What happened
On 15 September 1935, Nazi Germany enacted the Reich Citizenship Law and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor. Together, the Nuremberg Laws formalized antisemitic exclusion.
How we know it
The laws and subsequent regulations survive, and the Holocaust Museum reproduces their language and explains their application. They document what the regime imposed, not valid biological distinctions among people.
Why it went that way
Nazi racial ideology was translated into rules governing citizenship, marriage and sexual relations. A legislature composed entirely of Nazi representatives supplied a legal framework for persecution.
What is still contested
The regime classified people through ancestry, including grandparents, rather than simply religious practice or personal identity. Using its classifications uncritically would reproduce the assumptions of the persecutors.
What it changed
Jewish people lost full political citizenship, and intimate relationships became subject to criminal prohibition. Later regulations extended and administered exclusion; the laws were part of an escalating process, not its starting point.
Is it worth your time
Worth studying to understand how bureaucratic categories can enforce dehumanization. Read the provisions alongside their effects on the people classified, rather than mistaking legal form for legitimacy.