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Nazi Germany Establishes Buchenwald Concentration Camp
Was one of the largest and first concentration camps on German soil. Inmates were Jews, Poles, political prisoners, Jehovah's Witnesses, religious prisoners, criminals, homosexuals, and prisoners of war who did forced labor in factories. -
Hitler Plans to take Austria and Czechoslovakia
Hitler declared that Germany take the lands of Austria and Czechoslovakia. He was warned that these actions could provoke war by his adviser, but Hitler rejected the warning. -
Axis Powers are Formed
The Anti-Comintern pact was first between Japan and Germany on November 25, 1937 and was directed against the Communist International (Comintern) in general, and the Soviet Union in particular. Italy later joined the pact forming the group known as the Axis Powers. Germany, Japan, and Italy were then pledged to mutual assistance. -
Munich Agreement
The Munich Agreement was an agreement regarding the Sudetenland, which were areas along borders of Czechoslovakia, mainly inhabited by Czech Germans. This agreement signed by Germany, France, Britain, and Italy allowed German annexation of Sudetenland. -
Anschluss with Austria
Majority of Austria's population were Germans in favor of joining with Germany. Hitler ordered German troops to march into Austria to form a union with Austria. Austria did not oppose so the next day, Germany announced that its "Anschluss", or union, with Austria was complete. -
Kristallnacht
This was considered the Night of Broken Glass which was an anti-Jewish pogrom in Nazi Germany. Kristallnacht was triggered after German diplomat, Ernst vom Rath, was assassinated. This was a series of coordinated attacks on Jews and their properties. Thousands of synagogues were burned and destroyed and 91 Jews were murdered. 25,000 to 30,000 were arrested and deported to concentration camps -
Adolf Hitler orders "Plan Z"
Plan Z was the name given to the expansion of the Nazi German Navy, the Kriegsmarine. Plan Z called for a Kriegsmarine of ten battleships, four aircraft carriers, three battlecruisers, eight heavy cruisers, forty-four light cruisers, sixty-eight destroyers and two hundred and forty-nine U-boats by 1944 that was meant to challenge the naval power of the United Kingdom. -
Ravensbrueck
Ravensbrueck was one of the largest, most notorious women's concentration camp during World War II, located in northern Germany, 90 km north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrueck. -
Germany occupies Poland
In the beginning of the war, the territory of Poland was divided between the Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, USSR. Nazi Germany and USSR were hostile to the Polish culture and the Polish people, aiming at their destruction. -
Germany attacks USSR's annexed territories
In summer and fall of 1941, the territories annexed in Poland by the Soviets were overrun by Nazi Germany after Germany's successful attack on USSR.
