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Adolf Hitler Appointed Chancellor of Germany
On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed as the chancellor of Germany by President Paul Von Hindenburg. -
Nazis Open Dachau Concentration Camp
Dachau was the first of the Nazi concentration camps opened in Germany, intended to hold political prisoners. It is located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory southeast of the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km (10 mi) northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria, in southern Germany. -
Hitler Becomes Führer
Hitler becomes Führer by the summer of 1934. The Elderly German President von Hindenburg lay close to death at his country estate In East. -
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.) -
Law Requires Jewish Passports be Stamped with a Large Red "J"
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Nazis Arrest 17,000 Jews of Polish Nationality
Nazis arrest 17,000 Jews of Polish nationality living in Germany, then expel them back to Poland which refuses them entry, leaving them in 'No-Man's Land' near the Polish border for several months. -
Kristallnacht
A massive, coordinated attack on Jews throughout the German Reich on the night of November 9, 1938, into the next day, has come to be known as Kristallnacht or The Night of Broken Glass. -
Final Deportation of German Jews into Occupied Poland
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Lodz Ghetto Sealed Off
The Lodz Ghetto in occupied Poland is sealed off from the outside world with 230,000 Jews locked inside. -
Krakow Ghetto Sealed Off
The Krakow Ghetto is sealed off containing 70,000 Jews. -
Warsaw Ghetto Sealed Off
The Warsaw Ghetto, containing over 400,000 Jews, is sealed off. -
Chelmno Extermination Camp Becomes Operational
In occupied Poland, near Lodz, Chelmno extermination camp becomes operational. Jews taken there are placed in mobile gas vans and driven to a burial place while carbon monoxide from the engine exhaust is fed into the sealed rear compartment, killing them. The first gassing victims include 5,000 Gypsies who had been deported from the Reich to Lodz. -
Zyklon-B
Mass killings of Jews using Zyklon-B begin at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Bunker I (the red farmhouse) in Birkenau with the bodies being buried in mass graves in a nearby meadow. -
Belzec Extermination Camp Becomes Operational
In occupied Poland, Belzec extermination camp becomes operational. The camp is fitted with permanent gas chambers using carbon monoxide piped in from engines placed outside the chamber, but will later substitute Zyklon-B. -
Sobibor Extermination Camp Becomes Operational
In occupied Poland, Sobibor extermination camp becomes operational. The camp is fitted with three gas chambers using carbon monoxide piped in from engines, but will later substitute Zyklon-B. -
Himmler Orders Operation Reinhard
Himmler orders Operation Reinhard, mass deportations of Jews in Poland to extermination camps. -
Beginning of Deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto
Beginning of deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to the new extermination camp, Treblinka. Also, beginning of the deportation of Belgian Jews to Auschwitz. -
Treblinka Extermination Camp Opened
Treblinka extermination camp opened in occupied Poland, east of Warsaw. The camp is fitted with two buildings containing 10 gas chambers, each holding 200 persons. Carbon monoxide gas is piped in from engines placed outside the chamber, but Zyklon-B will later be substituted. Bodies are burned in open pits. -
Invasion of Eastern Germany by Russian Troops
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Prisoners Freed at Bergen-Belsen
Approximately 40,000 prisoners freed at Bergen-Belsen by the British, who report "both inside and outside the huts was a carpet of dead bodies, human excreta, rags and filth." -
Hitler Commits Suicide in his Berlin Bunker
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Americans Free Inmates
Americans free 33,000 inmates from concentration camps.
