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*     Voices of the Holocaust
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Student Information Card
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Chart showing anti-Jewish decrees
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The persecution of the Jews began systematically almost as soon as Hitler came to power. The Nazis announced new laws against Jews. These were introduced slowly at first, so that the civilian population would not realise the enormity of anti-Jewish decrees. Below is a chart showing a small selection of the 2,000 Nazi anti-Jewish decrees passed between 1933-1945. It is uncertain whether Hitler planned to murder the Jews when he came to power. Originally it seems he intended to force them out of Germany but this eventually led to a plan to exterminate the Jews.

Year
Action

1933

 
  • Image of a man measuring girl's nosePublic burning of books by Jews and anti-Nazis
  • Random attacks on Jews and Jewish property
  • Police and the courts no longer protect Jews
  • April boycotts of Jewish shops - for one day, Germans are told not to buy from shops and business owned by Jews
  • SA stood by shops to discourage people from going inside
  • 'Kosher'- ritual slaughter of animals banned
  • Department of Racial Hygiene ('ethnic cleansing') set up
1934
  • Jewish students excluded from exams in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and law
  • Jews excluded from military service
1935
  • Nuremberg Laws defined what it was to be Jewish and denied Jews their civic rights
  • Law for 'The Protection of German Blood and German Honour' forbade mixed marriages
1936/7
  • Jews no longer allowed to vote and lose German citizenship
  • Benefit payments to large Jewish families stopped
  • Jews banned from parks, restaurants and swimming pools
  • Jews forbidden to use the German greeting 'Heil Hitler'
  • Jews no longer allowed electrical/optical equipment, bicycles, typewriters or records
  • Passports for Jews to travel abroad restricted
  • Many Jewish students removed from German schools and universities
1938
  • German soldier outside a synagogueSpecial identity cards issued to Jews
  • Jews excluded from cinema, theatre, concerts, exhibitions, beaches and holiday resorts
  • Jews forced to add the names Sara or Israel to their own
  • Kristallnacht (9 November) fires followed by mass arrests, one night of violence in Germany
  • German and Austrian Jews are murdered, synagogues burnt and desecrated and shop windows destroyed
  • Jewish children expelled from German schools
  • Jews' passports stamped with a red letter 'J'. Some have passports removed to prevent them leaving the country.
1939
  • A central office for Jewish emigration set up
  • Jews evicted from their homes without reason and notice
  • Jews' radios confiscated
  • Jewish curfew
1940
  • Jews' telephones confiscated
  • Jews no longer receive ration cards for clothes
1941
  • Jews over 6 forced to wear a Yellow Star of David with 'Jew' written on it
  • Forbidden to use public telephones
  • Jews forbidden to keep dogs, cats and birds
  • Jews forbidden to leave the country
1942
  • Jews hand over fur coats and woollen items
  • Jews not allowed to receive eggs or milk
  • Blind or deaf Jews no longer allowed to wear armbands identifying their condition in traffic
  • All schools closed to Jewish children
1943

 

Students should find historical sources to establish what was happening in other countries under Nazi occupation at the time.

 

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