While I was watching schindler's list I realized that the jew's at the start of the movie were gathered up to be put in the ghetto's so easily, now I understand that once they had been put in the ghetto's they were registered and forced to wear the star of david. But my question is how were they so easily identified before that (other then methods such as hebrew surnames)? or was that just a hollywood exaggeration
Aside from obvious Hebrew names they used census records, lists of "members" of synagogues. If a person was under suspicion they'd have to prove their ancestry, if you could prove that all four of your grandparents and your parents had been baptised as a baby (i.e. were Christian) then you were ok. If two grandparents were Jewish and you were a practising Jew you'd be deemed Jewish. If two grandparents were Jewish but you yourself were not a practising Jew and not married to one you were deemed "Mischling First Degree". If one grandparent was Jewish but you were not and not married to one you were deemed "Mischling Second Degree".
Mischling roughly means mongrel or half breed. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mischling I appreciate Wikipedia may not always be accepted as a good source. This page: http://www.holocaust-history.org/questions/definition.shtml has much the same information and refers to Raul Hilberg's Destruction of the European Jews, which I understand was one of the first books published on the subject and as such is somewhat of a landmark.
Leemister is bad