Timeline of Events
- 1933
- January 30
- February 28
- March 22
- April 1
- April 7
- April 25
- May 10
- July 14
- September 17
- October 4
- November 24
- 1934
- June 30
- August 2
- August 19
- 1935
- April 1
- June 28
- September 15
- 1936
- August 1
- August 3
- 1937
- July 15
- November 8
- 1938
- March 11
- March 14
- May 29
- July 6
- August 17
- September 29
- October 5
- November 9
- November 11
- November 12
- December 2
Law on Alteration of Family and Personal Names
Egon Israelski's German passport (October 1938) showing his forced name change to include the middle name of Israel. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Annemarie Warschauer
August 17, 1938
The Executive Order on the Law on the Alteration of Family and Personal Names requires German Jews bearing first names of “non-Jewish” origin to adopt an additional name: “Israel” for men and “Sara” for women.
The government required Jews to identify themselves in ways that would permanently separate them from the rest of the German population. In the new August 1938 law, authorities decreed that by January 1, 1939, Jewish men and women bearing first names of “non-Jewish” origin had to add “Israel” and “Sara,” respectively, to their given names. All German Jews were obliged to carry identity cards that indicated their heritage, and, in the autumn of 1938, all Jewish passports were stamped with an identifying red letter “J”. As Nazi leaders quickened their war preparations, antisemitic legislation in Germany and Austria paved the way for more radical persecution of Jews.
