The First Regulation to the Reich Citizenship Law of 14 November 1935 defines the term ‘Jew’1Reichsgesetzblatt, 1935, I, pp. 1333–1334. This document has been translated from German.
First Regulation to the Reich Citizenship Law.2On the discussion regarding the implementing regulations to the Reich Citizenship Law, see the draft of the First Regulation, dated 22 Sept., and the memorandum from Gütt, dated 25 Sept. 1935 (Doc. 200 and Doc. 203), as well as the entries for 1 Oct., 26 Oct., 7 Nov., and 15 Nov. 1935 in Goebbels, Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, part 1, vol. 3, no. 1 (Munich: Saur, 2005), pp. 301, 317, 324, and 329.
Issued on 14 November 1935. On the basis of § 3 of the Reich Citizenship Law of 15 September 1935 (Reichsgesetzblatt, I, p. 1146), the following is decreed:
§ 1
(1) Until further regulations concerning Reich citizenship certificates are issued, subjects of the state of German or related blood who held the right to vote in Reichstag elections when the Reich Citizenship Law came into effect, or who are granted provisional Reich citizenship by the Reich Minister of the Interior in consultation with the Deputy of the Führer, are regarded as Reich citizens for the time being.
(2) The Reich Minister of the Interior, in consultation with the Deputy of the Führer, can withdraw provisional citizenship.
§ 2
(1) The regulations in § 1 also apply to the Jewish Mischlinge who are subjects of the state.
(2) A Jewish Mischling is someone who is descended from one or two grandparents who are full Jews according to race, provided that he is not considered to be a Jew under § 5(2). A grandparent is automatically considered to be a full Jew if he has been a member of the Jewish religious community.
§ 3
Only the Reich citizen, as the holder of full political rights, can exercise the right to vote in political affairs and to hold public office. The Reich Minister of the Interior, or the agency empowered by him, can grant exceptions during the transitional period with regard to occupying public offices. The affairs of the religious organizations are not affected.
§ 4
(1) A Jew cannot be a citizen of the Reich. He is not entitled to the right to vote in political affairs; he cannot hold public office.
(2) Jewish civil servants will retire as of 31 December 1935. If these civil servants fought at the front for the German Reich or its allies in the World War, they will receive as a pension, until they reach retirement age, the full pensionable pay that they last received; however, they will not advance in seniority. After reaching retirement age, their pension will be recalculated in accordance with the last-received pensionable pay.
(3) The affairs of religious organizations are not affected.
(4) The employment of teachers at Jewish state schools remains unaffected, pending the reorganization of the Jewish school system.
§ 5
(1) A Jew is someone who is descended from at least three grandparents who are full Jews according to race. § 2(2) sentence 2 applies.3Under the Aryan Paragraph of the First Implementing Regulation to the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service (7 April 1933), one Jewish grandparent was sufficient to qualify someone as a Jew in the National Socialist state: see Doc. 32, 11 April 1933.
(2) Also regarded as a Jew is the Mischling who is a subject of the state descended from two grandparents who were full Jews:
(a) who belonged to the Jewish religious community at the time this law was enacted or subsequently joined this community
(b) who was married to a Jew at the time this law was enacted or subsequently married such a person
(c) who is the offspring of a marriage to a Jew within the meaning of (1) that was contracted after the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour became effective on 15 September 1935 (Reichsgesetzblatt, I, p. 1146)
(d) who is the offspring of extramarital relations with a Jew within the meaning of (1) and was born out of wedlock after 31 July 1936.
§ 6
(1) Insofar as Reich laws or directives of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party and its organizations include requirements for purity of blood that go beyond the scope of § 5, they remain unaffected.
(2) Other requirements for purity of blood that go beyond the scope of § 5 may be imposed only with the approval of the Reich Minister of the Interior and the Deputy of the Führer. Insofar as requirements of this kind already exist, they will become void as of 1 January 1936, unless they have been approved by the Reich Minister of the Interior in consultation with the Deputy of the Führer. The application for approval is to be submitted to the Reich Minister of the Interior.
§ 7
The Führer and Reich Chancellor can grant exemptions from the provisions of the implementing regulations.
Berlin, 14 November 1935.
The Führer and Reich Chancellor
Adolf Hitler
The Reich Minister of the Interior
Frick
The Deputy of the Führer
R. Heß
Reich Minister without Portfolio