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Adolf Hitler Appointed Chancellor
Adolf Hitler Appointed Chancellor
The National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei; NSDAP), more commonly known as the Nazi Party, assumes control of the German state when German President Paul von Hindenburg appoints Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler as Chancellor at the head of a coalition government. The Nazis and the German Nationalist People's Party (Deutschnationale Volkspartei; DNVP) are members of the coalition. -
Dachau concentration camp
DACHAU
Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its allies established more than 44,000 camps and other incarceration sites (including ghettos). The perpetrators used these locations for a range of purposes. These purposes included forced labor, detention of people deemed to be "enemies of the state," and mass murder. Millions of people suffered and died or were killed. Among these sites was Dachau, the longest operating camp. -
The Nuremberg Race Laws
The Nuremberg Race Laws consisted of two pieces of legislation: the Reich Citizenship Law and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor. A special session of the Nazi-controlled Reichstag passed both laws at the Party’s rally in Nuremberg, Germany. These laws institutionalized many of the racial theories underpinning Nazi ideology and provided the legal framework for the systematic persecution of Jews in Germany. -
Reichstag speech
To justify the murder of the Jews both to the perpetrators and to bystanders in Germany and Europe, the Nazis used not only racist arguments but also arguments derived from older negative stereotypes, including Jews as communist subversives, as war profiteers and hoarders, and as a danger to internal security because of their inherent disloyalty and opposition to Germany. -
AUSCHWITZ
The largest of its kind, the Auschwitz camp complex was essential to carrying out the Nazi plan for the "Final Solution." Auschwitz left its mark as one of the most infamous camps of the Holocaust. -
Warsaw Ghetto Sealed
German authorities order the Warsaw ghetto to be sealed. It is the largest ghetto in both area and population, confining more than 350,000 Jews (about 30 percent of the city's population) in an area of about 1.3 square miles, or 2.4 percent of the city's total area. At times, before the deportations of July 1942 began, the actual population in Warsaw ghetto approached 500,000. -
Kovno Ghetto Sealed
German authorities seal off the Kovno (Kaunas; Yiddish: Kovne) ghetto, with approximately 30,000 Jewish inhabitants. The ghetto was in an area of small primitive houses and no running water. It had two parts, called the “small” and “large” ghetto, separated by Paneriu Street. Each ghetto was overcrowded, enclosed by barbed wire, and closely guarded. -
German Surrunder
Soviet forces encircled Berlin, the German capital on April 25, 1945. That same day, Soviet forces linked up with their American counterparts attacking from the west in central Germany (Torgau). After heavy fighting, Soviet forces neared Adolf Hitler’s command bunker in central Berlin. On April 30, 1945, Hitler committed suicide. Within days, Berlin fell to the Soviets. German armed forces surrendered unconditionally in the west on May 7 and in the east on May 9, 1945.