Holocaust Timeline

  • Period: to

    Holocaust

  • Takeover of Power

    Takeover of Power

    Adolf Hitler addressed the first session of the German Parliament (Reichstag) following his appointment as chancellor.
  • Terror Begins

    Terror Begins

    Communists, socialists, and other political opponents of the Nazis were among the first to be rounded up and imprisoned by the regime.
  • Citizens to Outcasts

    Citizens to Outcasts

    The Germans posted signs on Jewish businesses to tell Germans that it is not very german-like to shop at these stores.
  • Night of Broken Glass

    Night of Broken Glass

    The Nazi regime unleashed orchestrated anti-Jewish violence across greater Germany.
  • Deportations

    Deportations

    Trains carrying Jews from German-controlled Europe rolled into one of the six killing centers located along rail lines in occupied Poland.
  • Resistance

    Resistance

    Jews buried documents in metal containers, such as milk cans, to preserve a record of Nazi crimes for future generations.
  • Concentration Camps

    Concentration Camps

    The overwhelming majority Jews who entered the Nazi killing centers were murdered in gas chambers---usually within hours of arrival----and their bodies cremated.
  • Liberation

    Liberation

    Eisenhower visited the Ohrdruf concentration camp to personally witness the evidence of atrocities. He was shocked and disgusted, and he urged others to see the camps firsthand lest "the stories of Nazi brutality" be forgotten or dismissed as merely "propaganda".
  • Postwar Trials

    Postwar Trials

    22 major war criminals were tried on charges of crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and conspiracy to commit such crimes.
  • Genocide did not end with the Holocaust

    Genocide did not end with the Holocaust

    The United Nations voted to establish genocide as an international crime, calling it an "odious scrouge" to be condemned by the civilized world.