Activity 4: The Importance of Eye Colour

Below is the list of racial laws from the previous activity but some changes have been made.  The activity is based on the idea that the Nazi racial laws are passed in Britain today but with some changes.  The people they were aimed against have changed in the following ways:


Words that have been changed from…
 


…to


Jew
 


Blue eyed people
 


Aryans
 


Brown eyed people
 


Mixed race


Green eyed people
 

Read through the amended laws then discuss the questions that follow.


Title of law
 


Purpose of law
 


The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service  


To force all blue eyed people out of public employment (an exception was made of blue eyed people who had served in the British army in World War)
 


The Law Regarding  the Slaughter of animals according to the religious laws of blue eyed people 
  


To prevent blue eyed people from observing their religious customs.


The Law regarding Admission of Doctors to Service for the National Health Insurance  
 


To prevent blue eyed people from entering medical practice in the health service



The Law Regarding the Overcrowding of British Schools and Schools of Higher Education 
 


To establish a quota of blue eyed children allowed in state run schools.


The Law Regarding the Revocation of Naturalization and Annulment of British Citizenship 
 


To remove citizenship rights from blue eyed immigrants from Poland.
 


The Law for the protection of British Blood and Honour 
 


To define ‘Brown eyed people, ‘Blue eyed people’ and ‘Green eyed people’.  To forbid marriage and sex between blue eyed and brown eyed.  To forbid blue eyed people to fly the national flag
 


The Income Tax Law 
 


To give tax advantages to brown eyed people.
 


The Law for the Reduction of Unemployment 
 


To offer money to British brown eyed people to marry and have children.
 


The State Citizenship Law 


To give full citizenship to brown eyed people.  To remove full citizenship from British blue eyed people making them ‘subjects’ of the state.
 


The Homestead Law 
 


To prevent blue eyed from owning land in Britain.
 


The Law Regarding Editors 
 


To prevent blue eyed people from editing newspapers
 


The Law Against Dangerous and Habitual Criminals 
 


To allow the authorities to arrest and sterilise by castration male criminals who were considered to have inherited their criminality.  [This included tramps, beggars and the ‘work shy’]
 


The Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Progeny 
 


To allow the state to perform compulsory abortions on women (up to 6 months of pregnancy) who they decided might inherit “defects”.
 


The Law for the Protection of the Hereditary Health of the British People 


To register the racial characteristics of the British people.  Certificates were issued saying if they were ‘fit’ to marry.  Certificates were not issued  if the health authority decided the person had a ‘hereditary disease’ [including alcoholism], was an ‘alien’ [ie. non-brown eyed people] or had a sexually transmitted disease.
 


The Law regarding Admission to the legal profession
 


To prevent blue eyed people from becoming lawyers
 

  • Imagine these laws were passed which discriminate against people of different eye colour. Discuss how this would affect you, your friends and your family.  What would you try to do about it?

  • Look at the picture below. Discuss what is happening and how it fits in with what you understand about the Nazi racial laws.

Nazi racial laws

  • What do you think is happening here ?
  • What do you know about the importance of eye colour and skin colour in Nazi citizenship laws?