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Adolf Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Von Hindenburg.
On this day in 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg names Adolf Hitler, leader or fÜhrer of the National Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi Party), as chancellor of Germany. -
The first official Nazi concentration camp opens in Dachau
Opened in a small village located near Munich (note: some "wild camps" already existed before 1933: Papenburg, Esterwegen, Börgermoor etc...). The first commandant of Dachau is Theodor Eicke. -
Boycott of Jewish shops and businesses.
After the Nazis came to power in Germany on January 30, 1933, the Nazi leadership decided to stage an economic boycott against the Jews of Germany. In 1933, about 600,000 Jews lived in Germany, less than one percent of the total population. Most Jews in Germany were proud to be Germans, citizens of a country that had produced many great poets, writers, musicians, and artists. More than 100,000 German Jews had served in the German army during World War I, and many were decorated for bravery. -
Laws for Reestablishment of the Civil Service.
This law barred Jews from holding civil service, university, and state positions -
The Gestapo ("Geheime Stat Polizei" - Secret State Police) is established by Herman Goering, minister of Prussia.
Gestapo, (German: “Secret State Police”), the political police of Nazi Germany. The Gestapo eliminated opposition to the Nazis within Germany and its occupied territories and, in partnership with the Sicherheitsdienst (SD: “Security Service”), was responsible for the roundup of Jews throughout Europe for deportation to extermination camps. -
Public burnings of books written by Jews, political dissidents, and others not approved by the state.
On the night of May 10, 1933, an event unseen in Europe since the Middle Ages occurred as German students from universities once regarded as among the finest in the world, gathered in Berlin to burn books with "unGerman" ideas. The purpose, to create a glorious German future -
Law excluding East European Jewish immigrants of German citizenship.
Antisemitism and the persecution of Jews represented a central tenet of Nazi ideology. In their 25-point Party Program, published in 1920, Nazi party members publicly declared their intention to segregate Jews from "Aryan" society and to abrogate Jews' political, legal, and civil rights.
This law is an example to stop Jews from escaping through the grips of the Nazis in Middle and Eastern Europe -
Hitler proclaims himself Führer und Reichskanzler (Leader and Reich Chancellor). Armed forces must now swear allegiance to him.
Succeeding Von Hindenburg was Adolf Hitler. Not as president, but as the Fuhrer of Germany, the Supreme Leader. Shortly, he announced that all people in Germany must swear an oath, not to the nation, but Adolf Hitler. -
Jews barred from serving in the German armed forces
Jews were forbidden from serving in the army, due to suspicion of "backstabbing" the nation within the lines. This is ironic as during WWI, many of the Jews fought with the Germans. -
"Nuremberg Laws" enacted.
The first complete official racial law excluding the Jews from German citizen rights.
First anti-Jewish racial laws enacted; Jews no longer considered German citizens; Jews could not marry Aryans; nor could they fly the German flag. -
Germany defines a "Jew": anyone with three Jewish grandparents; someone with two Jewish grandparents who identifies as a Jew.
Defining Jews in order to separate, and enact law against them. -
Jewish doctors barred from practicing medicine in German institutions.
All services run by Jews are coming to a close in Germany. Doctors are targeted as a priority due to their medical abilities. -
Germans march into the Rhineland, previously demilitarized by the Versailles Treaty.
Breaking the treaty, marching into Rhineland -
Reichführer SS Himmler (chief of the SS units) appointed the Chief of German Police.
Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945) was the Reich Leader of the SS of the Nazi party from 1929 until 1945. Himmler presided over a vast ideological empire that defined him for many as the second most powerful man in Germany during World War II. Given overall responsibility for the security of the Nazi empire, Himmler was the senior Nazi official responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Final Solution, the Nazi plan to murder the Jews of Europe. -
Sachsenhausen concentration camp opens.
Located within Germany -
Hitler and Mussolini form Rome-Berlin Axis.
Rome-Berlin Axis, Coalition formed in 1936 between Italy and Germany. An agreement formulated by Italy’s foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano informally linking the two fascist countries was reached on October 25, 1936. It was formalized by the Pact of Steel in 1939. The term Axis Powers came to include Japan as well. -
Buchenwald concentration camp opens.
Located within current day Germany. Functioned as one of the major concentration camps during the war. -
Anschluss (incorporation of Austria)
All antisemitic decrees immediately applied in Austria -
Mandatory registration of all property held by Jews inside the Reich
Used to confiscate property from the Jews legally. Supplied economic functions of the German government. -
Flossenburg concentration camp opens.
Located within current day Germany -
Evian Conference held in Evian, France on the problem of Jewish refugees
In the summer of 1938, delegates from thirty-two countries met at the French resort of Evian. Roosevelt sent Myron C. Taylor, a businessman and close friend of Roosevelt's to represent the US at the conference. During the nine-day meeting, delegates rose to express sympathy for the refugees. But most countries, including the United States and Britain, offered excuses for not letting in more refugees. -
Adolf Eichmann establishes the Office of Jewish Emigration in Vienna to increase the pace of forced emigration.
Eichmann was born in Solingen, Germany, on March 19, 1906. Completed his schooling and trained in mechanical engineering. In 1932, at the instigation of an acquaintance, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, who would later serve as his superior in the Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, or RSHA), Eichmann entered the Austrian National Socialist (Nazi) Party, and the SS. -
Italy enacts sweeping antisemitic laws
Italy enacted the anti-semitic laws segregating the Jews. -
Mauthausen concentration camp opens in Austria
Located in modern day Austria. -
Decree forcing all Jews to transfer retail businesses to Aryan hands
Jews that were taken away left their businesses vacant. The Aryans took over the business by moving in. Some simply changed hands to avoid violent conflict. -
All Jewish pupils expelled from German schools
In 1938 that all Jewish children were banned from attending German schools. Discrimination and isolation within education, as in all other areas of society, was gradual. In Germany, education was a major tool to promote Nazi policy. German teachers who supported the Nazis or had been converted to Nazism began to develop new daily rituals and routines. Many of the 32 per cent of teachers who became Nazi Party members would wear their uniform to school. -
Munich Conference
Great Britain and France agree to German occupation of the Sudetenland, previously western Czechoslovakia. -
Following request by Swiss authorities
Germans mark all Jewish passports with a large letter "J" to restrict Jews from immigrating to Switzerland. -
17,000 Polish Jews living in Germany expelled
Poles refused to admit them; 8,000 are stranded in the frontier village of Zbaszyn. -
Assassination in Paris of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan.
Ernst Eduard vom Rath was a German diplomat, remembered for his assassination in Paris in 1938 by a Polish Jewish teenager, Herschel Grynszpan, which provided a pretext for the Kristallnacht, "The Night of Broken Glass." Exactly what the Nazi needed. -
Period: to
Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass)
anti-Jewish pogrom in Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland; 200 synagogues destroyed; 7,500 Jewish shops looted; 30,000 male Jews sent to concentration camps (Dachau, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen). -
One billion mark fine levied against German Jews for the destruction of property during Kristallnacht
Something very hard for the Jews to pay, this weakened the German Jewish economic influence as well as limiting their power in the country in general. -
Hitler in Reichstag speech
If war erupts it will mean the Vernichtung (extermination) of European Jews -
Germans occupy Czechoslovakia.
The German occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945) began with the German annexation of Czechoslovakia's northern and western border regions, formerly being part of German-Austria known collectively as the Sudetenland, under terms outlined by the Munich Agreement. Adolf Hitler's pretext for this action was the alleged privations suffered by the ethnic German population living in those regions. New and extensive Czechoslovak border fortifications were also located in the same area. -
Ravensbruck concentration camp opens.
Located in modern day Northern Germany. This camp was specifically built for mostly women. -
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed
Non-aggression pact between Soviet Union and Germany. However this pact failed as Germany later on invaded the Soviet Union. -
Beginning of World War II
Germany invades Poland. In the following weeks, 16.336 civilians are murdered by the Nazies in 714 localities. At least 5,000 victims were Jews.
This day is regarded as the official beginning of the second world war by most people. -
Heydrich issues directives to establish ghettos in German-occupied Poland.
Method to keep foreign Jews in one dense location in order to swiftly move them onto the labor camps all over German occupied areas. -
Germany begins deportation of Austrian and Czech Jews to Poland.
By rounding up Jews and sending them to the massive ghettos, this later on provided an easy way to carry out the Final Solution by the Nazis. -
First Polish ghetto established in Piotrkow.
First massive holding place of Jews -
Jews in German-occupied Poland forced to wear an arm band or yellow star.
To differentiate Jews and non-Jews, the Germans came up with the method of making Jews wear the star of David. Many Jews tried to flee, or rather to hide within inner Germany, but failed due to Jew restricting laws. -
Germans occupy Denmark and southern Norway.
Denmark surrendered quickly to minimize as much damage as possible. However, its citizens continued to passively resist by shipping out Jews, particularly through the use of fishing boats. -
Lodz Ghetto (Litzmannstadt) sealed
When sealed, it approximately held 165,000 people in 1.6 square miles. -
Germany invades the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France.
The German army's tactics was to quickly take out Europe's major forces before it could effectively mobilize or before the big guns join. -
Concentration camp established at Auschwitz.
Auschwitz at this point was used for many purposes, but it did not only hold Jews. It held prisoners of war, Soviets, homosexuals, and more. Later, Auschwitz II would be built specifically for Jews for industrial killing. -
Neuengamme concentration camp opens.
Located in modern day Germany. It now serves as an memorial. -
France surrenders.
Also known as the Fall of France. France surrendered to the German forces even with Great Britain's Winston Churchill warning the French forces not to quit. -
Battle of Britain begins.
With France no longer fighting with the British, the British forces fought alone. It secured the air with strong air force and kept the city of London safe from the Germans. Main reason was because even before the war, Winston Churchill sensed growing power in Germany and ordered mobilization pre-hand.. -
Breendonk concentration camp opens
Located in modern day Belgium. -
Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis.
In Berlin, Germany, officials from Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan sign the ten-year Tripartite Pact (the Three-Power Agreement), a military alliance. The pact sealed cooperation among the three nations (Axis powers) in waging World War II. -
Warsaw Ghetto sealed
When sealed, it had ultimately contained 500,000 people. -
Wannsee Conference in Berlin
Heydrich outlines plan to murder Europe's Jews. -
Period: to
Anti-Jewish riots in Romania, hundreds of Jews butchered.
A spread of antisemitism in Romania as racial discrimination becomes public and widespread. -
German authorities begin rounding up Polish Jews for transfer to Warsaw Ghetto
10,000 Jews died by starvation in the ghetto between January and June 1941. -
Adolf Eichmann
On this ay, he was appointed head of the department for Jewish affairs of the Reich Security Main Office, Section IV B 4 . -
Germany attacks Yugoslavia and Greece
As Greece and Yugoslavia falls, occupation of these countries follow shortly after. -
Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp opens.
Located in modern day France -
Germany invades the Soviet Union.
Breaking the Soviet-German pact, Germany invades the Soviet Union because the Soviet raised suspicions to the Germans to join the war with the Allies. -
Period: to
Dozens thousands of Russian and Jews are murdered by the Einsatzgruppen (extermination squads) in the occupied territories
Statistics:
5,200 Jews murdered in Byalistok
2,000 Jews murdered in Minsk
5,000 Jews murdered in Vilna
5,000 Jews murdered in Brest-Litovsk
5,000 Jews murdered in Tarnopol
3,500 Jews murdered in Zloczow
11,000 Jews murdered in Pinsk
14,000 Jews murdered in Kamenets Podolsk
12,287 Jews murdered in Kishinev -
Heydrich appointed by Göring to implement the "Final Solution".
Himmler oversaw the process of the Final Solution and the death camps were given the orders to operate the gas chambers as full speed. -
Belzec extermination camp opens.
Opened in modern day Poland. This was a key part of the final solution, wiping the entire Jewish race clean from Europe. -
Period: to
34,000 Jews massacred at Babi Yar outside Kiev.
This was one of the largest mass murders at an individual location during World War II. According to reports by the Einsatzgruppe to headquarters, 33,771 Jews were massacred in two days. In the months following the massacre, German authorities stationed at Kiev killed thousands more Jews at Babi Yar, as well as non-Jews including Roma (Gypsies), Communists, and Soviet prisoners of war. It is estimated that some 100,000 people were murdered at Babi Yar. -
Establishment of Auschwitz II (Birkenau) for the extermination of Jews; Gypsies, Poles, Russians, and others were also murdered at the camp.
Establishment of a second Auschwitz camp built specifically for extermination of Jews. Survival rates were lower than three months as conditions for Jews were even worse than back in the main camp. -
Japanese attack Pearl Harbor.
Japan attacks US Pearl Harbor, killing thousands of Americans and leaving nearly 1500 wounded. This was one of the main reason the US chose to join the second world war. -
Chelmno (Kulmhof) extermination camp begins operations
Opened in modern day Poland
Statistics: 340,000 Jews, 20,000 Poles and Czechs murdered by April 1943. -
United States declares war on Japan and Germany.
America joins the Second World War in the side of the Allies. This is also marked as the changing point of the War. -
Extermination begins in Belzec
By end of 1942 600,000 Jews murdered. -
Extermination by gas begins in Sobibor killing center
By October 1943, 250,000 Jews murdered. -
Jewish partisan units established in the forests of Byelorussia and the Baltic States.
Some Jews who managed to escape from ghettos and camps formed their own fighting units. These fighters, or partisans, were concentrated in densely wooded areas. A large group of partisans in occupied Soviet territory hid in a forest near the Lithuanian capital of Vilna. They were able to derail hundreds of trains and kill over 3,000 German soldiers. -
Germans establish Treblinka concentration camp
From Summer Deportation of Jews to killing centers from Belgium, Croatia, France, the Netherlands, and Poland; armed resistance by Jews in ghettos of Kletzk, Kremenets, Lachva, Mir, and Tuchin. -
Deportation of Jews from all over Europe
Particularly from Germany, Greece and Norway to killing centers; Jewish partisan movement organized in forests near Lublin. -
German 6th Army surrenders at Stalingrad
The first major German defeat. Turning point of the war as a major German army surrenders. -
Liquidation of Krakow ghetto
From March 13–16, 1943, SS and police authorities liquidate the Krakow ghetto.
During the operation the SS kill approximately 2,000 Jews in the ghetto, transferred 2,000 Jews, the members of the Jewish council, Krakow ghetto police force to Plaszow. The SS and Police transport approximately 3,000 more Krakow Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where the camp authorities select 499 men and 50 women for forced labor. The rest, approximately 2,450 people, are murdered in the gas chambers. -
Previously POW camp Bergen-Belsen is under SS control.
Approximately 50,000 people died in the Bergen-Belsen camp complex. Among them was Anne Frank, the most well known child diarist of the Holocaust era. -
Warsaw Ghetto revolt begins
Germans attempt to liquidate 70,000 inhabitants; Jewish underground fights Nazis until early June -
Himmler orders the liquidation of all ghettos in Poland and the Soviet Union
The final solution needs to be completed before the war ends. The attempt to liquidate of all ghettos greatly accelerated the process. -
Armed resistance by Jews in Bedzin, Bialystok, Czestochowa, Lvov, and Tarnow ghettos
As the German forces slightly weakens, the Jews formed an armed resistance to hold until the Allied forces reached them. However, most of the forces failed to stand up to the German forces for long. -
Liquidation of large ghettos in Minsk, Vilna, and Riga
Continued process of liquidation, oversaw by Himmler. -
Period: to
Rescue of the Danish Jewry
In Denmark, despite the risks and consequences, the nation itself refused to stand by and watch the Jews be deported into the Nazis hands.The most active of these people had the courage to help by providing hiding places, underground escape routes, false papers, food, clothing, money, and sometimes even weapons. Later on, fisherman shipped these 7200 Jews across a narrow waterway to Sweden, whom remained neutral in the war. -
Armed revolt in Sobibor extermination camp
Jews resisted against their oppressors. The most bold and daring acts came at the end—on the eve of liquidation of the killing centers.
After the revolt, some joined partisan units; others found shelter among sympathetic Poles. It is estimated that just 50 of the escapees survived the war.
After the uprising, the Germans destroyed all traces of Sobibór. Between March 1942 and October 1943, at least 167,000 people were killed. Virtually all of the victims were Jews -
Period: to
Death Marches
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Germany occupies Hungary.
With the end of the war coming near, and Germany starting to slow down, the Nazi forces took Hungary with all speed possible. To move the remaining Jews in Hungary to the camps to complete the Final Solution as Hitler and Himmler promised. -
Nazis begin deporting Hungarian Jews
By June 27, 380,000 sent to Auschwitz.
A very fast process of deportation. -
D-Day: Allied invasion at Normandy.
One of the biggest turning point in the war. Could be called the reason why the Allies won the war. Forcing the Germans to fight the war on two fronts, both of which has massive forces. -
Red Army repels Nazi forces.
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Group of German officers attempt to assassinate Hitler.
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Russians liberate Majdanek killing center.
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Revolt by inmates at Auschwitz
Successfully blew up one crematorium, however, most fighters were killed. -
Last Jews deported from Terezin to Auschwitz.
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Beginning of death march
Approximately 40,000 Jews from Budapest to Austria. -
Evacuation of Auschwitz
beginning of death march for inmates -
Beginning of death march for inmates of Stutthof
In late April 1945, the remaining prisoners were forced into the sea and shot. Over 4,000 were sent by small boat to Germany, some to the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg, and some to camps along the Baltic coast. Shortly before the German surrender, some prisoners were transferred to Malmo, Sweden, and released to the care of that neutral country. It has been estimated that over 25,000 prisoners, one in two, died during the evacuation from Stutthof and its subcamps. -
Buchenwald Death March begins
As American forces approach, the Nazis begin a mass evacuation of prisoners from the Buchenwald concentration camp and its subcamps. Almost 30,000 prisoners are forced on death marches away from the advancing American forces. About a third of these prisoners die during the marches. On April 11, 1945, the surviving prisoners take control of the camp, shortly before American forces enter on the same day. -
Liberation of Buchenwald.
The Buchenwald concentration camp was liberated on April 11, 1945 by four soldiers in the Sixth Armored Division of the US Third Army, commanded by General George S. Patton. Just before the Americans arrived, the camp had already been taken over by the Communist prisoners who had killed some of the guards and forced the rest to flee into the nearby woods. -
Liberation of Bergen-Belsen.
The 11th Armoured Division occupied the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on April 15, 1945, pursuant to an April 12 agreement with the retreating Germans to surrender the camp peacefully. -
Liberation of Sachsenhausen.
In the two weeks following the start of the marches, US troops liberated surviving prisoners of the forced evacuations near the town of Schwerin, Germany. Soviet troops liberated surviving prisoners of these marched near Zechlin, Germany. On April 22, units of the First and 47th Polish Armies, operating under overall Soviet command liberated about 3,000 remaining inmates in the camp. -
Liberation of Flossenburg.
Thousands of others escaped, were liberated by advancing US troops, or found themselves free when their SS guards deserted during the night. 3,000 of those who left the main camp arrived in Dachau, where they joined some 3,800 prisoners from the Flossenbürg subcamps. When members of the 358th and 359th US Infantry Regiments (90th US Infantry Division) liberated Flossenbürg on April 23, 1945, just over 1,500 prisoners remained in the camp. As many as 200 of them died after liberation. -
Liberation of Dachau.
The 42nd and 45th Infantry Divisions and the 20th Armored Division of the US Army liberate approximately 32,000 prisoners at Dachau. Later in early May 1945, American forces liberated the prisoners who had been sent on the death march. -
Hitler commits suicide, liberation of Ravensbruck.
Der Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany, burrowed away in a refurbished air-raid shelter, consumes a cyanide capsule, then shoots himself with a pistol, on this day in 1945, as his “1,000-year” Reich collapses above him. -
Liberation of Mauthausen.
US forces liberated the camp in May 1945. -
V-E Day: Germany surrenders; end of Third Reich
On this day in 1945, both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazis. -
Bombing of Hiroshima
On August 6, 1945, a mushroom cloud billows into the sky about one hour after an atomic bomb was dropped by American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, detonating above Hiroshima, Japan. Nearly 80,000 people are believed to have been killed immediately, with possibly another 60,000 survivors dying of injuries and radiation exposure by 1950. -
Bombing of Nagasaki
Nagasaki suffered the same fate as Hiroshima in August 1945. The bombing of Nagasaki on August 9th was the last major act of World War Two and within days the Japanese had surrendered. Two senior American military figures – General Groves and Admiral Purnell – were convinced that two atomic bombs dropped within days of the other would have such an overwhelming impact on the Japanese government that it would surrender. -
V-J Day: Victory over Japan proclaimed
On August 14, 1945, it was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. Since then, both August 14 and August 15 have been known as “Victoryover Japan Day. The term has also been used for September 2, 1945, when Japan’s surrender took place aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, in Tokyo Bay. Several months after the surrender of Nazi Germany, Japan’s capitulation in the Pacific brought six years of hostilities to a close. -
September 2: Japan surrenders; end of World War II
Official end of World War II.
