Marking a dark turning point that Detroit’s Jewish press captured in real time
By Mike Smith, Detroit Jewish News Archivist, Detroit Jewish News, October 17, 2025. Click for full report.
One of the main headlines for the Sept. 20, 1935, Detroit Jewish Chronicle was alarming, to say the least. It read “Reich Laws Brand Jews as Inferior Race,” adding that the “Last Vestige of Emancipation Disappears as Jews Are Deprived of Rights of Citizenship.” Thus, a major step toward the Holocaust was implemented in Germany after the Nazi takeover in 1933.
The report to which the headlines above refer was from Nuremberg, Germany. There, Hitler called a special session of the Reichstag, the German parliament, during a rally in Nuremberg. This was the origin of the infamous “Nuremberg Laws,” which were enacted on Sept. 15, 1935. Last month marked the 80th anniversary of this odious Nazi legislation.
The Nuremberg Laws have been mentioned on nearly 200 pages and 16 front pages of the Detroit Jewish Chronicle and the JN in the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History. It is chilling reading and a stark warning about how an enlightened, democratic society can be subverted into one of the worst regimes in history.
Simply stated, the Nuremberg Laws had one goal — to deprive Jews in Germany of any rights of German citizenship. Following the political ideology espoused by Hitler and the Nazis, these laws codified antisemitism and racism, making severe discrimination against the Jews the official law of the land.
Unfortunately, this goal was met — and surpassed. Hitler and the Nazis were not satisfied with making Jews second-class citizens. The Nuremberg Laws constituted a major step toward the “Final Solution,” the eradication of Jews. Other minorities, such as Roma and gay Germans, as well as political opponents, were also caught in the web of despicable and horrific acts that became known as the Holocaust.
The subtitles from the article in the Chronicle capture the complete package. The “Swastika Becomes the Official Flag of Germany and Jews are Forbidden to Fly it.” Moreover, “Only Blue and White Zionist Flag May Be Used by Jews” under the new laws. I wonder how Hitler would have felt about the blue and white Israeli flag? Let alone a strong Jewish nation.
The next subtitle reads: “General [Hermann] Goering Proclaims the Swastika The ‘Anti-Jewish Symbol of the World.’” To be fair to this heinous Hitler henchman, he was right. The swastika indeed became a universal symbol of antisemitism.
The last subtitle sums up the implementation of the Laws. “Hitler’s Address to Suddenly Convene Reichstag Reeks of Venom Against the Jews; Officials Say Jews Can Be Arrested on Sight if They are Displeased.”
This article, published on Sept. 20, 1935, was just the beginning. For the next several months, the increasing Nazi crimes against Jews in Germany were front-page reading in the Detroit Jewish Chronicle.
Then, once World War II began, life became even worse for Jews, and not only in Germany. Nuremberg Laws were enacted in Fascist Italy and Nazi-occupied lands such as Hungary and Romania. Indeed, wherever German armies overran a nation, they attempted to implement the Nuremberg Laws against Jews.
Obviously, 80 years since the creation of the despicable Nuremberg Laws is nothing to celebrate. But the loss of democracy and institutionalized discrimination is something to remember in order to prevent such evil disguised as law from ever occurring again.
