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Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany a nation with a Jewish population of 566,000.
During this time, Jews in Europe were subjected to progressively harsher persecution that ultimately led to the murder of 6,000,000 Jews (1.5 million of these being children) and the destruction of 5,000 Jewish communities. These deaths represented two-thirds of European Jewry and one-third of all world Jewry. -
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The Holocaust
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The Gestapo is created to help gather Jews and bring them to the concentration camps.
The Gestapo is born, created by Hermann Göring in the German state of Prussia. The Gestapo was created to round up Jews and bring them to concentration camps. -
Adolf Hitler is granted Führer
German President von Hindenburg dies. Hitler becomes Führer. He's now the German President, he will do anything to kill the Jews. -
90% vote 'Yes' to Hitler's powers.
Hitler receives a 90 percent 'Yes' vote from German voters approving his new powers. This voting has given him the right to take out all Jews. He wants revenge. -
Women have to get abortions if pregnant.
Nazis pass law allowing forced abortions on women to prevent them from passing on hereditary diseases. All women that are or become pregnant will have an abortion. Hitler doesn't want women to give birth to more Jews. -
Nuremberg Race Laws against Jews decreed.
The Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935 deprived German Jews of their rights of citizenship, giving them the status of "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. (An Aryan being a person with blond hair and blue eyes of Germanic heritage.)
The first two laws comprising the Nuremberg Race Laws were: "The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor" (regarding Jewish mar -
Olympic games begin in Berlin.
Olympic games begin in Berlin. Hitler and top Nazis seek to gain legitimacy through favorable public opinion from foreign visitors and thus temporarily refrain from actions against Jews. During the Olympics, a three-week moratorium on anti-Jewish measures was put into effect to create a favorable impression upon foreign visitors. Below: Inside the newly built Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germans salute Adolf Hitler at the opening of the games. -
Jews are banned from professional occupations.
Jews are banned from many professional occupations including teaching Germans, and from being accountants or dentists. They are also denied tax reductions and child allowances. -
'Eternal Jew'
'Eternal Jew' travelling exhibition opens in Munich. The travelling exhibition promoted stereotypes of Jews and Nazi perceptions of their danger to the world. Officials shown above are gazing at a segment entitled, "Jewish dress was a warning against racial defilement." To the left is a segment entitled, "Usury and the fencing of goods were always their privilege." -
Jews over 15 are to apply for identity.
Nazis order Jews over age 15 to apply for identity cards from the police, to be shown on demand to any police officer. Jews over 15 are now affected. They have to carry these identity cards around with them at all times. -
Synagogue destroyed
Nazis destroy the synagogue in Nuremberg. The synagogue was the church for the Jews. The Nazis have no respect for the Jews and theoir religion. -
The Night of Broken Glass.
Kristallnacht - The Night of Broken Glass. A massive, coordinated attack on Jews throughout the German Reich on the night of November 9, 1938. The attack came after Herschel Grynszpan, a 17 year old Jew living in Paris, shot and killed a member of the German Embassy staff there in retaliation for the poor treatment his father and his family suffered at the hands of the Nazis in Germany. -
Yellow Stars
Yellow stars required to be worn by Polish Jews over age 10. A Star of David, often yellow-colored, was used by the Nazis during the Holocaust as a method of identifying Jews. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, 10 year old jews and up were to wear these. -
Nazis invade France, Belgium, Hollan, and Luxembourg.
Nazis invade France (Jewish pop. 350,000), Belgium (Jewish pop. 65,000), Holland (Jewish pop. 140,000), and Luxembourg (Jewish pop. 3,500). All Jews were taken to concnetration camps. Most Jews were killed, some Jews escaped, not many got to see their kids, wives, husbands, etc. -
The Krakow Ghetto
The Krakow Ghetto is sealed off containing 70,000 Jews. Forced by the Nazis to relocate to the Krakow Ghetto, Jews move their belongings in horse-drawn wagons. -
The German Army High Comman gives approval tob RSHA and Heydrich
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Beginning of general deportation of German Jews.
The Jews of Wuerzburg were taken by police officials into the Platzscher Garten hotel. In one room of the hotel, their luggage was inspected by Gestapo officials and all valuables were confiscated. The luggage was then taken to a collecting area, from where it would supposedly be taken to the deportation train. However, the deportees never saw their luggage again. -
Hitler declares war on the United States.
Hitler declares war on the United States. President Roosevelt then asks Congress for a declaration of war on Germany saying, "Never before has there been a greater challenge to life, liberty and civilization." The U.S.A. then enters the war in Europe and will concentrate nearly 90 percent of its military resources to defeat Hitler. -
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SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich.
Deputy Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, had been attacked in Prague by Free Czech agents who were trained in England and brought to Czechoslovakia to assassinate him. They shot at Heydrich as his car slowed to round a sharp turn, then threw a bomb which exploded, mortally wounding him. Heydrich managed to get out of the car, draw his pistol and shoot back at the assassins before collapsing in the street. -
Nazis liquidate Lidice in retaliation for Heydrich's death.
The bodies of the men and boys over age 16 of Lidice, Czechoslovakia, murdered by the Nazis on June 10, 1942, in reprisal for the assassination of SS Leader Reinhard Heydrich. Below: SS officers sift through the rubble of Lidice. -
Massive escape from Sobibor.
Massive escape from Sobibor as Jews and Soviet POWs break out, with 300 making it safely into nearby woods. Of those 300, fifty will survive. Exterminations then cease at Sobibor, after over 250,000 deaths. All traces of the death camp are then removed and trees are planted. -
The U.S. Congress holds hearing.
The U.S. Congress holds hearings regarding the U.S. State Department's inaction regarding European Jews, despite mounting reports of mass extermination. -
President Roosevelt issues a statement condemning German and Japanese ongoing "crimes against humanity."
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D-Day.
D-Day: Allied landings in Normandy on the coast of northern France. The Invasion of Normandy was the invasion and establishment of Allied forces in Normandy, France, during Operation Overlord in 1944 during World War II. It was the largest invasion force in history, as well as the largest amphibious operation ever to take place. -
