The Nuremberg Laws: Situation Reports Regarding the Nuremberg Laws
(September 1935)
Aachen September 1935
The new laws passed in Nuremberg were not received with enthusiasm by the public.... As was to be expected knowing the mentality of the Catholic population of the region, there was no sympathetic reaction by the church. The only part that was welcome was that the legislation on the Jewish question will prevent the offensive actions and the violent anti-Semitic propaganda. It would be desirable if from now on these anti-Semitic actions, which a large part of the population opposes, would come to a halt. During the month to which this report refers there were such actions and they have caused more damage than benefit with the population....
Berlin:
The new laws — the citizenship law and the law for the protection of German blood and honor — that were passed by the Reichstag during the Party Rally of Freedom — have finally, after many years of struggle between Germandom and Jewry, created clear cut relations. Jewry is defined as a national minority and will be given the opportunity to create their own independent cultural and national life under the protection of the state. Any intervention in the life of the German nation will from now on be impossible and forbidden. The laws were received with satisfaction and enthusiasm.
Halle:
The latest developments in the Jewish problem have, of course, been influenced by the legislation in Nuremberg.... The laws were received by the population--even in non National Socialist circles — with understanding. One can generally say that awareness of this problem, so central to the National Socialist world view, is gradually growing. A real understanding among people in the so-called better and educated circles is still missing. It is here that one observes that the ancient instinct of race totally disappeared. It was partially eliminated by economic thinking. One believes...that one can avoid a necessary struggle by making a compromise with the enemy in a certain area.
Munich — police report for August and September
The legislation passed by the Reichstag after the party rally brought about vivid discussion among the population.... The last law (for the protection of German blood and honor) met with widespread satisfaction.... Commercial circles expressed concern that German-hating circles abroad might regard these laws as a reason to expand the scope of the boycott against German goods....
Source: O.D. Kulka, "Public Opinion in National Socialist Germany and the Jewish Question”, Zion, Quarterly for Research in Jewish History, Year XL, Number 3-4, Jerusalem 1975, pp. 214-17
Source: Yad Vashem