The Verdict in a Trial of a Jew Accused of Race Defilement
Source : J. Noakes and G. Pridham, eds. Nazism 1919-45 -A History in Documents and Eyewitness Accounts, Vol. I The Nazi Party, State and Society 1919-1939 (New York. 1983,1984) pp.540-1.
The Court based its judgement on the fact that it was a serious case of race defilement ( Rassenschande ). The fact that the accused and the witness had known one another since 1920 and that they had had a lasting relationship since 1927 could not be regarded as a mitigating circumstance, since the relationship continued for one-and-a-half years after the passage of the Nuremberg Laws and was only terminated through the arrest of the accused. The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour is one of the basic laws of the new Germany and this law must be implemented with harsh measures. It may be true that it was difficult for the accused to part from the witness; however, he should have found the strength to carry out this step at all costs and the Court was obliged to base its judgement on the fact that he was fully conscious of contravening the Law until his arrest in June 1937. [Hamburg court, November 1937. The Jew was sentenced to two and a half years of prison.]
