PhD student: Mrs M.F. Lenaerts

Promotors: Prof G.R. de Groot, Prof C.H. van Rhee

Duration: 1/7/2006 - 30/6/2012

PhD defence: Maastricht, 8/11/2012

Abstract:

In what way has marriage and divorce law in Germany and the Netherlands in the period 1933-1945 been influenced by National Socialism? In order to answer that question extensive research has been done in the archives of the NIOD. Marriage and divorce law was used by the Nazis to create their thousand year Aryan Reich. For this many Aryan children had to be born and the birth of half-Jewish children had to be prevented as much as possible. Therefore, both in Germany and in the Netherlands, the Nazis have tried to adapt the rules concerning marriage and divorce. They prohibited, amongst other things, marriages between Aryans and Jews. Furthermore, the rules concerning divorce were made more flexible, thereby allowing marriages, in which it was unlikely that any children would be born, to be dissolved. Despite this however, we have to conclude that although the Nazis have changed many things in German and Dutch marriage and divorce law, it has never fully become National Socialist law.