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Hitler Campaign Speech
In a speech during a campaign rally in Waldenburg, Hitler attacks the Weimar Republic and pledges to dissolve the parliamentary system. -
Hitler appointed Chancellor
the Nazi Party, assumes control of the German state when German President Paul von Hindenburg appoints Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler as Chancellor at the head of a coalition government. -
Law limits jews in public schools
The Law against Overcrowding in Schools and Universities limits the number of Jewish students in public schools. -
German invasion of Poland
Germany invades Poland, initiating World War II in Europe. -
Britain and France declare war
Honoring their guarantee of Poland’s borders, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. Two days earlier, Germany had invaded Poland. -
Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp Established
The Inspectorate of Concentration Camps opens a second camp at Auschwitz, called Auschwitz-Birkenau or Auschwitz II.
The first prisoners were 945 Soviet prisoners of war and a few Polish prisoners from Auschwitz I. Auschwitz-Birkenau was originally designated for imprisoning large numbers of Soviet prisoners of war. Although it continued to serve as a concentration camp, it also functioned as a killing center from March 1942 until November 1944. -
Germans destroy Lidice
Adolf Hitler personally ordered the destruction of Lidice in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague. In May 1942, Czech agents had assassinated Heydrich, the highest-ranking Nazi official in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. After the attack, the Germans unleashed a wave of terror against the Czechs. The village of Lidice was set on fire and the remains of the buildings destroyed. -
Deportation of Dutch Jews
German authorities begin the deportation of Dutch Jews from the Westerbork, Amersfoort, and Vught camps in the Netherlands to killing centers and concentration camps in Germany and German-occupied Poland. By September 3, 1944, around 100 trains have carried more than 100,000 people to Auschwitz, Sobibor, Theresienstadt, and Bergen-Belsen, including about 60,000 Jews to Auschwitz and about 34,000 Jews to Sobibor.