1933 - 1945Chronology of the Holocaust

January 30, 1933

•Adolf Hitler is appointed the Chancellor. He is the supreme leader of the NSDAP( National Socialist German Workers Party) and the SA (Storm Troopers)

March 5, 1933

• Rechstagwahl (parliamentary elections) Nazis receive 43.9% o vote

March 20, 1933

• Himmler, head of the SS, announces establishment of the first Concenration Camp at Dachau

March 24, 1933

The Reichstag(German parliament) gives Nazis comprehensive legislative power.

Nuremberg Laws

April 1,1933

• Adolf Hitler proclaims one-day boycott of all Jewish shops. Numerous acts of violence occur against individuals.

April 7, 1933

• First anti-Jewish law passed. All non-Aryan civil servants, with the exception of soldiers, are forcibly retired.

April 21, 1933

• Kosher butchering is forbidden by law.

May 10, 1933

Public burning of books

July 14, 1933

• German nationality can be revoked- for those considered “undesirable” by the government

August 2,1934

• Death of Reich President Paul Von Hindenberg.

August 3, 1934

• Adolf Hitler declares himself both president and Chancellor of the THIRD REICH. Army swears personal oath of allegiance to Hitler.

March 16,1935

Compulsory military service is reinstituted in Germany in open defiance of the TREATY OF VERSAILLES

September 6, 1935

• Jewish newspapers can no longer be sold in Germany.

September 15, 1935

• Nuremberg Laws deprive Jews of German citizenship and reduce them to the status of “subjects”; forbid marriage or any sexual relations between Jews and Aryans. Laws lay basis for sweeping discriminatory measures in coming years.

March 7,1936

• Jews no longer have the right to participate in parliamentary elections. The German army re-occupies the Rhineland.

August 1,1936

• The Olympic Games are opened in Berlin. Signs reading “Jews Not Welcome” are temporarily removed from most public places by order of the Fuhrer to present a favorable and misleading picture to foreign tourists.

December 1936

• Number of refuges from Nazi Germany exceeds 50,000.

July 2, 1937

• More Jewish students are removed from German schools and universities

July 24, 1937

• Jews are to be separated from other guests in German public baths and health resorts.

March 11, 1938

• German troops march into Austria. They are welcomed without resistance.

July 6, 1938.

• Jews may no longer follow certain occupations such as broker, tourists guide, and real estate agent.

July 23, 1938.

• Announcements that as of January 1, 1939, all Jews must carry identification cards.

July 25, 1938

• Announcements that as of September 30, 1938, all Jews must have only Jewish first name. If a Jew has a German first name, ”Israel” or “Sarah” must be added to it.

September 27, 1938

• Jewish lawyers removed from bar and reduced to “consultants”

October 5, 1938

• Jewish passports are marked with a “J”

November 7, 1938.

• Ernst Vom Rath, German embassy official in Paris, shot by young Jew, Hershel Grynszpan, whose parents had been deported.

November 9, 1938• Ernst Vom Rath dies.

“KRTISTALLNACHT” ( Night of Broken Glass) POGROM launched against Jews throughout the Reich.

• Nearly 200 synagogues destroyed, thousands of Jewish shops looted, 30,000 males sent to concentration camps. Nazis claim pogroms was in retaliation to the murder of Ernst Vom Rath although it had been planned prior to the murder. This is a significant step on the road to the Holocaust.

November 12, 1938

• Following the Nazi-organized pogrom, “reparations” (forced payment to pay for damages) of one billion Reichmarks are imposed on the German Jews, and must further repair all damages at their own cost. Jewish firms forced to close. Jews may no longer attend theaters, cinemas, concerts or exhibitions.

November 15, 1938

• All Jewish children remaining in German schools are expelled.

December 3, 1938

• In Germany local authorities allowed to bar Jews from the streets on Nazi holidays. German Jews must hand in their driver’s licenses and car registrations as well as surrender their bonds and other securities and jewelry.

December 8, 1938

• Final exclusion of all Jews from institutions of higher education.

January 30, 1939

• Hitler proposes to the Reichstag “annihilation of Jewish race” in Europe in event of war.

March 15, 1939

• German troops march into Czechoslovakia.

August 23, 1939

Germany and Soviet Union sign non-aggression pact with secret provision on division of Poland.

September 1, 1939

• Germany declares war on Poland.

September 8,1939

–WORLD WAR II BEGINS

(Curfew for Jews instituted: 9 p.m. in summer, 8 p.m. in winter)

September 21,1939

• Vicious pogroms against Jews in Poland.

September 23,1939

• All Jews must hand in their radios to the police.

October 19,1939

• “Reparations” levied in the wake of Kristallnacht are increased for German Jews to 1.25 billion Reichmarks, and are now payable by November 15, 1939.

November 23,1939

• Polish Jews must now wear yellow stars of David.

November 28,1939

• First GHETTO in Poland established in Protrokw.

December 1,1939

• Jewish food rations are reduced, Further reductions ordered for 1941 and 1942.

January 1940

• First experimental gassing of mental patients- Jewish and others- in German hospitals, as a result of “Aktion 74” (EUTHANASIA PROGRAM which was ordered by Hitler in October 1939).

February 6,1940

• Unlike the rest of the German people, Jews do not receive food coupons.

April 27,1940

• Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, orders establishment of concentration camp at Auschwitz.

June 22,1940

• France surrenders to Nazi Germany.

July 29,1940

• German Jews may no longer have telephones.

November 15,1940

• WARSAW GHETTO sealed off. It is largest of all Polish ghettos with some 500,000 inhabitants.

December 24,1940

• Germany Jews to pay special income tax.

March 1941.

• Hitler declares upcoming Russian campaign ( a surprise invasion on Russia with whom Germany had signed a non- aggression pact in August, 1939) to be a war of annihilation.

June 22,1941.

• Germany invades USSR

July 31,1941.

• First written order for the “Final Solution”. Reinhard Heydrich, head of RHSA (Reich Security Main Office) is ordered to make the necessary preparations for overall solution to “Jewish question” in Germany’s sphere of influence in Europe.

September 1,1941.

• Every Jew in Germany must wear a star of David. Jews may no longer leave their places of residence without permission of the police.

September 3,1941

• First experimental gassing with Zyklon B of Jews in Auschwitz.

September 29-30,1941

• 33,771 Jews murdered by Einsatzgruppen outside Kiev at Babiyar, Ukraine.

October 14,1941

• First deportation order of German Jews to the East. Thousands are shot or die of starvation.

October 23,1941

• Jews no longer allowed to freely leave Germany.

December 8,1941

• Chelmo Death Camp begins operation in Poland.

December 11, 1941

• Germany declares war on USA following Japanese attack (December 7) on Pearl Harbor.

December 26 1941

• German Jews may no longer use public telephones.

January 20 1942

• Wansee Conference: The “Final Solution” the plan to murder all European Jews, is revealed to and coordinated with the Nazi Government Bureaucracy.

March 1, 1942

• Extermination begins in Sobibor death camp.

March 17 1942

• Mass murder begins at Belzec death camp. 600,000 Jews will be destroyed there.

April 17 1942

• A Jewish apartment must be identified as such with a star of David beside the name plate.

April 24 1942

• German Jews are forbidden the use of public transportation.

May 15 1942

• German Jews are forbidden to keep dogs, cats, birds, etc…

May 29

• German Jews are no longer permitted to visit barber shops.

June 9 1942

• German Jews must hand over all “spare” clothing.

June 20 1942

• All German Jews schools are closed.

July-September 1942

• Beginning of mass deportations of Western European Jews to Auschwitz. 1.5 million Jews will die in Auschwitz.

July 17, 1942

• Blind or deaf Jews in Germany may no longer wear armbands to identify their condition in traffic.

July 22, 1942

• Start of deportation of Jews from Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka death camp. 900,000 Jews will be murdered there.

September 18,1942

• German Jews can no longer buy meat, eggs, or milk.

October 4, 1942

• All Jews in concentration camps in Germany are to be transferred to (death camp) Auschwitz.

February 2, 1943

• German advance in Russia stopped at Stalingrad by Red army.

April 1943

• By now 340,000 Jews, 20,000 Poles and Czechs liquidated in Chelmno death camp.

April 19, 1943• Warsaw ghetto uprising; Jewish

underground fights Nazis for more than a month. Jews kill over 300 Nazis.

As a result, Nazis liquidate the ghetto, killing thousands of Jews.

April 21, 1943

• German Jews found guilty of crimes are to be deported to death camps in Auschwitz or Lublin after serving their sentence.

Summer 1943

• Armed resistance by Jews in Czerstochowa, Luvov, Bedzin and Bialystok ghettos (all in Poland).

August 2, 1943

• Armed revolt in Treblinka. “workers Jews” rebel, 100 escape camp, 12 survive to liberation.

July 1, 1943

• All property of German Jews to be confiscated after death.

October 1943

• By now 250,000 Jews liquidated in Sobibor death camp.

Fall 1943

• Nazis destroy large ghettos at Minsk, Vina, and Riga due to the approach of Allied forces. Danes begin rescue of Danish Jewry.

May 15, 1944.

• Nazis begin deportation of Hungarian Jews; within two months 7,437,000(70%) sent Auschwitz.

June 6, 1944• Allied invasion of Normandy (France) led by America

• Supreme Commander of Allied Forces, Dwight D. Eisenhower, orders soldiers to videotape the liberation of the camps

July 24, 1944

• Majdanek concentration camp liberation by Russians.

Summer 1944.

• Nazis Liquidate ghettos in Kovno, Shavli, Lodz.

October 7, 1944

• Auschwitz inmate rebellion; crematorium blown up.

September 1, 1944

• Approximately 1,500 Jews now live in the Reich.

November 27, 1944

• Himmler orders end to gassings in Auschwitz and demolition of all gas chambers and crematoria to destroy evidence as the end of the war approaches.

January 17, 1945

• Evacuation of Auschwitz ; beginning of death march of camp inmates.

Febuary 4-11, 1945

• YALTA CONFERENCE in the Crimea.

April 11, 1945

• American troops liberate Buchenwald death camp.

56,000 have been murdered there.

April 15, 1945

• British troops liberate Buchenwald death camp. Even after liberation 500 die each day from disease and malnutrition.

April 29, 1945

• American forces enter Dachau where 40,000 have died since its establishment in 1933.

April 30, 1945

• Hitler commits suicide.

May 7-9, 1945

• Germany surrenders unconditionally. End of war in Europe (V.E. Day)

August 15, 1945

• Japan surrenders unconditionally. End of World War II. (V.J. Day)

November 22, 1945

• Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal commences. The Nuremberg Trials were an international tribunal which brought high ranking Nazis to trial.

Nuremberg Trials (continued)

• Over 6,000,000 Jews were killed during the Holocaust…

• There were over 5,900,000 others killed during the Holocaust…

• 22 High Ranking Nazi Officers were charged with Crimes Against Humanity…

Nuremberg Trials (continued)

• Twelve high ranking Nazis were sentenced to death.

• Three were sentenced to life imprisonment.

• Four were given various prison sentences.

• Three were acquitted.