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Adolf Hilter
President Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany. charismatic speaker, Hitler channeled popular discontent with the post-war Weimar government into support for his fledgling Nazi party. March 20, 1933: SS opens the Dachau concentration camp outside of Munich. April 1, 1933: Boycott of Jewish-owned shops and businesses in Germany April 7, 1933: Law for the Reestablishment of the Professional Civil Service
July 14, 1933: Law for the Prevention of Progeny with Hereditary Diseases -
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The Holocaust and World War II
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Nuremberg Race Laws
At the annual party rally held in Nuremberg in 1935, the Nazis announced new laws which institutionalized many of the racial theories prevalent in Nazi ideology. The laws excluded German Jews from Reich citizenship and prohibited them from marrying or having sexual relations with persons of "German or related blood." Ancillary ordinances to the laws disenfranchised Jews and deprived them of most political rights. March 16, 1935: Germany introduces military conscription. -
Germany incorporates Austria in the Anschluss (Union)
German troops entered Austria, and one day later, Austria was incorporated into Germany. This union, known as the Anschluss, received the enthusiastic support of most of the Austrian population and was retroactively approved via a plebiscite in April 1938. Although neither Jews nor Roma (Gypsies) were allowed to vote, the results were manipulated to indicate that more than 99 percent of the Austrian people wanted the union with Germany. -
Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Agreement
September 1, 1939: Germany invades Poland, starting World War II in Europe. September 17, 1939: The Soviet Union occupies Poland from the east. October 8, 1939: Germans establish a ghetto in Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland. Hitler was planning against the possibility of a two front war. Since fighting a two front war in World War I had split Germany's forces, it had weakened and undermined their offensive; thus, played a large role in Germany losing the First World War. -
Germany invades the Soviet Union
July 6, 1941: Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) shoot nearly 3,000 Jews at the Seventh Fort, one of the 19th-century fortifications surrounding Kovno. August 3, 1941: Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen of Muenster denounces the “euthanasia” killing program in a public sermon. September 28-29, 1941: Einsatzgruppen shoot about 34,000 Jews at Babi Yar, outside Kiev. November 7, 1941: Einsatzgruppen round up 13,000 Jews from the Minsk ghetto and kill them in nearby Tuchinki (Tuchinka) -
Wannsee Conference held near Berlin, Germany
anuary 16, 1942: Germans begin the mass deportation of more than 65,000 Jews from Lodz to the Chelmno killing center.March 27, 1942: Germans begin the deportation of more than 65,000 Jews from Drancy, outside Paris, to the east (primarily to Auschwitz). June 28, 1942: Germany launches a new offensive towards the city of Stalingrad. July 15, 1942: Germans begin mass deportations of nearly 100,000 Jews from the occupied Netherlands to the east (primarily to Auschwitz). July 22, 1942: Germans begin -
Germans forces occupy Hungary
May 15, 1944: Germans begin the mass deportation of about 440,000 Jews from Hungary. June 6, 1944: D-Day: Allied forces invade Normandy, France. June 22, 1944: The Soviets launch an offensive in eastern Belorussia (Belarus). July 25, 1944: Anglo-American forces break out of Normandy. August 1, 1944: Warsaw Polish uprising begins; August 15, 1944: Allied forces land in southern France. August 25, 1944: Liberation of Paris; December 16, 1944: Battle of the Bulge -
Germany surrenders to the Soviets
The Holocaust and World War II: TimelineJanuary 18, 1945: Death march of nearly 60,000 prisoners from the Auschwitz camp system in southern Poland. January 25, 1945: Death march of nearly 50,000 prisoners from the Stutthof camp system in northern Poland. January 27, 1945: Soviet troops liberate the Auschwitz camp complex. March 7, 1945: U.S. troops cross the Rhine River at Remagen. April 16, 1945: The Soviets launch their final offensive, encircling Berlin. April 29, 1945: American forces liberate the Dachau concentration camp.
