World War II - Holocaust

Adolf Hitler Appointed Chanceilor of Germany.

Jan 30, 1933

World War II - Holocaust

Period: Jan 30, 1933 to May 8, 1945

Reichstag fire.

Feb 27, 1933

Nazis unleash terror to ensure election results.

First concentration camp

Mar 23, 1933

First concentration camp - Dachau - established.

Enabling Act.

Mar 27, 1933

Enabling Act - Suspending civil liberties - passed by Nazi - dominated Reichstag

Boycot of Jewish shops and businesses.

Apr 1, 1933

Boycott of Jewish shops and business. Jewish professionals barred from entering office.

First anti-Jewish decree.

Apr 7, 1933

The Law for the reestablishment of the Civil Service.

Ritual slaughter prohibited.

Apr 21, 1933

Ritual slaughter of animals in accordance with Jewish dietary laws prohibited in Germany.

Gestapo established.

Apr 26, 1933

Universities and the arts are "cleansd" of Jewish influence.

Jun 1, 1933

Universities and the arts are "cleansd" of Jewish influence. Jewish professers expelled. Jewish writers and artists prohibited from practicing their professions.

Jewish organizations in America and Western Europe protest Nazi persecution of the Jews.

Jul 1, 1933

Jewish organizations in America and Western Europe protest Nazi persecution of the Jews. A few call for a boycott of Nazi Germany.

Germany leaves the League of Nations

Oct 19, 1933

"Night of the Long Knives"

Jun 30, 1934

Nazis Purge leadershio of Storm Troopers (SA) and opponents of Nazism.

Hitler becomes president.

Aug 2, 1934

Hitler named president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces following the death of Von Hindenburg.

Germany renews conscription, in violation of Versailles treaty.

Mar 16, 1935

Jews barred from serving in German armed forces.

May 31, 1935

"Nuernberg Laws"

Sep 15, 1935

Anti-Jewish racial laws enacted. Jews could no longer be German citizens, marry Aryans, fly the German flag, and hire German maids under the age of forty-five.

Germany defines Jews:

Nov 15, 1935

Germany defines Jews: Anyone with three Jewish grandparents; someone with two Jewish grandparents who identifies as a Jew.

David Frankfurter

Feb 4, 1936

David Frankfurter, young Jewish student, assassinates Wilhelm Gustloff, leader of Nazi party, in Switzerland.

Jewish doctors barred

Mar 3, 1936

Jewish doctors barred from practicing medicine in government institutions.

Germans march into the Rhineland

Mar 7, 1936

Germans march into the Rhineland which had been demilitarized according to treaty.

Ethiopia occupied by Italy.

May 5, 1936

Himmler appointed Chief of German police.

Jun 17, 1936

Spanish Civil War

Jul 1, 1936

Germans and Italians join Franco's forces in Spanish Civil War

Hitler and Mussoloni form Rome-Berlin Axis.

Oct 25, 1936

Buchenwald concentration camp opens.

Jul 16, 1937

Anschluss:

Mar 13, 1938

annexation of Austria by Germany; all German anto-Semetic decrees immediately applied in Austria.

Jews in Reich must register all property with authorities.

Apr 26, 1938

Office of Jewish Emigration

Jul 1, 1938

Adolf Eichaman established Office of Jewish Emigration to speed up pace of forced emigration.

Name changes revoked

Aug 17, 1938

Decrees revoke all name changes by Jews and force those Jews who did not have names recognized as Jewish by German authorities to add "Israel" (for males) and "sarah" (for females) as middle names.

Munich Confrence

Sep 29, 1938

England and France aggree to turn over Sudetenland (part of Czechoslovakia) to germany.

Jewish passports marked,

Oct 5, 1938

Following requests by the Swiss authorities, Germans order all jews' passports marked with a large red "J" to prevent Jews from smuggling themselves into the Switzerland.

Jews expelled

Oct 28, 1938

Jews with Polosh citizenship living in Germany are expelled to Polish border> poles refuse to admit them. Germans refuse to allow them back into Germany. - 17,000 stranded in frontier town of Zbasyn

Kristallnacht

Nov 9, 1938

Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass) : anti-Jewish pogrom in Germany and Austria. Two hundred synagogues destroyed. 7,500 Jewish shops looted and 30,000 male Jews sent to concentration camps. (Dachau, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen).

Business Transfers

Nov 12, 1938

Decree forcing all Jews to transfer retail businesses to Aryan hands.

All Jewish pupils expelled from German schools.

Nov 15, 1938

Reichstag speech

Jan 30, 1939

Hitler threatens in Reichstag speech that if war erupts it will mean the Vernichtung (extermination) of European Jews.

Nazis occupy part of Czechoslovakia

Mar 15, 1939

Nazis occupy part of Czechoslovakia (Bohemia and Moravia) ; make Slovakia independant satellite state.

Germans occupy port of Memel

Mar 22, 1939

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pack Signed:

Aug 23, 1939

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pack Signed: nonagression pact between Russia and Germany.

Beginning of World War II:

Sep 7, 1939

Beginning of World War II: Germany invades Poland.

Russia invades Eastern Poland

Sep 17, 1939

Ghettos established

Sep 27, 1939

Heydrich issues directives to establish ghettos in German-occupied Poland.

Jews forced to wear distinguishing badge

Nov 23, 1939

Jews in German-occupied Poland forced to wear distinguishing badge.

Firts Polish Ghetto

Nov 28, 1939

First ghetto in Poland established in Protrokow.

Germans occupy Denmark and Southern Norway.

Apr 9, 1940

Concentration Camp at Auschwitz,

Apr 27, 1940

Himmler Issues directive to establish a concentration camp at Auschwitz.

Lodz ghetto closed off:

May 7, 1940

Lodz ghetto closed off: approximately 165,000 inhabitants in 1.6 square miles.

Germany invades Holland, Belgium, and France.

May 10, 1940

Concentration camp established at Auschwitz

May 20, 1940

France surrenders to Nazis

Jun 22, 1940

Battle of Britain begins

Aug 8, 1940

Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis.

Sep 27, 1940

Warsaw Ghetto sealed off...

Nov 15, 1940

Approximatately 500,000 inhabitants.

Hungary, Rumania, and Slovakia join Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis.

Nov 20, 1940

Anti-Jewish Riots in Rumania

Jan 21, 1941

Anti-Jewish Riots in Rumania by Iron Guard: hundreds of JEws cruelly buthchered.

Adolf Eichmann appointed head of Gestapo section for Jewish affairs

Mar 1, 1941

Germany occupies Greece and Yugolsavia

Apr 1, 1941

Vichey government makes laws

Jun 1, 1941

Vichey government deprives Jews of French North Africa of their rights as citizens.

Germany invades the Soviet Union.

Jun 22, 1941

Nazi Einsatzgruppen

Jun 29, 1941

Nazi Einsatzgruppen (special mobile killing units) carry out mass murder of Jews in areas of Soviet Union occupied by German army.

Heydrich appointed

Jul 31, 1941

Heydrich appointed by Goering as responsible for implementation of Final Solution.

Jews and the yellow star

Sep 1, 1941

Jews in the Third Reich obligated to wear yellow star of David as distinguished mark.

Massacre at Babi Yar

Sep 28, 1941

Massacre of Jews at Babi Yar - ravine outside of Kiev: 34,000 murdered

Establishment of Birkenau:

Oct 1, 1941

Establishment of Birkenau camp: site of mass extermination of Jews, Gypsies, Poles, Russians, and others.

Murder of 19,000 Jews in Odessa

Oct 23, 1941

Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Dec 7, 1941

Chelmo extermination,

Dec 8, 1941

Chelmo extermination camp begins operation: 340,000 Jews, 20,000 Poles and Czechs liquidated there by April 1943

Jewish underground formed:

Jan 1, 1942

Jewish underground organizations established in Vilna Ghetto and Kovno Ghetto.

Wannsee Conference

Jan 20, 1942

Wannsee Conference: Heydrich reveals official plan to murder all Jews on European continent.

Extermination by gas

Mar 1, 1942

Extermination by gas begins in Sobibor Extermination camp: by October 1943 250,000 Jews murdered.

Belzec extermination camp

Mar 17, 1942

Extermination begins in Belzec extermination camp: by end of 1942 600,000 Jews murdered.

Deportations to Auschwitz extermination camp begins.

Mar 20, 1942

Treblinka exterminations begin

Jun 1, 1942

Treblinka extermination camp begins operation by August 1943- 700,000 Jews murdered

Jewish partisans

Jun 1, 1942

Jewish partisan unit established in forests of Belorussia.

All Jewish schools in Germany closed.

Jun 30, 1942

Deprtation of Jews

Jul 1, 1942

Deprtation of Jews to from Holland, Poland, France, Belgium, Croatia. Armed resistance by jews in ghettos of Kletzk, Wieswiez, Mir, Lackwa, Krements, and Tuchin.

Jewish fighting organization

Jul 28, 1942

Jewish fighting organization (ZOB) established in Warsaw Ghetto.

Allied forces land in North Africa.

Nov 1, 1942

Deportation of Jews from Norway...

Dec 1, 1942

Deportation of Jews from Norway, Germany, and Greece to extermination camps. Jewish partisan movment organized in forests near Lublin.

Germans attmept to liquidate Warsaw Ghetto

Jan 18, 1943

Germans attmept to liquidate Jews in Warsaw Ghetto; armed resistance by ghetto inhabitants.

German advance in Russia stopped at Stalingrad.

Feb 2, 1943

Liquidation of Cracow ghetto.

Mar 1, 1943

Warsaw ghetto revolt

Apr 19, 1943

Warsaw ghetto revolt begins as Germans attempt to liquidate 70,000 ghetto inhabitants; Jewish underground fights Nazis until early June.

Himler orders liquidation

Jun 1, 1943

Himler orders the liquidation of all the ghettos in Poland and the Soviet Union.

Armed resistence

Jul 1, 1943

Armed resistence by Jews in Czetoschowa, Lvov, Bedzin, Bialystock, and Tarnow ghettos

Armed revolt inTreblinka extermination camp.

Aug 2, 1943

Liquidation of large ghettos

Sep 1, 1943

Liquidation of large ghettos. Minck, Vilna, Riga.

Armed revolt in Sobibor extermination camp.

Oct 14, 1943

Germany occupies Hungary

Mar 19, 1944

Red Army repels Nazi forces

May 1, 1944

Nazis continue deportation

May 15, 1944

Nazis begin deporting Hungarian Jews. By June 27, 38,000 sent to Auschwitz.

Allied invasion of Normandy

Jun 6, 1944

Assasination attempt on Hitler

Jul 20, 1944

Group of German officers attempts to assassinate Hitler

Russian liberation

Jul 24, 1944

Russians liberate Maidanek extermination camps.

Liquidation of ghettos

Aug 1, 1944

Liquidation of ghettos in Kovino (Kaunas), Shavli (Siauliai), and Lodz; inmates sent to concentration and extermination camps.

Revolt by inmates in Auschwitz.

Oct 7, 1944

Revolt by inmates in Auschwitz; one crematorium blown up.

Remnants of Slovakian Jews deported to Auschwitz.

Oct 31, 1944

Last deportations.

Nov 1, 1944

Last Jews deported from Theresienstadt model ghetto to Auschwitz.

Death March

Nov 8, 1944

Begining of death march of approximately 40,000 Jews from Budapest to Austria.

Evacuation of Auschwitz

Jan 17, 1945

Evacuation of Auschwitz: begining of death march of camp inmates.

Begining of death march of inmates of Stutthof.

Jan 25, 1945

Red Army enters Germany,

Apr 1, 1945

Red Army enters Germany from east; allies enter from west.

Death march of inmates at Buchenwald.

Apr 6, 1945

Hitler commits suicide.

Apr 30, 1945

Germany surrenders; end of Third Reich

May 8, 1945