, excluding Jews from the civil service, the armed forces, and the National Fascist Party, and restricting Jewish ownership of certain companies and property; intermarriage was also prohibited.[1] The legislation remained in effect after the fall of Mussolini for the first months of the Badoglio government,[2] before being repealed on January 20, 1944.[3]

Slovakia

Slovakia passed its first racial legislation on April 18, 1939, defining Jews as including religious Jews, and any Jews baptized after October 30, 1918.[4] According to Morley, "the Jewish Code was promulgated on September 9, 1941, without the approval of the Slovak parliament or the signature of Tiso".[5] The Slovak parliament on May 15, 1942 retroactively legalized the deportations, deprivation of Jewish citizenship, and expropriation of property that had occurred.[6]

Romania

In August 1940, the Romanian government passed legislation that Jews who converted to Christianity would be regarded as Jews for legal purposes, and barred from marriage with ethnic Christians; by defining Jews not based on religion this was "the first step, and a large one at that, to further racial legislation".[7]

France

France passed its Statute on Jews in October 1940. Similar legislation was adopted later that year in the French possessions of Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia.

Bulgaria

Bulgaria passed its anti-Jewish code, the Law for protection of the nation, in 1941.

Croatia

The Independent State of Croatia issued a definition of Jews on April 30, 1941, laying the groundwork for expropriation and forced labor, followed by deportations.[8]

Notes

  1. ↑ Morley, 1980, p. 167.
  2. ↑ Morley, 1980, p. 178.
  3. ↑ "Regio Decreto Legge, 20 gennaio 1944, n.25". UCIIM Torino. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
  4. ↑ Morley, 1980, p. 74.
  5. ↑ Morley, 1980, p. 75.
  6. ↑ Morley, 1980, p. 86.
  7. ↑ Morley, 1980, p. 25.
  8. ↑ Morley, 1980, p. 148.

References