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Period: to
The Holocaust
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Hitler Becomes Citizen
Adolf Hitler obtains German citizenship by naturalization, opening the opportunity for him to run in the 1932 election for Reichspräsident. -
New Government
President Hindenburg begins negotiations with Adolf Hitler about the formation of a new government. -
Chancellor
On the night of January 30, 1933, the Nazis organized a massive torchlight parade in Berlin to celebrate the appointment of Hitler as Chancellor of Germany. Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring greet the participants in the parade as they pass beneath the window of Hitler's new office. Below: A view of the parade passing German President Paul von Hindenburg who gazes out the window at the sight. -
The German Reichstag Burns
The Reichstag building, seat of the German government, burns after being set on fire by Nazis. This enabled Adolf Hitler to seize power under the pretext of protecting the nation from threats to its security. -
The Night of long Knives
The four million brown shirted Nazi storm troopers, the SA (Sturmabteilung), included many members who actually believed in the 'socialism' of National Socialism and also wanted to become a true revolutionary army in place of the regular German Army. -
Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany.
The Reich Government has enacted the following law which is hereby promulgated.
The office of Reich President will be combined with that of Reich Chancellor. The existing authority of the Reich President will consequently be transferred to the Führer and Reich Chancellor. -
Hitler violates the Treaty of Versailles by introducing military conscription
By secretly introducing military conscription, Hitler was able to fool the League of Nations and betray the Treaty of Versailles. -
German Jews stripped of rights by Nuremberg Race Laws
The Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935 deprived German Jews of their rights of citizenship, giving them the status of "subjects" in Hitler's Reich. -
The German Gestapo is placed above the law
Hitler and his men gain more power, with Hitler being in complete power as president and chancellor. -
Anti-Comintern Pact
Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, directed against the Soviet Union and the international Communist movement. -
Start of the Aryanization of the economy
Jewish owners forced, without legal basis, to sell their businesses, in most cases considerably below the value of their goods. -
Hitler reveals war plans during Hossbach Conference
On November 5, 1937, Adolf Hitler held a secret conference in the Reich Chancellery during which he revealed his plans for the acquisition of Lebensraum, or living space, for the German people at the expense of other nations in Europe. -
Germany announces 'Anschluss' (union) with Austria
Adolf Hitler, Führer of Germany, accepts salutes and cheers from the Nazi controlled Reichstag after announcing the Anschluss (union) with Austria. -
German military mobilizes
On 12 August 1914, the day of German mobilization young, enthusiastic Germans take to the streets singing national songs. -
Hitler threatens Jews during Reichstag speech
Appearing before the Nazi Reichstag (Parliament) on the sixth anniversary of his coming to power, Adolf Hitler made a speech commemorating that event and also made a public threat against the Jews. -
Nazis and Soviets sign Pact
Soviet Russia' Foreign Minister Molotov signs the Nazi-Soviet Non-aggression Pact while German Foreign Minister Von Ribbentrop and Soviet leader Josef Stalin look on, while standing under a portrait of Lenin – August 23, 1939. News of the Pact stunned the world and paved the way for the beginning of World War II with Hitler assured his troops would not have to fight a war on two fronts -
Germans enter Paris
The Nazis march into Paris, June 14, 1940, beginning a four-year occupation of the 'City of Lights -
Hitler tours Paris
Hitler decided to take a tour of Paris for a few days. -
German attack on Tobruk is repulsed
At Tobruk, the German probing attacks with tanks and armored cars were repulsed -
Germany attacks Soviet Union as Operation Barbarossa begins
German soldiers battle the Russians after the start of Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi invasion of Soviet Russia. -
Nazis liquidate Lidice in reprisal for Heydrich's assassination
The bodies of the men and boys over age 16 of Lidice, Czechoslovakia, murdered by the Nazis on June 10, 1942, in reprisal for the assassination of SS Leader Reinhard Heydrich. -
A German eyewitness observes SS mass murder
On October 5, 1942, by accident, Hermann Graebe, a German engineer and manager of a German construction firm in the Ukraine, and his foreman, came upon an Einsatz execution squad killing Jews from the small town of Dubno in the Ukraine -
Germans occupy Rome
At the time of the German occupation of northern and central Italy in early September 1943, there were approximately 12,000 Jews living in Rome. The German occupiers sought to include Italian Jews in the "Final Solution". -
SS-Reichsführer Himmler gives speech at Posen.
In a speech to 100 SS generals, he spoke of the extermination of Jews. His handwritten note uses the euphemism Judenevakuierung, meaning evacuation of the Jews. However, in sound recordings of the speech, Himmler defined evacuation as extermination -
Germans counter-attack against the Anzio beachhead
German prisoners at the Anzio beachhead below Rome, soon to be sent to prison camps. -
D-Day landings on the northern coast of France
General Eisenhower gives the order of the day "Full victory - Nothing else" to paratroopers in England just before they board airplanes in the first D-Day assault. -
Allies discover stolen Nazi art and wealth hidden in German salt mines
Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower, along with Generals Bradley and Patton, inspect art treasures stolen by the Nazis and hidden in underground salt mines. -
Adolf Hitler commits suicide
At 3:30 p.m., Bormann and Goebbels entered and found the body of Hitler sprawled on the sofa, dripping with blood from a gunshot to his right temple.
