Holocaust Background

Holocaust Background

1933• January 30 Adolf Hitler is appointed chancellor of Germany. • February 28 The German government takes away freedom of speech, assembly,

press, and freedom from invasion of privacy and from house search without warrant. • March 20 The first concentration camp is established in Nazi Germany at Dachau.

The first prisoners are political opponents. • April 7 Jews are barred from government service; Jewish civil servants, including

University proMay 10 Books by Jews and opponents of Nazism are burned publicly. • July 14 Laws are passed in Germany that permit the forced sterilization of Gypsies,

the mentally and physically disabled, African-Germans, and others considered "inferior" or "unfit.“ professors and school teachers, are fired from their positions.

• August 3 Adolph Hitler declares himself president and chancellor of the Third Reich after the death of Paul von Hindenburg.

• October First major wave of arrests of homosexuals occurs throughout Germany, continuing into November.

1934

• January 13 The Saar region is annexed by Germany. • April Jehovah's Witnesses are banned from all civil service jobs and are

arrested throughout Germany. • May "No Jews" signs and notices are posted outside German towns and

villages, and outside shops and restaurants. • May 21 Jews are prohibited from serving in the German armed forces. • September 15 The Nuremberg Laws deprive German Jews of their

citizenship.

1935

• March 3 Jewish doctors are no longer permitted to practice in government institutions in Germany.

• March 7 Hitler's army invades the Rhineland. • July 12 The first German Gypsies are arrested and deported to Dachau

concentration camp. • August 1-16 The Olympic Games take place in Berlin. Anti-Jewish signs

(i.e., "Jews Not Welcome") are removed until the Games are completed. • October 15 The Ministry of Science and Education prohibits teaching by

"non-Aryans" in public schools and bans private instruction by Jewish teachers.

1936

1937• July 2 Further restrictions are imposed on the number of Jewish students

attending German schools. • July 16 Buchenwald concentration camp opens. • November 16 Jews can obtain passports for travel outside of Germany

only in special cases.

1938• March 13 Germany annexes Austria. • May 13 The German government passes a decree requiring the registration of all

Gypsies without a fixed address living in Austria; by June 1938, all Gypsy children above the age of 14 have to be fingerprinted. This is a central part of the growing racial definition of Gypsies as "criminally asocial."

• July 6-15 Representatives from thirty-two countries meet at Evian, France, to discuss refugee policies. Most of the countries refuse to let in more Jewish refugees.

• July 23 The German government announces Jews must carry identification cards.

1938 continued• November 9-10 Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass"): Nazi organized nation-

wide pogroms result in the burning of hundreds of synagogues; the looting and destruction of many Jewish homes, schools, and community offices; vandalism; and the looting of 7,500 Jewish stores. Many Jews are beaten, and more than 90 are killed. Thirty-thousand Jewish men are arrested and imprisoned in concentration camps. Several thousand Jewish women are arrested and sent to local jails. This is followed by a punitive fine to be paid by the Jewish community for the damages done to their businesses and the accelerated "Aryanization" of Jewish businesses.

• November 12 German Jews are ordered to pay one billion Reichsmarks in reparations for damages of Kristallinacht.

1938 continued• November 15 All Jewish children are expelled from German schools and can

attend only separate Jewish schools. • December 2-3 Decrees ban Jews from public streets on certain days; Jews are

forbidden drivers' licenses and car registrations. • December 3 Jews must sell their businesses and real estate and hand over their

securities and jewelry to the government at artificially low prices. • December 8 Jews may no longer attend universities as teachers and/or students.

1939• March 15 Germany invades and occupies Czechoslovakia. • June Cuba and the United States refuse to accept Jewish refugees aboard the ship

S.S. St. Louis, which is forced to return to Europe. • September 1 The German army invades Poland and World War II begins. • September 23 Jews are forced to turn in radios, cameras, and other electric objects

to the police. Jews receive more restrictive ration coupons than other Germans. They do not receive coupons for meat, milk, etc. Jews also receive fewer and more limited clothing ration cards than do Germans.

1939 continued•October Hitler extends powers to doctors to kill institutionalized mentally and physically disabled persons in the "euthanasia" program. •November 23 Germans force Jews in Poland to wear a yellow Star of David on their chests or a blue-and-white Star of David armband. •November 28 The first Polish ghetto is established.

1940• Spring The German army invades and defeats Denmark, Norway, Belgium,

Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and France. • May 1-7 Approximately 164,000 Polish Jews are concentrated and imprisoned in the

Lódz ghetto which is established and sealed off from the outside world. • May 20 A concentration camp is established at Auschwitz, Poland. • October The Warsaw ghetto is established. • November 15 The Warsaw ghetto is closed off with approximately 500,000

inhabitants.

Lodz Ghetto Warsaw Ghetto

1941• March 22 Gypsy and African-German children are expelled from public schools. • March 24 The German army invades North Africa. • April 6 The German army invades Yugoslavia and Greece. • June 22 The German army invades the Soviet Union. The Einsatzgruppen, mobile

killing squads, begin the mass murders of Jews, Gypsies, and Communist leaders. • September 1 German Jews above the age of six are forced to wear a yellow Star of

David sewed on the left side of their clothes with the word "Jude" printed in black. • September 23 Soviet prisoners of war and Polish prisoners are killed in Nazi test

of gas chambers at Auschwitz in occupied Poland.

1941 continued• September 28-29 Nearly 34,000 Jews are murdered by mobile killing squads at

Babi Yar, near Kiev in the Ukraine. • October Construction begins on Birkenau, an addition to the Auschwitz camp.

Birkenau includes a killing center which begins operations in early 1942. • December 7 Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. • December 11 Germany declares war on the United States.

1942

• 1942 Nazi "extermination" camps located in occupied Poland at Auschwitz, Birkenau, Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec, and Majdanek-Lublin begins mass murder of Jews in gas chambers.

• January 20 Fifteen Nazi and government leaders meet at Wannsee, a section of Berlin, to discuss the "final solution to the Jewish question".

• May 4-12 Approximately ten thousand Jews, who had arrived in the Lódz ghetto some six months earlier from Germany, Luxembourg, Vienna, and Prague, are deported to Chelmno. Their baggage is confiscated before they board the train.

• June The German government closes all Jewish schools.

1942 continued• July 28 Jewish fighting organizations established in the Warsaw ghetto. • September 5-12 Approximately fifteen thousand Jews in the Lódz ghetto are

deported to Chelmno, mostly children under ten and individuals over sixty-five, but also others who are too weak or ill to work. By September 16, approximately fifty-five thousand Jews have been deported to the killing center at Chelmno.

• October 4 All Jews in concentration camps in Germany are sent to death camp at Auschwitz.

1943• April 19-May, 16 Jews in the Warsaw ghetto initiate resistance to deportation by

the Germans to the death camps. • March All Gypsies in Germany and Nazi occupied countries, with few exceptions,

are arrested and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. • June The Nazis order all of the ghettos in Poland and the Soviet Union destroyed. • October 14 The inmates at Sobibor initiate an armed rebellion.

1944• March The German army invades Hungary. • May 15 The Nazis begin deportation of Hungarian Jews. Over 430,000 Jews are

sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau where most are gassed. • June 6 The Allied Powers invade Normandy. • July 20 German officers fail and are caught in an attempt to assassinate Hitler. • July 24 The Soviet Army liberates the Majdanek death camp. • October 7 The prisoners at Auschwitz-Birkenau rebel and blow up one

crematorium.

1945• January 17 Nazis empty Auschwitz and start prisoners on "death marches" to

Germany. • January 27 The Soviet army liberates Auschwitz. • April Troops from the United States liberate survivors from the Buchenwald and

Dachau concentration camps. • April 30 Adolph Hitler commits suicide in his bunker in Berlin rather than be caught

by the advancing Soviet army. • May 5 Troops from the United States liberate Mauthausen concentration camp. • May 7 Germany surrenders and war in Europe is ended. • November The war crimes tribunal is convened at Nuremberg, Germany.

Auschwitz liberated

Buchenwald liberated

Dachau liberated

Hitler’s suicide

Nuremberg Trials