A Comparison of Canon Law and Nazi Measures
| Prohibition of intermarriage and of sexual intercourse between Christians and Jews, Synod of Elvira, 306. | Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor, September 15, 1935 (RGB1 I, 1146). |
| Jews and Christians not permitted to eat together, Synod of Elvira, 306. | Jews barred from dining cars (Transport Minister to Interior Minister, December 30, 1939, Document NG-3995). |
| Jews not allowed to hold public office, Synod of Clermont, 535. | Law for the Re-establishment of the Professional Civil Service, April 7, 1933 (RGB1 I, 175). |
| Jews not allowed to employ Christian servants or possess Christian slaves, 3d Synod of Orleans, 538. | Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor, September 15, 1935 (RGB1 I, 1146). |
| Jews not permitted to show themselves in the streets during Passion Week, 3d Synod of Orleans, 538. | Decree authorizing local authorities to bar Jews from the streets on certain days (i.e., Nazi holidays), December 3, 1933 (RGB1 I, 1676). |
| Burning of the Talmud and other books, 12th Synod of Toledo, 681. | Book burnings in Nazi Germany. |
| Christians not permitted to patronize Jewish doctors, Trulanic Synod, 692. | Decree of July 25, 1938 (RGB1, I, 969). |
| Christians not permitted to live in Jewish homes, Synod of Narbonne, 1050. | Directive by Göring providing for concentration of Jews in houses, December 28, 1938 (Bormann to Rosenberg, January 17, 1939, PS-69). |
| Jews obliged to pay taxes for support of church to the same extent as Christians, Synod of Gerona, 1078. | The "Sozialausgleichsabgabe" which provided that Jews pay a special income tax in lieu of donations for Party purposes imposed on Nazis, December 24, 1940 (RGB1 I, 1666). |
| Prohibition of Sunday work, Synod of Szabolcs, 1092. | |
| Jews not permitted to be plaintiffs, or witnesses against Christians in the courts, 3d Lateran Council, 1179, Canon 26. | Proposal by the Party Chancellery that Jews not be permitted to institute civil suits, September 9, 1942 (Bormann to Justice Ministry, September 9, 1942, (NG-151). |
| Jews not permitted to withhold inheritance from descendants who accepted Christianity, 3d Lateran Council, 1179, Canon 26. | Decree empowering the Justice Ministry to void wills offending the "sound judgment of the people," July 31, 1938 (RGB1 I, 547). |
| The marking of Jewish clothes with a badge, 4th Lateran Council, 1215, Canon 68. (Copied from the legislation by Caliph Omar II [634-44], who had decreed that Christians wear blue belts and Jews, yellow belts.) | Decree of September 1, 1941 (RGB1 I, 547). |
| Construction of new synagogues prohibited, Council of Oxford, 1222. | Destruction of synagogues in entire Reich, November 10, 1938 (Heydrich to Göring, November 11, 1938, PS-3058). |
| Christians not permitted to attend Jewish ceremonies, Synod of Vienna, 1267. | Friendly relations with Jews prohibited, October 24, 1941 (Gestapo directive, L-15). |
| Jews not permitted to dispute with simple Christian people about the tenets of the Catholic religion, Synod of Vienna, 1267. | |
| Compulsory ghettoes, Synod of Breslau, 1267. | Order by Heydrich, September 21, 1939 (PS-3363). |
| Christians not permitted to sell or rent real estate to Jews, Synod of Ofen, 1279. | Decree providing for compulsory sale of Jewish real estate, December 3, 1938 (RGB1 I, 1709). |
| Adoption by a Christian of the Jewish religion or return by a baptized Jew to the Jewish religion defined as a heresy, Synod of Mainz, 1310. | Adoption by a Christian of the Jewish religion places him in jeopardy of being treated as a Jew. Decision by Oberlandesgericht Königsberg, 4th Zivilsenat, June 26, 1942 (Die Judenfrage [Vertrauliche Beilage], November 1, 1942, pp. 82-83). |
| Sale or transfer of church articles to Jews prohibited, Synod of Lavour, 1368 | |
| Jews not permitted to act as agents in the conclusion of contracts between Christians, especially marriage contracts, Council of Basel, 1434, Sessio XIX. | Decree of July 6, 1938, providing for liquidation f Jewish real estate agencies, brokerage agencies, and marriage agencies catering to non-Jews (RGB1 I, 823). |
| Jews not permitted to obtain academic degrees, Council of Basel, 1434, Sessio XIX. | Law against Overcrowding of German Schools and Universities, April 25, 1933 (RGB1 I, 225). |
| From the book Christian Antisemitism, A History of Hate by William Nichols, pages 204-206. | |
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