-
Adolf Hitler...
... is appointed chancellor of Germany. -
The German government takes away freedom of speech...
...assembly, press, and freedom from invasion of privacy and from house search without warrant. -
Franklin D. Roosevelt...
...is inaugurated President of the United States. -
The first concentration camp...
...is established in Nazi Germany at Dachau. The first prisoners are political opponents -
A nationwide boycott...
...of Jewish-owned businesses in Germany is carried out under Nazi leadership. -
Jews...
...are barred from government service; Jewish civil servants, including University professors and school teachers, are fired from their positions. -
The law...
...against "overcrowding in German schools and universities" is adopted, restricting the number of Jewish children allowed to attend. Children of war veterans and those with one non-Jewish parent are initially exempted. -
Books...
...by Jews and opponents of Nazism are burned publicly. -
Laws...
...are passed in Germany that permit the forced sterilization of Gypsies, the mentally and physically disabled, African-Germans, and others considered "inferior" or "unfit." -
Germany...
...withdraws from the League of Nations. -
In all German schools...
...it is officially taught that "non-Aryans" are racially inferior. Jewish children are prohibited from participating in "Aryan" sports clubs, school orchestras, and other extracurricular activities. Jewish children are banned from playgrounds, swimming pools, and parks in many German cities and towns. -
Adolf Hitler...
...declares himself president and chancellor of the Third Reich after the death of Paul von Hindenburg. -
First major wave...
...of arrests of homosexuals occurs throughout Germany, continuing into November. -
The Saar region...
...is annexed by Germany. -
Hitler...
...violates the Versailles Treaty by renewing the compulsory military draft. -
Jehovah's Witnesses...
...are banned from all civil service jobs and are arrested throughout Germany. -
"No Jews"
...signs and notices are posted outside German towns and villages, and outside shops and restaurants. -
Jews...
...are prohibited from serving in the German armed forces. -
The Nuremberg Laws...
...deprive German Jews of their citizenship. -
Jewish doctors...
...are no longer permitted to practice in government institutions in Germany. -
Hitler's army...
...invades the Rhineland. -
The first German Gypsies...
...are arrested and deported to Dachau concentration camp. -
The Olympic Games...
...take place in Berlin. Anti-Jewish signs (i.e., "Jews Not Welcome") are removed until the Games are completed. -
The Ministry of Science and Education...
...prohibits teaching by "non-Aryans" in public schools and bans private instruction by Jewish teachers. -
Further restrictions...
...are imposed on the number of Jewish students attending German schools. -
Buchenwald...
...concentration camp opens. -
Jews...
...can obtain passports for travel outside of Germany only in special cases. -
Germany annexes Austria.
-
The German government...
...passes a decree requiring the registration of all Gypsies without a fixed address living in Austria; by June 1938, all Gypsy children above the age of 14 have to be fingerprinted. This is a central part of the growing racial definition of Gypsies as "criminally asocial." -
Representatives...
...from thirty-two countries meet at Evian, France, to discuss refugee policies. Most of the countries refuse to let in more Jewish refugees. -
The German government...
...announces Jews must carry identification cards. -
An attempt...
... is made by Herschel Grynszpan to assassinate a German diplomat in Paris. -
Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass"):
Nazi organized nation-wide pogroms result in the burning of hundreds of synagogues; the looting and destruction of many Jewish homes, schools, and community offices; vandalism; and the looting of 7,500 Jewish stores. Many Jews are beaten, and more than 90 are killed. Thirty-thousand Jewish men are arrested and imprisoned in concentration camps. Several thousand Jewish women are arrested and sent to local jails. -
German Jews...
...are ordered to pay one billion Reichsmarks in reparations for damages of Kristallinacht. -
All Jewish children...
...are expelled from German schools and can attend only separate Jewish schools. -
Decrees...
...ban Jews from public streets on certain days; Jews are forbidden drivers' licenses and car registrations. -
Jews...
...must sell their businesses and real estate and hand over their securities and jewelry to the government at artificially low prices. -
Jews...
...may no longer attend universities as teachers and/or students. -
Germany...
...invades and occupies Czechoslovakia. -
Cuba and the United States...
...refuse to accept Jewish refugees aboard the ship S.S. St. Louis, which is forced to return to Europe. -
Two-thousand Gypsy males...
...above the age of 16 are arrested in Burgenland Province (formerly Austria) and sent to Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps; 1,000 Gypsy girls and women above the age of 15 are arrested and sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp. -
Soviet-German Non-aggression Pact signed.
-
The German army...
...invades Poland and World War II begins. -
Jews...
...are forced to turn in radios, cameras, and other electric objects to the police. Jews receive more restrictive ration coupons than other Germans. They do not receive coupons for meat, milk, etc. Jews also receive fewer and more limited clothing ration cards than do Germans. -
Hitler...
... extends powers to doctors to kill institutionalized mentally and physically disabled persons in the "euthanasia" program. -
Germans...
...force Jews in Poland to wear a yellow Star of David on their chests or a blue-and-white Star of David armband. -
The first Polish ghetto is established.
-
The German army...
...invades and defeats Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and France. -
Approximately 164,000 Polish Jews...
...are concentrated and imprisoned in the Lódz ghetto which is established and sealed off from the outside world. -
A concentration camp...
...is established at Auschwitz, Poland. -
The Warsaw ghetto is established.
-
Anti-Jewish...
...laws are passed by France's Vichy Government. -
The Warsaw ghetto...
...is closed off with approximately 500,000 inhabitants. -
Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia join the Axis Powers.
-
Gypsy and African-German...
...children are expelled from public schools. -
The German...
...army invades North Africa -
The German...
...army invades Yugoslavia and Greece. -
Romania...
...passes law condemnng adult Jews to forced labor. -
The French Vichy...
...government revokes civil rights of French Jews in North Africa. -
The German army...
...invades the Soviet Union. The Einsatzgruppen, mobile killing squads, begin the mass murders of Jews, Gypsies, and Communist leaders. -
German Jews...
...above the age of six are forced to wear a yellow Star of David sewed on the left side of their clothes with the word "Jude" printed in black. -
Soviet prisoners of war...
...and Polish prisoners are killed in Nazi test of gas chambers at Auschwitz in occupied Poland. -
Nearly 34,000 Jews...
...are murdered by mobile killing squads at Babi Yar, near Kiev in the Ukraine. -
Construction...
...begins on Birkenau, an addition to the Auschwitz camp. Birkenau includes a killing center which begins operations in early 1942. -
First group...
...of German and Austrian Jews are deported to ghettos in eastern Europe. -
Five thousand Gypsies...
...are deported from labor and internment camps in Austria to the Lódz ghetto in Poland. -
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor
-
The Chelmno death camp...
...opens near Lódz, Poland and the first gassing of victims in mobile gas vans occurs. -
Germany declares war on the United States
-
Five thousand Austrian Gypsies...
...from the Lódz ghetto are deported to the killing center at Chelmno where they are all killed in mobile gas vans. -
Nazi "extermination" camps...
...located in occupied Poland at Auschwitz, Birkenau, Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec, and Majdanek-Lublin begins mass murder of Jews in gas chambers. -
Jews...
...in the Lódz ghetto are deported to the killing center at Chelmno. -
Fifteen Nazi...
...and government leaders meet at Wannsee, a section of Berlin, to discuss the "final solution to the Jewish question". -
Approximately ten thousand...
...Jews, who had arrived in the Lódz ghetto some six months earlier from Germany, Luxembourg, Vienna, and Prague, are deported to Chelmno. Their baggage is confiscated before they board the train. -
The German government closes all Jewish schools
-
Treblinka death camp opens
-
Jews in France...
...and the Netherlands are required to wear identifying Stars of David. -
Jewish fighting organizations establish in the Warsaw ghetto.
-
Approximately fifteen thousand Jews...
...in the Lódz ghetto are deported to Chelmno, mostly children under ten and individuals over sixty-five, but also others who are too weak or ill to work. By September 16, approximately fifty-five thousand Jews have been deported to the killing center at Chelmno. -
All Jews...
...in concentration camps in Germany are sent to death camp at Auschwitz. -
A special internment camp...
... for non-Jewish Polish youth is opened in Lódz. -
All Gypsies...
... in Germany and Nazi occupied countries, with few exceptions, are arrested and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. -
16 Jews...
...in the Warsaw ghetto initiate resistance to deportation by the Germans to the death camps. -
The Nazis...
...order all of the ghettos in Poland and the Soviet Union destroyed. -
The Danish...
...citizens smuggle most of the nation's Jews to neutral Sweden. -
The inmates at Treblinka rebel.
-
The inmates at Sobibor initiate an armed rebellion.
-
The War Refugee Board...
...is established by President Franklin Roosevelt. -
The German army invades Hungary
-
The Nazis...
...begin deportation of Hungarian Jews. Over 430,000 Jews are sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau where most are gassed. -
The Allied Powers invade Normandy.
-
Seven thousand one hundred ninety-six...
...Jews are deported from the Lódz ghetto to Chelmno where they are killed. -
German officers...
...fail and are caught in an attempt to assassinate Hitler. -
The Soviet Army liberates the Majdanek death camp.
-
The prisoners...
...at Auschwitz-Birkenau rebel and blow up one crematorium. -
Nazis...
...empty Auschwitz and start prisoners on "death marches" to Germany. -
The Soviet army liberates Auschwitz.
-
Troops from the United States...
...liberate survivors from the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps. -
Adolph Hitler...
...commits suicide in his bunker in Berlin rather than be caught by the advancing Soviet army. -
Troops...
...from the United States liberate Mauthausen concentration camp. -
Germany surrenders...
...and war in Europe is ended. -
The war crimes...
...tribunal is converted at Nuremberg, Germany
