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Period: to
Holocaust
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Takeover of Power
Adolf Hitler addressed the first session of the German Parliament (Reichstag) following his appointment as chancellor. -
Terror Begins
Communists, socialists, and other political opponents of the Nazis were among the first to be rounded up and imprisoned by the regime. -
Citizens to Outcasts
The Germans posted signs on Jewish businesses to tell Germans that it is not very german-like to shop at these stores. -
Night of Broken Glass
The Nazi regime unleashed orchestrated anti-Jewish violence across greater Germany. -
Deportations
Trains carrying Jews from German-controlled Europe rolled into one of the six killing centers located along rail lines in occupied Poland. -
Resistance
Jews buried documents in metal containers, such as milk cans, to preserve a record of Nazi crimes for future generations. -
Concentration Camps
The overwhelming majority Jews who entered the Nazi killing centers were murdered in gas chambers---usually within hours of arrival----and their bodies cremated. -
Liberation
Eisenhower visited the Ohrdruf concentration camp to personally witness the evidence of atrocities. He was shocked and disgusted, and he urged others to see the camps firsthand lest "the stories of Nazi brutality" be forgotten or dismissed as merely "propaganda". -
Postwar Trials
22 major war criminals were tried on charges of crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and conspiracy to commit such crimes. -
Genocide did not end with the Holocaust
The United Nations voted to establish genocide as an international crime, calling it an "odious scrouge" to be condemned by the civilized world.
