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Nazi Germany and the Holocaust
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Dachau Concentration Camp
The Nazi regime in Germany begins the construction of concentration camps. Dachau is the first camp, soon followed by Buchenwald near Weimar in central Germany, Sachsenhausen by Berlin in northern Germany, and Ravensbruck for women. Dachau was located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory near the northeastern part of the town of Dachau, about 10 miles northwest of Munich in southern Germany. more on Dachau: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005214 -
Boycott of the Jewish
The Nazis stage a boycott of Jewish shops and businesses. Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, delivers a speech to crowds in Berlin, inciting them to boycott Jewish-owned industry in response to the anti-German "atrocity propaganda" being spread by "international Jewry." (photo: Nazis force three Jewish businessmen to march down Bruehl Strasse, one of the main commercial streets in central Leipzig, carrying signs that read: "Don't buy from Jews; Shop in German businesses!") -
Nuremberg Race Laws
The Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935 took away the rights of citizenship of German Jews, making them "subjects" in Hitler's Reich. The laws also made it forbidden for Jews to marry or have sexual relations with Aryans or to employ young Aryan women as household help. (Aryans were people with blond hair and blue eyes of German descent.) more on the Nuremberg Race Laws: http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-nurem-laws.htm -
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, or The Night of Broken Glass, was a large-scale, coordinated attack on German Jews the night of November 9 and continuing on into the next day. Mob violence broke out as the Gestapo and crowd spectators stood by and watched. The SS and Hitler Youth beat and murdered Jews, broke into and wrecked Jewish homes, and brutalized Jewish women and children. more on Kristallnacht: http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-knacht.htm -
Germany conquers Poland
The Nazis invade Poland, and the SS takes action. There were about 3.5 million Jews living in Poland at the time of the German Invasion. On the 21 of November, Heydrich gives instructions to SS Einsatzgruppen in Poland in concern to the Jews, stating they be gathered into ghettos near railroads for the future "final goal." He also orders a census and the establishment of Jewish administrative councils within the ghettos to implement Nazi policies. -
Nazi Euthanasia Program
Hitler orders widespread "mercy killing" of the sick and disabled, starting with newborns and very young children, then moving on to include older disabled children and adults. This was a general policy; most victims were non-Jews. more on the Nazi Euthanasia: http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-euthanasia.htm
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005200 -
Auschwitz
Nazis choose the town of Oswiecim (Auschwitz) in Poland, near Krakow, as the site of a new concentration camp. In February, the first German Jews are deported to Auschwitz. "The time is near when a machine will go into motion which is going to prepare a grave for the world's criminal - Judah - from which there will be no resurrection." more on Auschwitz: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005189
http://www.theholocaustexplained.org/ks3/the-final-solution/auschwitz-birkenau/ -
The Final Solution
Heinrich Himmler summons Auschwitz Kommandant Höss to Berlin and tells him, "The Führer has ordered the Final Solution of the Jewish question. We, the SS, have to carry out this order...I have therefore chosen Auschwitz for this purpose." -
Zyklon-B Gas
Zyklon-B gas is first tested in the gas chambers at Auschwitz extermination camp. more on Auschwitz gas chambers and crematoria: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/othercamps/auschwitzgaschambers.html -
The Wannsee Conference
Reinhard Heydrich, Himmler's second in command of the SS, instgated Wannsee Conference in Berlin with the top 15 Nazi bureaucrats to coordinate the Final Solution (Endlösung), in which the Nazis would attempt to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe, an estimated 11 million persons. "Europe would be combed of Jews from east to west."
-Reinhard Heydrich more on the Wannsee Conference: http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-wannsee.htm -
The Final Solution is exposed
Swiss representatives of the World Jewish Congress receive information from a German industrialist regarding the Nazi plan to exterminate the Jews. They then pass the information on to London and Washington. In December, British Foreign Secretary Eden tells the British House of Commons the Nazis are "now carrying into effect Hitler's oft repeated intention to exterminate the Jewish people of Europe." The U.S. declares that the crimes will be punished. -
Auschwitz Liberated
Russian troops overrun Auschwitz. An estimated 2 million people (including 1.5 million Jews) have been murdered in the complex of camps around Auschwitz alone. Until the end of the war, other concentration camps are liberated in the East and in the West. -
Hitler commits suicide
Hitler commits suicide with his wife, Eva, in his underground bunker, swallowing a cyanide capsule and then shooting himself with a pistol. Warned that the Russians were only a day or so from overtaking the chancellery and urged to escape to Berchtesgarden, the dictator instead chose suicide. The bodies of Hitler and Eva were cremated in the chancellery garden by the bunker survivors. German court officially declared Hitler dead, but not until 1956. -
The Surrender of Germany
Germany surrenders. General Alfred Jodl arrives at General Dwight Eisenhower’s temporary headquarters – a small schoolhouse in Reims, France – to sign the surrender document. Before Jodl signed the surrender document, transcripts had been sent for approval to London, Paris and Moscow. Admiral Doenitz assigned Jodl, Chief of Staff of the Wehrmacht, to represent him at the signing ceremony. more on the surrender of Germany: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/surrender_nazi_germany.htm -
Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremburg Trials of major surviving leaders of Nazi Germany commence. Those on trial are charged for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Holocaust evidence presented in detail as one part of the trial. The trials continued on into 1946, until reaching completion. more on the Nuremberg Trials: http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-nurem.htm
