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1933 Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor
In the beginning of 1933 the Nazi party, led by Hitler came into power. One of the first acts this group did was make Nuremburg laws which limited the rights of a Jew. -
1935 Nuremburg Laws are created
Nuremberg Laws, which are anti-Jewish racial laws were enacted; Jews were no longer considered German citizens; Jews could not marry Aryans; nor could they fly the German flag. Then on November 15th, 1935 Germany considered a Jew as anyone who has 2 Jewish grandparents and identifies as a Jew. -
1938
Many events happened in this year. The major ones are
Italy enacts sweeping antisemitic laws, Munich Conference: Great Britain and France agree to German occupation of the Sudetenland, previously western Czechoslovakia, Following request by Swiss authorities, Germans mark all Jewish passports with a large letter "J" to restrict Jews from immigrating to Switzerland17,000 Polish Jews living in Germany expelled; Poles refused to admit them; 8,000 are stranded in the frontier village of Zbaszyn. -
1939 World War II starts
On September 1st, 1939 Germany invaded Poland, which caused WWII to break out. Austrian and Czech Jews were deported to Poland. Jews are forced to wear an arm band or yellow star of David. -
1940 Camps and ghettos
Germany invades the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Concentration camp established at Auschwitz
and France surrenders. Warsaw Ghetto sealed: ultimately contained 500,000 people. -
1941
Anti-Jewish riots in Romania, led by the Iron Guard hundreds of Jews butchered.
Germany invades the Soviet Union. 34,000 Jews massacred at Babi Yar outside Kiev
Establishment of Auschwitz II (Birkenau) for the extermination of Jews; Gypsies, Poles, Russians, and others were also murdered at the camp.
Japanese attack Pearl Harbor
Chelmno (Kulmhof) extermination camp begins operations: 340,000 Jews, 20,000 Poles and Czechs murdered by April 1943.
United States declares war on Japan and Germany -
1942
Wannsee Conference in Berlin: Heydrich outlines plan to murder Europe's Jews March 17
Extermination begins in Belzec; by end of 1942 600k Jews murdered May
Extermination by gas begins in Sobibor killing center; by October 1943, 250,000 Jews murdered
July 22
Germans establish Treblinka concentration camp Deportation of Jews to killing centers from Belgium, Croatia, France, the Netherlands, and Poland; armed resistance by Jews in ghettos of Kletzk, Kremenets, Lakhva, Mir, Tuchin, and Weisweiz -
1943
May Liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto. On May 16, 1943, SS and Police Chief Jurgen Stroop proclaimed, "180 Jews, bandits, and subhumans were destroyed. The Jewish quarter of Warsaw is no more." Summer Armed resistance by Jews in Bedzin, Bialystok, Czestochowa, Lvov, and Tarnów ghettos -
1944
March 19 Germany occupies Hungary May 15 Nazis begin deporting Hungarian Jews; by June 27, 380,000 sent to Auschwitz June 6 D-Day: Allied invasion at Normandy July
Group of German officers attempt to assassinate Hitler
Russians liberate Majdanek killing center October 7 Revolt by inmates at Auschwitz; one crematorium blown up November Last Jews deported from Theresienstadt (Terezin) to Auschwitz
Beginning of death march of approximately 40,000 Jews from Budapest to Austria -
1945 WW2 ends
January 17 Evacuation of Auschwitz; beginning of death march January 25 Beginning of death march for inmates of Stutthof April 6-10 Death march of inmates of Buchenwald April 30 Hitler commits suicide May 8 V-E Day: Germany surrenders; end of Third Reich August 6 Bombing of Hiroshima August 9 Bombing of Nagasaki August 15 V-J Day: Victory over Japan proclaimed. September 2 Japan surrenders; end of World War II
