Calvin Wilson - Holocaust 1933-1945

Adolph Kitler

Jan 30, 1933

President Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany.

Concentration Camps

Mar 20, 1933

The SS opens the Dachau concentration camp outside of Munich, Germany.

Nuremberg Race Laws

Mar 16, 1935

At the annual party rally held in Nuremberg in 1935, the Nazis announced new laws which institulionalized many of the racial theories prevalent in Nazi ideology. The laws excluded German Jews from Reich citizenship and prohibited them from marrying or having sexual relations with persons of "German or related blood."

German military conscription

Mar 16, 1935

Germany's draft.

Summer Olympics

Aug 1, 1936

For two weeks in August 1936, Adolf Hitler's Nazi dictatorship camouglaged its racist, militaristic character while hosting the summer Olympics. With the conclusion of the games, Germany's expansionist policies and the persecution of Jews and other "enemies of the state" accelerated, culminating in World War II and the Holocaust.

Austria Anschluss

Mar 11, 1938

Before World War II, Jews played an important role in Austria's economic and cultural life. In 1938, Austria had a Jewish population of about 192,000. By December 1939 their number had been reduced to just 57,000 primarily due ot emigration. Intense Nazi propaganda inside Austria, German troops entered the country on March 12, 1938. They received the enthusiastic support of most of the population. Austria was incorporated into Germany the next day.

Munich Agreement

Sep 29, 1938

The Munich agreement was a settlement permitting Germany's annexation of parts of Czechoslovakia along the borders mainly inhabited by German speakers. This territory was called Sudetenland.

Kristallnacht

Nov 9, 1938

Kristallnacht, "Night of Crystal," is often referred to as the "Night of Broken Glass." The name refers to the wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms which took place on November 9 and 10, 1938, throughout German, annexed Austria, and in areas of the Sudentenland in Czecholsovakia recently occupied by German Troops.

Nonaggression Agreement

Aug 23, 1939

the German Soviet Pact, also known as the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, had two parts. An economic agreement and a ten-year nonaggression pact that Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union promised not to attack each other.

World War II

Sep 1, 1939

Germany invades Poland, starting World War II in Europe.

Poland

Oct 8, 1939

Germans establish a ghetto in Piotrkow Trybunalski, Poland.

Invasions by Germany

Apr 9, 1940

Germany invades Denmark and Norway.

Western Europe

May 10, 1940

Germany attacks Western Europe, France and the Low Countries.

Yugoslavia and Greece

Apr 6, 1941

Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece.

Einsatzgruppen

Jul 6, 1941

Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) shoot nearly 3,000 Jews at the Seventh Fort, one of the 19th centurt fortifications surrounding Kovno.

Babi Yar

Sep 28, 1941

Einsatzgruppen shoot about 34,000 Jews at BabiYar outside Kiev.

Minsk Ghetto

Nov 7, 1941

Einsatzgruppen shoot 10,000 Jews from the Riga Ghetto in the Rumbula Forest.

United States

Dec 11, 1941

Nazi Germany declares war on the United States.

Lodz

Jan 16, 1942

Germans begin the mass deportation of more than 65,000 Jews from Lodz to the Chelmno Killing Center

Deportation

Mar 27, 1942

Germans begin the deportation of more than 65,000 Jews from Drancy, outside Paris to the east, primarily to Auschwitz.

Netherlands

Jul 15, 1942

Germans begin mass deportations of nearly 100,000 Jews from occupied Netherlands to the east, primarily to Auschwitz.

Warsaw and Treblinka

Jul 22, 1942

Germans begin the mass deportation of over 300,000 Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to the Treblinka killing center.

Completion of deportation

Sep 12, 1942

Germans complete the mass deportation of about 265,000 Jews from Warsaw to Treblinka.

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Apr 19, 1943

In response to the deportations, on July 28, 1942, several Jewish underground organizations created an armed self-defense unit known as the Jewish Combat Organization.

Hungary

May 15, 1944

Germans begin the mass deportation of about 440,000 Jews from Hungary.

Death March

Jan 18, 1945

Death March of nearly 60,000 prisoners from the Auschwitz camp system in southern Poland.

Northern Poland

Jan 25, 1945

Death march of nearly 50,000 prisoners from the Stutthof camp system in northern Poland.

Auschwitz

Jan 27, 1945

Soviet troops liberate the Auschwitz camp complex.

Dachau

Apr 29, 1945

American forces liberate the Dachau concentration camp.

Adolph Hitler

Apr 30, 1945

Adolph Hitler commits suicide.

Western Allies

May 7, 1945

Germany surrenders to the western Allies.

Soviets

May 9, 1945

Germany surrenders to the Soviets.