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1 September, and 19 September

Reinhard Heydrich, acting for the Reich Minister of the Interior, issued the Police Regulation on the Visible Identification of Jews on 1 September 1941. No source consulted supports the listed 6 September as either the decree's date or its effective date.

The decree did not take effect on issue. From 19 September — two weeks later — covered Jews could not legally enter public space without the star.

The specification

The regulation barred Jews aged six and above from appearing in public without a palm-sized yellow, black-outlined six-pointed cloth star bearing the word 'Jew' in black. It had to be firmly sewn — not pinned — and displayed visibly on the left side of the chest.

The same regulation restricted Jews from leaving their home district without written police permission and prohibited them from wearing medals, decorations or other insignia.

This was a police regulation with teeth: ordinary penalties ran to a fine of 150 Reichsmarks or six weeks' imprisonment, with harsher police action possible.

Where it applied

The regulation covered the German Reich and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. It did not impose one uniform rule across German-occupied Europe: badge forms, wording, ages and start dates varied by territory.

German authorities in occupied Poland had already imposed identifying armbands or badges from 1939.

Hitler approved a comparable compulsory identifier for Jews in the Reich during August 1941, as legal isolation intensified shortly before mass deportations from Germany began.