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Schutzstaffel Organized
Founded in 1925, the “Schutzstaffel,” German for “Protective Echelon,” initially served as Nazi Party leader, Adolf Hitler’s personal bodyguards, and later became one of the most powerful and feared organizations in all of Nazi Germany. This impacted many Jews because as the SS grew there were more people against them and directing many executions. This also gained Hitler more confidence and power towards his ruling because these people were here to protect him and what he stood for. -
Hitler becomes Chancellor
When Hitler becomes Chancellor, it was a major turning point for Germany. He had a plan to make Germany a powerful, unified one-party state. This impacted the people of Germany because they now had someone in charge who they believed could help turn around Germany into something more powerful and strong. -
Hitler Claims Emergency Powers
Hitler complained that his government did not have majority support in parliament, so he asked for another round of parliamentary elections. When Hitler spoke to parliament, the only ones to oppose the Enabling Act was the Social Democrats. Hitler accuses the Social Democrats of betraying Germany during the Weimar Republic. This would help gain the extra votes they needed from the parliament. This impacted Germany because with the emergency powers, they would be protected from war or disaster. -
Boycott of Jewish Businesses
After Hitler came to power, the Nazi’s decide to stage an economic boycott against the Jews of Germany. It only lasted one day but it marked a campaign that was brought by the Nazi Party to eliminate the German Jewish population. This majorly impacted all Jews in Germany because the Nazi’s were a very powerful group that were against them. So now they had a target on their backs that wanted to destroy their entire population. -
Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseases
This forced the sterilization of all people who suffered from diseases considered hereditary, such as mental illness. This made them so they weren’t able to reproduce, because anyone with any disability or any disease was considered not “okay” or accepted. This affected anyone with a hereditary disease even if it is controllable or not life threatening because they were forced to have this surgery. -
Law against Dangerous Habitual Criminals
This new law allows courts to order the indefinite imprisonment of “habitual criminals” if they deem the person dangerous to society. This affects anyone under the ruling of a court. Anyone who is concluded to have commited a crime, the court is now legally aloud to send them in imprisonment if they find them harmful to their society. -
Nuremberg Laws
This was the law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour prohibited marriages and extramarital intercourse between Jews and Germans, and forbade the employment of German females under 45 in Jewish households. This mostly affected Jews because females could not get to work to provide for their families. This even separated the Jews from the rest of society. It also took away Jews political rights and deprived them of their natural rights. -
Nazi’s Occupy Rhineland
Nazi leader Adolf Hitler violates the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Pact by sending German military forces into the Rhineland, a demilitarized zone along the Rhine River in western Germany. This affected the rest of Europe because it went against the treaty making everyone keep a close eye on Germany. This as well caused lots of tension between countries which was one of the reasons for World War 2. -
Reichszentrale is created
This was was the central instrument of Nazi Germany for the fight against homosexuality in Germany and the fight against abortion. The group that was impacted were probably all people that fell under being labeled as gay or attracted towards the same sex because they were looked at differently. They also fought against the idea of abortion. The Nazi’s collected data on these people and began persecution and punishment towards them. They had convicted about 41,000 homosexuals. -
Kristallnacht/The Night of Broken Glass
A massive, coordinated attack on Jews throughout the German Reich. The Jews were sent to concentration camps and were arrested for crime because they were Jews. The Jews were the main group impacted. They were impacted by being sent to concentration camps and being separated from their families. -
Einsatzgruppen, starts
Einsatzgruppen were SS and police units that had the job of securing occupied territories while the German forces were proceeding in eastern Europe. These squads commited the mass murders of the Soviet Jews, Roma, and political opponents. When the Einsatzgruppen started, it impacted all of the people in the different places they invaded in Europe because civilians were being killed for their territory. -
St. Louis Ship (with Jews)
St. Louis was a German ocean liner known for carrying more than 900 Jewish refugees from Germany in 1939. Originally intending to debark in Cuba, they were denied permission to land. This impacted hundreds of Jews in two ways. At first, it was a chance for a better life thinking someone was going to take them in. But as they sailed further, countries started saying no. This resulted in the Jews being sent back to Germany and many concentration camps -
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Germany Invades Poland
German forces invade Poland from on land and in the air with Hitler leading them to seek to regain any lost territory and to just take over. It affected the citizens of Poland because they were invaded by Hitler so that means that most of the people living there were either sent to concentration camps, killed off, or left with nowhere to go (if they ran away). It as well started tension between Germany, France, and Britain because they both told Germany to not invade Poland. -
Yellow Star for German Jews
This was a way for the Naiz's to seperate the Jews. This was a badge that had a yellow star on it to humiliate and segregate the Jews from the rest of the population of Europe. It was a key element in the Nazi’s plan to execute the Jews. This impacted all Jews because they had to wear the badge. When wearing this badge, they could be persecuted, sent to concentration camps, or killed. It was a way of letting people know to stay away from these people. -
Auschwitz opens
Auschwitz Birkenau was the largest Nazi concentration camp in Poland. Jews and other enemies of the Nazi’s would be sent there as prisoners. Jews were mostly impacted by this “prison camp” because millions died or were severely hurt. -
Madagascar Plan presented
The Madagascar Plan was a proposal by the Nazi German government to relocate the Jewish population of Europe to the island of Madagascar. This was also for the Jews to have their citizenship revoked, and all their belongings seized to help fund a “super-ghetto." This affected the Jews because the Nazi’s were treating them even worse to try to push them out and send them over to the island. Luckily it didn't go into full affect or it would have caused many harmful actions towards the Jews. -
Lodz Ghetto Opens
The Litzmannstadt Ghetto was a World War II ghetto established by the Nazi German authorities for Polish Jews and Roma. This affected many Jews who were sectioned off from the rest of society, and forced to live in poor conditions away from everyone. -
The Commisair Order
The Commissar Order was an order issued by the German High Command. It instructed the Wehrmacht that any Soviet political commissar identified among captured troops would be summarily executed as an enforcer of the Judeo-Bolshevism ideology in military forces. This impacted many Soviet Union military members trying to come save the Jews from the concentration camps or when they came into Germany. They would be immediately executed if recognized. -
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Babi Yar
Babi Yar was a massacre of Jews where over 34,000 had been killed by Einsatzgruppen squads. This massacre impacted Jews because many were slaughtered and killed for no reason. -
Wannsee Conference
The Wannsee Conference was a meeting of senior government officials of Nazi Germany and Schutzstaffel leaders. They discussed what the final solution should be for what to do with the Jews. It is not known what was exactly said. But, the origin of the what is clear is that the genocide of the Jews was the culmination of a decade of Nazi policy, under the rule of Adolf Hitler. This impacted thousands of Jews. Many were killed and they attempted to try and end the Jewish religion. -
Creation of the Zigeunerlager
Gypsy camps also known as Zigeunerlager, were camps for sterilization and forced labor. The Gypsy Camp at Auschwitz was a section for the gypsies to work. This impacted the gypsies because they were forced into labor and then had to work while the SS guarded. -
Dr. Josef Mengele arrives at Auschwitz
Josef Mengele was a physician and eventually became the medical officer in spring at Auschwitz. His experiments either would cause harmful effects or death. Josef Mengele arriving at Auschwitz definitely impacted all the people that were prisoners because they had to go through medical experiments that were very dangerous for them and it caused some of the prisoners to even die. -
Himmler Orders Liquidation of ghettos
Heinrich Himmler issues an order to liquidate or get rid of all the ghettos and people in them. He would transfer the remaining jewish inhabitants to concentration camps. This impacted the Jews in the ghettos because their population was either being killed off or moved to miserable concentration camps where they probably would eventually die. -
Last Gassing at Auschwitz
Heinrich Himmler had ordered gassing with Zyklon-B to be stopped. This impacted the Jews because out of the last survivors, none of them had to no longer worry about being sent to a gas chamber. Thousands of Jews had already died and been sent to the last gassing, and now that is was ending it is no longer one of the ways to end your life. -
Himmler Orders Destruction of Auschwitz
Soviet forces continue to approach Auschwitz. So, the SS chief, Heinrich Himmler, orders to destroy the Auschwitz gas chambers and crematoria. During this destruction, prisoners will be forced to disassemble structures. The whole point of destroying Auschwitz was to get rid of any evidence of the mass killings. This impacted the prisoners because they were destroying all the evidence of their mass killings and what they went through. -
Liberation of Auschwitz
The Soviet army entered Auschwitz and liberated more than 7,000 remaining prisoners, who were mostly ill and dying. This affected many Jews were who were sent to Auschwitz waiting to die. The Soviet Union was able to save some people and take them out of the camp. -
Hitler Commits Suicide
Hitler was warned by his officers that the Russians were about a day from overtaking chancellery. He chose to commit suicide instead of live. Hitler shot himself with a pistol. This impacted most of Europe because they lost their leader. It also impacted the German military because he was one of their best military leaders. Lastly, it impacted the Jews because now they didn’t have someone who was trying to kill their entire population. -
International Military Tribunal
The International Military Tribunal was a trial of 21 major Nazi German leaders that were on charge for crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and conspiracy to commit each of these crimes. This impacted any of the groups that were hurt by Hitler and the Nazi’s because they were finally getting justice for everything that they had been through. This also affected the Nazi leaders on trial because they were actually being punished for what they had done. -
Adolf Eichmann captured
Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion had announced that the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was captured and put on trial in Israel. Eichmann was charged with managing and facilitating the mass deportation of Jews to ghettos and killing centers that were located in the east of where Germany occupied land. Eichmann was impacted because he was captured and then sentenced to death by being hanged. -
Dr Josef Mengele Dies
Josef Mengele received imprisonment for being a criminal by murdering and using people for his experiments. He had escaped imprisonment after the war and moved a few different places. They say he died of a stroke while swimming. This impacted the Nazi’s because after Josef died, they would now not have him as one of the doctors at Auschwitz. Also, the way he used prisoners is the same way the Nazi’s like to do things with prisoners because they liked to kill Jews and other people at the camps.