Law for the Protection of Hereditary Health:
The Attempt to Improve the German
Aryan Breed, July 14, 1933
Article I. (1.) Anyone who suffers from an inheritable
disease may be surgically sterilized if, in
the judgement of medical science, it could be
expected that his decendants will suffer from
serious inherited mental or physical defects.
(2.) Anyone who suffers from one of the following
is to be regarded as inheritably diseased
within the meaning of this law:
1. congenital feeble-mindedness
2. schizophrenia
3. manic-depression
4. congenital epilepsy
5. inheritable St. Vitus dance
(Huntington's Chorea)
6. hereditary blindness
7. hereditary deafness
8. serious inheritable malformations
(3.) In addition, anyone suffering from chronic
alcoholism may also be sterilized.
Article II. (1.) Anyone who requests sterilization is entitled to it. If he be incapacitated or
under a guardian because of low state of mental health or not yet 18 years of age, his legal
guardian is empowered to make the request. In other cases of limited capacity the request
must receive the approval of the legal representative. If a person be of age and has a
nurse, the latter's consent is required. (2.) The request must be accompanied by a
certificate from a citizen who is accredited by the German Reich stating that the person to
be sterilized has been informed about the nature and consequence of sterilization. (3.) The
request for sterilization can be recalled.
Article III. Sterilization may also be recommended by: (1.) the official physician (2.) the
official in charge of a hospital, sanitarium, or prison.
Article IV. The request for sterilization must be presented in writing to, or placed in
writing by the office of the Health Inheritance Court. The statement concerning the request
must be certified by a medical document or authenticated in some other way. The business
office of the court must notify the official physician.
Article VII. The proceedings of the Health Inheritance Court are secret.
Article X. The Supreme Health Insurance Court retains final jurisdiction.

Books by Jewish authors and Communists are burned, 1933. Photo from National Archives
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The Nuremberg Laws on Citizenship and Race:
September 15, 1935
The Reich Citizenship Law of September 15, 1935
THE REICHSTAG HAS ADOPTED by unanimous vote the following law
which is herewith promulgated.
ARTICLE 1. (1) A subject of the state is one who belongs to the protective union of the
German Reich, and who, therefore, has specific obligations to the Reich. (2) The status of
subject is to be acquired in accordance with the provisions of the Reich and the state
Citizenship Law.
ARTICLE 2. (1) A citizen of the Reich may be only one who is of German or kindred
blood, and who, through his behavior, shows that he is both desirous and personally fit to
serve loyally the German people and the Reich. (2) The right to citizenship is obtained by
the grant of Reich citizenship papers. (3) Only the citizen of the Reich may enjoy full
political rights in consonance with the provisions of the laws.
ARTICLE 3. The Reich Minister of the Interior, in conjunction with the Deputy to the
Fuehrer, will issue the required legal and administrative decrees for the implementation
and amplification of this law.
Promulgated: September 16, 1935. In force: September 30, 1935.
First Supplementary Decree of November 14, 1935
On the basis of Article III of the Reich Citizenship Law of September 15, 1935, the
following is hereby decreed:
ARTICLE 1. (1) Until further provisions concerning citizenship papers, all subjects of
German or kindred blood who possessed the right to vote in the Reichstag elections
when the Citizenship Law came into effect, shall, for the present, possess the rights of
Reich citizens. The same shall be true of those upon whom the Reich Minister of the
Interior, in conjunction with the Deputy to the Fuehrer shall confer citizenship. (2) The
Reich Minister of the Interior, in conjunction with the Deputy to the Fuehrer, may revoke
citizenship.
ARTICLE 2. (1) The provisions of Article I shall apply also to subjects who are of
mixed Jewish blood. (2) An individual of mixed Jewish blood is one who is descended
from one or two grandparents who, racially, were full Jews, insofar that he is not a Jew
according to Section 2 of Article 5. Full-blooded Jewish grandparents are those who
belonged to the Jewish religious community.
ARTICLE 3. Only citizens of the Reich, as bearers of full political rights, can exercise the
right of voting in political matters, and have the right to hold public office. The Reich
Minister of the Interior, or any agency he empowers, can make exceptions during the
transition period on the matter of holding public office. The measures do not apply to
matters concerning religious organizations.
ARTICLE 4. (1) A Jew cannot be a citizen of the Reich. He cannot exercise the right to
vote; he cannot hold public office. (2) Jewish officials will be retired as of December 31,
1935. In the event that such officials served at the front in the World War either for
Germany or her allies, they shall receive as pension, until they reach the age limit, the full
salary last received, on the basis of which their pension would have been computed. They
shall not, however, be promoted according to their seniority in rank. When they reach the
age limit, their pension will be computed again, according to the salary last received on
which their pension was to be calculated. (3) These provisions do not concern the affairs
of religious organizations. (4) The conditions regarding service of teachers in public Jewish
schools remains unchanged until the promulgation of new laws on the Jewish school
system.
ARTICLE 5 (1) A Jew is an individual who is descended from at least three
grandparents who were, racially, full Jews... (2) A Jew is also an individual who is
descended from two full-Jewish grandparents if: (a) he was a member of the Jewish
religious community when this law was issued, or joined the community later; (b) when the
law was issued, he was married to a person who was a Jew, or was subsequently married
to a Jew; (c) he is the issue from a marriage with a Jew, in the sense of Section I, which
was contracted after the coming into effect of the Law for the Protection of German
Blood and Honor of September 15, 1935; (d) he is the issue of an extramarital
relationship with a Jew, in the sense of Section I, and was born out of wedlock after July
31, 1936.
ARTICLE 6. (1) Insofar as there are, in the laws of the Reich or in the decrees of the
National Socialist German Workers' Party and its affiliates, certain requirements for the
purity of German blood which extend beyond Article 5, the same remain untouched....
ARTICLE 7. The Fuehrer and Chancellor of the Reich is empowered to release anyone
from the provisions of these administrative decrees.
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Law for the Protection of German Blood
and German Honor
September 15, 1935
Thoroughly convinced by the knowledge that the purity of German
blood is essential for the further existence of the German people
and animated by the inflexible will to safe-guard the German
nation for the entire future, the Reichstag has resolved upon the
following law unanimously, which is promulgated herewith:
SECTION 1 1. Marriages between Jews and nationals of German or kindred blood are
forbidden. Marriages concluded in defiance of this law are void, even if, for the purpose
of evading this law, they are concluded abroad. 2. Proceedings for annulment may be
initiated only by the Public Prosecutor.
SECTION 2 Relation outside marriage between Jews and nationals for German or
kindred blood are forbidden.
SECTION 3 Jews will not be permitted to employ female nationals of German or kindred
blood in their households.
SECTION 4 1. Jews are forbidden to hoist the Reich and national flag and to present the
colors of the Reich. 2. On the other hand they are permitted to present the Jewish colors.
The exercise of this authority is protected by the State.
SECTION 5 1. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of section 1 will be
punished with hard labor. 2. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of section 2
will be punished with imprisonment or with hard labor. 3. A person who acts contrary to
the provisions of section 3 or 4 will be punished with imprisonment up to a year and with a
fine or with one of these penalties.
SECTION 6 The Reich Minister of the Interior in agreement with the Deputy of the
Fuehrer will issue the legal and administrative regulations which are required fro the
implementation and supplementation of this law.
SECTION 7 The law will become effective on the day after the promulgation, section 3
however only on 1 January, 1936.
Nuremberg, the 15th day of September 1935 at the Reich Party Rally of Freedom.
The Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor Adolph Hitler
The Reich Minister of the Interior Frick
The Reich Minister of Justice Dr. Goertner
The Deputy of the Fuehrer R. Hess
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