As there are not many useful answers here yet, let me try.
From 1933 on, the N…-Regime* required a so called “Aryan certificate” (Ariernachweis) from employees in the public sector. Who and what is Aryan is a debate by itself so I will leave this out, but Jews were a group that were explicitly excluded from that group.
So how would you get this certificate? You needed to proof this with the birth and/or marriage certificates of your ancestors, specifically those of your parent and your grand parents. In special cases you needed even more (like applying for SS/NSDAP), but in general that was it.
Now, the authority issuing these certificates are the Standesämter (Civil registration offices), but they did only issue then from 1876 in the areas on the right of the river Rhine and from about 1807/1815 in the left of the Rhine. This has to do with Napoleon, but that’s a story for another day. Now before the Standesamt, it was basically the protestant and catholic churches that recorded births/baptisms, marriages and deaths and they were required to do so by law. So the churches had to actively help with those certificates.
It was not always a clear line, as obviously, you cannot see if someone is a Jew (even if some very stupid people thought so back then). Also, if as a Jew, your great grand kids were baptized as Christians, they were officially of Aryan origin. So even if the Nazis talked a lot about race, it was more a decision based on religion.
But like I said, this was only required for people working in the public sector and education, but also doctors, lawyers, scientists etc. (which were a couple of millions as you can imagine).
From 1935, with the Nuremberg laws (also called Nuremberg Race laws), every German was required to get an Aryan certificate. However, in 1935 the life as a Jew In Germany was already very hard and complicated, these laws basically stripped them from their last rights that were left. The story is much, much longer and I really recommend you to read about it for example in Wikipedia, as it is excellently documented.
*or Nazi-Regime how I am calling it (because this is not some kind of Lord-Voldemort-Situation)
Edit: I forgot to answer your last question! No, not like ICE in the US. The circumstances are not comparable, and the Antisemitism In Germany was much more systematic and pseudoscientifically profound. Like there were whole disciplines of sciences researching why and which race was better than the other, which resulted from the race theories in the 19the century.
There are definitely parallels and I know Americans are suffering under the fascist regime that is developing at the moment. I am not an expert of US domestic politics, but if I see it correctly, the way ICE is conduction their hunt on humans is unlawful, while the German persecution of Jews was particularly promoted by the German judical system. However, I am not a historian and I guess there are others who are better able to compare these things. As a German, there is something what we call Uniqueness in the context of the Holocaust, which was always the total and absolute aim of the persecution of Jews.
As there are not many useful answers here yet, let me try.
From 1933 on, the N…-Regime* required a so called “Aryan certificate” (Ariernachweis) from employees in the public sector. Who and what is Aryan is a debate by itself so I will leave this out, but Jews were a group that were explicitly excluded from that group.
So how would you get this certificate? You needed to proof this with the birth and/or marriage certificates of your ancestors, specifically those of your parent and your grand parents. In special cases you needed even more (like applying for SS/NSDAP), but in general that was it.
Now, the authority issuing these certificates are the Standesämter (Civil registration offices), but they did only issue then from 1876 in the areas on the right of the river Rhine and from about 1807/1815 in the left of the Rhine. This has to do with Napoleon, but that’s a story for another day. Now before the Standesamt, it was basically the protestant and catholic churches that recorded births/baptisms, marriages and deaths and they were required to do so by law. So the churches had to actively help with those certificates.
It was not always a clear line, as obviously, you cannot see if someone is a Jew (even if some very stupid people thought so back then). Also, if as a Jew, your great grand kids were baptized as Christians, they were officially of Aryan origin. So even if the Nazis talked a lot about race, it was more a decision based on religion.
But like I said, this was only required for people working in the public sector and education, but also doctors, lawyers, scientists etc. (which were a couple of millions as you can imagine).
From 1935, with the Nuremberg laws (also called Nuremberg Race laws), every German was required to get an Aryan certificate. However, in 1935 the life as a Jew In Germany was already very hard and complicated, these laws basically stripped them from their last rights that were left. The story is much, much longer and I really recommend you to read about it for example in Wikipedia, as it is excellently documented.
*or Nazi-Regime how I am calling it (because this is not some kind of Lord-Voldemort-Situation)
Edit: I forgot to answer your last question! No, not like ICE in the US. The circumstances are not comparable, and the Antisemitism In Germany was much more systematic and pseudoscientifically profound. Like there were whole disciplines of sciences researching why and which race was better than the other, which resulted from the race theories in the 19the century.
There are definitely parallels and I know Americans are suffering under the fascist regime that is developing at the moment. I am not an expert of US domestic politics, but if I see it correctly, the way ICE is conduction their hunt on humans is unlawful, while the German persecution of Jews was particularly promoted by the German judical system. However, I am not a historian and I guess there are others who are better able to compare these things. As a German, there is something what we call Uniqueness in the context of the Holocaust, which was always the total and absolute aim of the persecution of Jews.