Basically the title. While we all know American racism generally followed a “One Drop” rule but what about Nazis ideology towards Jewish ancestry? Was the official line of the Nazis government that a single Jewish ancestor, no matter how far back, meant someone was Jewish? Or was it more complicated than that?
No, far from it. While a minority of Nazis, primarily concentrated within the SS, would have favored a ban on Jewish ancestry as far back as five generations, the government agencies tasked with defining who was Jewish were more practical, cognizant that there was a high rate of intermarriage in German given the highly assimilated nature of German Jews.
The Nuremberg Laws, promulgated in 1935, provided the definition of Jewishness under the law. According to this definition, any person with three or four Jewish grandparents was defined as Jewish. They were forbidden from marrying any non-Jewish person in the hopes that people of mixed ancestry would eventually be bred out of existence. There were also two categories of Mischling, or hybrids. Mischlinge of the first degree were those with two Jewish grandparents. They were allowed to marry other Mischlinge or Jews or could marry non-Jews or second degree Mischlinge with government permission. Finally, second degree Mischlinge could not marry Jews and could only marry first-degree Mischlinge with permission but could not marry second-degree Mischlinge or Jews, with the intention of breeding out this line within a single generation. The sheer complexity of the law can be seen here:
https://www.annefrank.org/en/timeline/55/the-nuremberg-race-laws/
You’ll note that certain exemptions or complicating situations applied. On the one hand, Mischlinge who were decorated veterans of World War I were routinely exempted from the restrictions. On the other hand, Mischlinge who practiced Judaism or who “looked Jewish” were often simply considered Jewish. These situations became more commonly applied to non-German Jews during the Holocaust.
Hitler was actually fairly lax on this rule, having Aryan certification granted to at least two associates who were technically Mischlinge: Emil Maurice, cofounder of the SS; and Erhard Milch, one of the heads of the Luftwaffe. Himmler reportedly strongly disagreed with both exemptions.
Virtually every history of the Third Reich, particularly those that engage with Jewish policy, will discuss the Nuremberg laws.