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Schutzstaffel Organized
The Schutzstaffel were originally Hitler's bodyguards but later became an elite guard of Nazi troops who carried out Hitler's orders without legal restraint. When the Nazis seized power in 1933 the Schutzstaffel killed more than 52,000 people. They would later go on to participate in many more murders and shootings, many of which were Jewish people. -
Hitler becomes Chancellor
President Paul von Hindenburg, who was originally afraid of Hitler's power, named Hitler chancellor of Germany after being convinced by the last chancellor to do so. Hitler had many plans to make Germany great and powerful that started as soon as he came into power, he started stomping out any opposition to his party and anyone opposed by the Nazi party. -
Hitler Claims Emergency Powers
Hitler used the Enabling Act to give himself emergency powers after the Reichstag was mysteriously burnt down. The president of Germany signed on this and said it was to last four years, but it lasted longer than that. This power made Hitler the most powerful man in Germany, so he started his Nazi reign. -
Boycott of Jewish Businesses
The Nazis issued an order to boycott Jewish businesses, but it was largely unsuccessful and revealed the goal of the Nazis to weaken the viability of Jewish people in Germany. The Jewish population suffered very little, as non-Jewish citizens would still go to Jewish businesses. -
Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseases
The German government, now led by the nazi party, ordered a new law making it mandatory to have citizens with physical and mental disabilities sterilized. This law made a path to the involuntary sterilization of gypsies and afro-germans (non-white germans). -
Law against Dangerous Habitual Criminals
These laws were antisemitic and racist laws created in Germany. They were created for the purpose to protect German blood, and honor, which would not allow Jewish and German marriage or the employment of German females under 45 in Jewish homes. These laws gave "permission" to start the hate crimes towards Jews, and other groups the nazi party opposed to start. -
The Nuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg laws were antisemitic laws in which excluded German Jews from full citizenship and prohibited them from marrying people with German blood. These laws also deprived Jewish people of the most basic political rights and labeled anyone with three or four Jewish grandparents as Jews. -
Nazi's Occupy Rhineland
Rhineland was a demilitarized zone between Germany and France that forbid Germans from stationing troops in that area. When Hitler came into power he ordered German troops to reoccupy the zone. By doing so Hitler got condemnation from Britain and France but was not punished, making it seem like if he did something else like that he wouldn't get punished either. -
Reichszentrale is created
Reichszentrale, also known as the Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion, was a nazi party organization designed to fight against homosexuality and abortion. The organization's main idea focus was to collect information on homosexuals, but having the power to do so Reichszentrale started the executions of thousands of homosexuals in Germany. -
Kristallnacht
The night when German Nazi soldiers destroyed and vandalized Jewish owned stores, buildings, and synagogues. Other places that were destroyed were Jewish hospitals, and schools were ransacked, many Jewish people lost their homes, belongings, and friends. -
Einsatzgruppen starts
Einsatzgruppen were deployment groups of nazis that were responsible for mass killings, usually by shooting, of Jewish people, and citizens of non-german countries, they killed 1.3 million of the 6 million jews killed in the Holocaust. -
St. Louis Ship
The St. Louis was a ship sailing from Hamburg, Germany to Havana, Cuba carrying 937 passengers, who were almost all Jewish refugees. The ship arrived in Cuba, but was turned down, and, looking for refuge, was also turned down by the United States and Canada. The ship had to turn around and ended up going to western Europe, not back to Nazi Germany, but still, 254 St. Louis passengers were killed during the Holocaust. -
Germany invades Poland
When Germany invaded Poland it marked the beginning of World War II. This action made Britain and France finally do something about Hitler, and they both declared war on Germany. -
Madagascar Plan presented
The Madagascar Plan was a plan presented by German SS officer Rademacher Eichmann that proposed to have all Jewish people in Germany move to a Jewish colony in Madagascar. The plan was an effort to find a peace treaty with France.The plan never aclually played out because it was devised so late in the war, and soon Madagascar fell into the Allies' hands. -
Auschwitz opens
The largest concentration camp of the Holocaust was Auschwitz. The largest group of people affected were Jews, gypsies, disabled people, and homosexuals. Many of them died of starvation, in gas chambers, and of disease. There were very few to no survivors. -
Lodz Ghetto Opens
Jewish people in Lodz, Poland were forced to go to the ghetto area designated for them. Winters were harsh for the residents in Lodz and made problems like shortages of food and fuel even worse. -
The Commissar Order
The Commissar Order was issued by the German Armed Forces High Command to attack the soviet union by shooting at their political commissars, or soviet communist party officials who oversaw the soviet unions military units. Nazis also saw any soviet prisoner of war as the "barbaric bolsheviks" (as Nazi Germany saw them) or soviet commissars and killed them as well. -
Yellow Star for German Jews
The Nazis in Germany came up with the idea of the yellow star of David to publicly identify, humiliate, and isolate Jews. Jewish people over the age of six were required to wear a star in public at all times. In many cases, the star made it easy for Nazi officials to identify Jewish people proceeding to the mass deportation of Jews to ghettos, concentration camps, and other killing sites. -
Babi Yar
Babi Yar was a ravine in Ukraine nearby a city called Kiev. Many people were massacred by the Germans here, who were lead by the Einsatzgruppe, including more than 33,000 Jewish people. -
Wannsee Conference
The Wannsee Conference was when fifteen high-ranking Nazi Party and German government officials gathered at a villa in Wannsee, Berlin to discuss the "Final Solution" for the Jewish people. These officials envisioned the horrible fates for jews in the Holocaust, and that more than eleven-million jews, some even not living on German grounds, be killed in that solution. -
Creation of the Zigeunerlager
The Zigeunerlager was an isolation and extermination camp of Auschwitz, specifically for Sinti and Roma (Gypsies). By the end of 1943 more than 18,000 gypsies were killed and more than 25,000 were deported to the Auschwitz camp complex. -
Himmler Orders Liquidation of ghettos
Himmler ordered all jews in ghettos to leave or be transported to concentration camps in order to now have soviet troops find the mistreatment of the Jewish people in the ghettos. Many Jewish people had to find a new place to live, or were put through the hard work of the oil-shale concentration camps. -
Last Gassing at Auschwitz
Auschwitz guards stopped gassing residents in early November, and soon after were ordered by Himmler to destroy the gassing chambers and crematoriums. These brutal punishments were over for the prisoners of Auschwitz but the torture didn't end until the war was finally over. -
Himmler Orders Destruction of Auschwitz
SS chief Heinrich Himmler ordered the destruction of the Auschwitz-Birkenau gas chambers and crematoria when Soviet troops got close to the camp. While SS troops attempted to rid the evidence, prisoners were forced to dismantle and blow up the structures. -
Dr. Josef Mengele arrives at Auschwitz
Josef Mengele, known as the "Angel of Death" was a physician at Auschwitz who performed deadly experiments on prisoners and selected victims to be killed in gas chambers. He experimented most on twins and many other groups, most of these experiments were deadly and inhumane. -
Liberation of Auschwitz
While there were still SS troops trying to get prisoners to go on the death marches from Auschwitz the Soviet troops entered Auschwitz. The Soviets liberated more than 7,000 prisoners who were still at the camp, but still, most were sick or dying. -
Hitler Commits Suicide
Hitler committed suicide in his underground bunker in Berlin, he did this by swallowing a cyanide pill and then shooting himself in the head. After the news of his death, the German army soon surrendered to the Allies, ending the war in Europe. -
International Military Tribunal
The International Military Tribunal was a trial against 21 major Nazi German leaders on charges of crimes of war, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity. This was the first time world leaders had brought leaders of war to justice, making many people feel safe and justified. -
Adolf Eichmann captured
Adolf Eichmann was a high ranking Nazi SS officer, he helped Hitler organize the Holocaust. He was seized by Israeli agents in Argentina on May 11, and was later taken to Israel. -
Dr. Josef Mengele Dies
Mengele was being tracked down by Nazi hunters who wanted to bring him to trial because of the inhumane experiments he did. Mengele escaped to Brazil and later suffered a stroke while swimming off the coast, he was buried under the false name "Wolfgang Gerhard".