Jews over the age of six were forced by German law to always wear a yellow Star of David on their outer garments while they were in public. The yellow star was a tool used by the Nazis in Germany and throughout German-occupied Europe to publicly identify, degrade, and isolate Jews. This stigmatisation and public identification frequently came before the large-scale deportations of Jews to death camps and ghettos.

Jews in the Greater German Reich who were older than six were mandated by the Reich Minister of the Interior to wear a yellow Star of David on their outer garments whenever they were in public on September 1, 1941. Although there were no ghettos established in Germany per se, Jews were compelled by law to dwell in specific sections of German cities, where they were concentrated in "Jewish houses" (also known as "Judenhäuser").

Non-Jewish Germans frequently showed sympathy when they saw their neighbours compelled to wear the yellow emblem in Germany. The Ministry of Propaganda and Enlightenment felt obliged to publish leaflets advising Germans on what to do if they saw their neighbours wearing the yellow star due to the widespread nature of this response.