Short-answer question (SAQ)

The Nuremberg Laws

Unit 8
3 points
About 13 minutes

You read one source and answer three short parts (A, B and C) about it, each in a few sentences. Each part asks you to describe or explain something about the source or the history around it. On the exam: 3 required questions in 40 minutes (Section I, Part B), 20% of the score. Starting May 2027 every SAQ has a source: question 1 a secondary text, question 2 a primary text, question 3 a non-text source such as an image, map or chart.

The question and its sources

Use the passage below to answer all parts of the question that follows.

Passage

[From the Reich Citizenship Law]

Article 2. 1. A citizen of the Reich is only that subject, who is of German- or kindred blood and who, through his conduct, shows that he is both desirous and fit to serve faithfully the German people and Reich. . . . 3. Only the citizen of the Reich enjoys full political rights in accordance with the provision of the laws.

[From the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor]

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 . . . :

Section 1. 1. Marriages between Jews and nationals of German or kindred blood are forbidden. . . .

Section 3. Jews will not be permitted to employ female nationals of German or kindred blood in their household.

Section 4. 1. Jews are forbidden to hoist the Reichs and national flag and to present the colors of the Reich.

Source: Two laws passed by the German Reichstag at the Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg on September 15, 1935, and signed by Adolf Hitler (the Nuremberg Laws). Translation prepared by the U.S. prosecution for the Nuremberg war crimes trials, in Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, vol. IV (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946), documents 1416-PS and 2000-PS.

Suggested time: 13 minutes

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Part (a)

1 point

Describe ONE way the laws changed the legal position of Jews in Germany.

Your answer to part (a)

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Part (b)

1 point

Explain how the laws reflect ONE idea of Nazi ideology.

Your answer to part (b)

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Part (c)

1 point

Explain ONE way Nazi persecution of Jews or other groups changed in the period 1938–1945.

Your answer to part (c)

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