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Period: to
Holocaust History
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Problems with the Nazis begin
After the birth of Vladek and Anja's first son Richieu, Anja went into a depression. Then, Anja and Vladek went into a sanitarium for three months, so that Anja could get help. While they are there, they see the Nazi symbol (Swastika) for the first time. When they return home, they find out that Vladek's factory had been robbed. -
Night of Broken Glass
The Nazis started a riot aganist Jews in Austria and Germany. On the night of the Riot, the windows of Jewish owned bussinesses were shattered, things were stolen from the the Jewish owned stores, and synagogues were burned. Also, many jews were physically attacked and beaten. -
Vladek gets drafted into the Polish army
Vladek is drafted into the Polish Army, and sent to the Front for war. World War II starts with the Germans invading Poland. Vladek is captured by the Germans, and taken as a prisioner of war. He was kept as a prisioner for several months, and then was released. -
Polish Jews moved to Ghettos
The Western half of Poland is occupied by the German Army in September 1939. German police eventually started forcing ten of thousands of Polish Jews from their homes, and into Ghettos. Their homes and properties were given to Germans. Conditions were horrible with hunger and poverty, and people were like prisioners in their own country. -
Germany begins "The Final Solution"
The Nazis had been planning for what they considered a "solution" to the Jewish question. In Serbia and Poland, Jews were being put to death at Death camps. They were killed by exhaust fumes in specially made vans. The bodies were then taken away, and burnt. -
Vladek and Anja survive
Vladek and his family now live in the Slums of Sosnowiec. The Jews are told to report to Dienst stadium. Out of about thirty thousand people most are sent away to Concentration Camps to be killed. Anja's parents are taken, but Vladek and Anja somehow find a way to not be deported. -
Auschwitz-Birkenau expands
Jews had been arriving to this Concentration camp for years. The Jewish prisioners were then gased. In the spring of 1943, this site was greatly expanded with larger Gas Chambers, which resulted in the killing of more Jews. The total amount of people kiled at this site approximately was 1.1 million by the end of WW II. -
Richieu's death
At this time, the Germans are rounding up Jewish children, and sending them to be killed at Auschwitz. Vladek and Anja's son (Richieu) who was in hiding, was about to be captured, and sent away to Auschwitz. The Governess, who had been hiding Richieu, then kills him with poison, so that he doesn't have to go through Auschwitz. -
Vladek and Anja are sent to Auschwitz
Sometime in the year 1944, Vladek hears that Jews are safe in Hungary. Anja doesn't want to go, but Vladek convinces her. They pay smugglers to sneak them on a train into Hungary, but it is a trap. While they are on the train they are captured by the Germans. They are then sent to Auschwitz. -
The Allies start to free the Jews from the Concentration Camps
American and British Armies begin to discover the Concentration Camps, and free the Jewish prisioners. One of these camps was Belsen which was freed by the British. As the Allies freed more Concentration Camps, they found prisioners who were starving and diseased.
