Between 30 January 1933 and 8 May 1945, Nazi Germany passed numerous laws which allowed them to revoke the citizenship of German Jews, or of their political opponents. The Law on the Revocation of Naturalizations and the Deprivation of German Citizenship (Gesetz über den Widerruf von Einbürgerungen und die Aberkennung der deutschen Staatsangehörigkeit) was passed on 14 July 1933 allowing the government to deprive citizens of their citizenship, on an individual basis.
A decree published a week later, which laid out instructions for the execution of the law, specified that individuals considered “undesirables” for having behaved in a way that contravenes their duty to their Reich and their Volk were to have their citizenship revoked. “East European Jews” were listed as an example of people whose citizenship should in particular be questioned. The denaturalisation itself was performed by publishing their names in the Deutscher Reichs-Anzeiger and Preußischer Staatsanzeiger; upon publication of their name in these lists, individuals legally lost their German citizenship.
The majority of German Jews lost their citizenship on 25 November 1941 with the 'Eleventh Decree to the Law on the Citizenship of the Reich' (Elfte Verordnung zum Reichsbürgergesetz). This stated that Jewish German citizens living outside of Germany were deprived of their citizenship.