-
Concentration camps start getting built
The major purpose of the earliest concentration camps during the 1930s was to imprison and intimidate the leaders of political, social, and cultural movements that the Nazis perceived to be a threat to the survival of the regime. The first concentration camps in Germany were established soon after Hitler's appointment as chancellor in January 1933. In the weeks after the Nazis came to power -
Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany
Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany a nation with a Jewish population of 566,000. With Hitler as chancellor he is gaining power to allow more nationlism -
Burning of books in Berlin and throughout Germany.
Hitler wanted to burn the books to get rid of the knowledge. The books targeted for burning were those viewed as being subversive or as representing ideologies opposed to Nazism. -
Night of the Long Knives
Night of the Long Knives was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from June 30 to July 2, 1934, when Adolf Hitler, urged on by Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler, carried out a series of political extrajudicial executions -
German President von Hindenburg dies.
In January 1933 Hitler became chancellor of Germany and by August 1934, he had declared himself Führer - the leader of Germany. With in a yesr and a half Hitler is already the leader of Germany -
The German Gestapo is placed above the law.
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and they were appointed higher than the military in 1936. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the executive and the judicial branches into one power. -
Nazis occupy the Rhineland.
Nazi leader Adolf Hitler violates the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Pact by sending German military forces into the Rhineland and began remilitarizing of the Rhineland. Two years later, Nazi Germany burst out of its territories, absorbing Austria and portions of Czechoslovakia. In 1939, Hitler invaded Poland, leading to the outbreak of World War II in Europe. -
Nazi troops enter Austria
On March 12, 1938, German troops march into Austria to annex the German-speaking nation for the Third Reich. German soldiers in tanks and armored vehicles roared across the German-Austrian border on schedule. They met no resistance and in most places were welcomed like heroes. -
Kristallnacht - The Night of Broken Glass.
On the night of November 9, 1938, violence against Jews broke out across the Reich. In two days, over 250 synagogues were burned, over 7,000 Jewish businesses were trashed and looted, dozens of Jewish people were killed, and Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, schools, and homes were looted while police and fire brigades stood by. -
Nazi troops seize Czechoslovakia
The German occupation of Czechoslovakia began with the German annexation of Czechoslovakia's border regions known collectively as the Sudetenland, under terms outlined by the Munich Agreement. German leader Adolf Hitler's pretext for this action was the alleged privations suffered by the ethnic German population living in those regions. New and extensive Czechoslovak border fortifications were also located in the same area. -
The St. Louis, a ship crowded with 930 Jewish refugees, is turned away by Cuba, the United States and other countries and returns to Europe.
On 13 May 1939, more than 900 Jews fled Germany aboard a luxury cruise liner, the SS St Louis. They hoped to reach Cuba and then travel to the US - but were turned away in Havana and forced to return to Europe, where more than 250 were killed by the Nazis. -
Yellow stars required to be worn by Polish Jews over age 10.
Jews throughout Nazi-occupied Europe were forced to wear a badge in the form of a Yellow Star as a means of identification. The badges were often printed on coarse yellow cloth and were a garish yellow color. The star, which represented the star of David, was outlined in thick, black lines and the word 'Jew'. The star was intended to humiliate Jews and to mark them out for segregation and discrimination. The policy also made it easier to identify Jews for deportation to camps.