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Takeover of Power
In March 1933, Adolf Hitler addressed the first session of the German Parliament (Riechstag) following his appointment as chancellor. -
From Citizens to Outcasts
A woman reads a boycott sign posted on the window of a Jewish-owned department store. The Nazis initiated a boycott of Jewish shops and businesses on April 1, 1933, across Germany. -
Nazi Race Laws
Among other things, the laws issued in September
1935 restricted future German citizenship to those
of “German or kindred blood,” and excluded those
deemed to be “racially” Jewish or Roma (Gypsy). -
Search for Refuge
Jews in Vienna wait in line at a police station to obtain exit visas. Following the incorporation of Austria by Nazi Germany in March 1938, and the unleashing of a wave of humiliation, terror, and confiscation, many Austrian Jews attempted to leave the country. -
Night of Broke Glass
Residents of Rostock, Germany, view a burning synagogue the morning after Kristallnacht (“Night of Broken Glass”). On the night of November 9–10, 1938, the Nazi regime unleashed orchestrated anti-Jewish violence across greater Germany. -
American Responses
In May 1939 the passenger ship St. Louis—seen here before departing Hamburg—sailed from Germany to Cuba carrying 937 passengers, most of them Jews. -
Life in the Ghetto
In November 1940, German authorities sealed the Warsaw ghetto, severely restricting supplies for the more than 300,000 Jews living there. -
The War begins
The war in Europe ended with the unconditional surrender of Germany in May 1945.