Timeline of the Holocaust
1933
JANUARY 30
Adolf Hitler becomes the chancellor of Germany.
FEBRUARY 28
Nazis declare act of emergency after Reichstag fire and used it to consolidate power.
MARCH 22
First concentration camp is opened in Dachau, near Munich in southern Germany.
MAY 10
Books written by Jewish authors and other Nazi opponents are publicly burned.
JULY 14
Law is passed in Germany providing forced sterilization of handicapped persons, Gypsies and Blacks. Nazi Party becomes the one and only legal party in Germany.
1934
JANUARY 26
Germany and Poland sign a non-aggression pact.
AUGUST 2
Hitler proclaims himself Führer and Reichskanzler - Leader and Reich Chancellor. Armed forces must swear allegiance to him.
1935
APRIL 1
The Nazi government banned the Jehovah’s Witnesses because of the religion’s refusal to swear allegiance to the state.
JUNE 16
The German Ministry of Justice revised the criminal code to make it a crime to perform homosexual acts between men.
SEPTEMBER 15
Nuremberg Laws are passed. These Laws state that Jews are no longer considered German citizens, cannot marry Aryans, and cannot fly the German flag.
NOVEMBER 15
The term "Jew" is defined as anyone with three Jewish grandparents or someone with two Jewish grandparents who identifies him/herself as a Jew.
1936
MARCH 7
Germany occupies Rhineland, flouting the Versailles Treaty.
AUGUST
The 1936 Olympic Games take place in Berlin.
OCTOBER 25
Hitler and Benito Mussolini form the Rome-Berlin Axis.
1937
JUNE 15
Buchenwald concentration camp opens in eastern central Germany.
SEPTEMBER 7
Hitler declares the end of the Versailles Treaty.
NOVEMBER 25
Germany and Japan sign a military and political pact.
1938
MARCH 13
Austria is annexed by Germany (the "Anschluss"). All anti-Semitic decrees are immediately applied to the Jews of Austria.
JULY 6-13
Evian Conference is held at Evian-les-Bains in France to discuss the Jewish refugee problem. Little action is taken to solve the problem.
JULY 8
The Great Synagogue in Munich is torn down on Nazi orders.
SEPTEMBER 29
The Munich Conference is held. Great Britain and France agree to grant Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia, to Germany.
OCTOBER 28
15,000 Polish citizens who live in Germany are forced to go back to Poland, which denies them entry.
NOVEMBER 9-10
Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass): a systematically planned anti-Jewish pogrom in Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland. In this tragedy, 200 synagogues are destroyed, 7,500 Jewish shops are looted, and 30,000 Jewish males are sent to concentration camps.
1939
JANUARY 30
Hitler announces in a Reichstag speech that if a war erupts, it will mean the extermination of European Jews.
MAY
The "St. Louis", a ship, carrying 937 Jews, is denied entrance to Cuba and the U.S, sending its passengers back to Nazi occupied Germany.
MAY 17
The British White Paper is published. This paper limits the number of Jewish immigrants to Palestine, a Middle-Eastern territory where Jews desired a homeland.
AUGUST 23
A non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Germany is signed.
SEPTEMBER 1
Germany invades Poland, beginning World War II
SEPTEMBER 2
Great Britain and France declare war against Germany.
SEPTEMBER 17
The Red (Soviet) Army annexes parts of eastern Poland.
OCTOBER 8
The first ghetto is established in Poland, in Protrokow Trybunalski.
NOVEMBER 23
Jews in German-occupied Poland are forced to wear an armband with a yellow star.
1940
SPRING
Germany occupies Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland and Northern France.
MAY 7
The Lodz Ghetto is created in Lodz, Poland.
MAY 20
The Auschwitz concentration camp is established outside of Osweicim, Poland.
OCTOBER 16
The Nazis order the creation of the Warsaw Ghetto in Warsaw, Poland.
NOVEMBER 16
The Warsaw Ghetto, containing 500,000 people, is sealed.
1941
JANUARY 21-31
Anti-Jewish riots in Romania: hundreds of Jews are killed.
MARCH
Jews throughout Eastern Europe are forced into ghettos.
JUNE
11,000 Jews are massacred in Romania.
JUNE 23
The Einsatzgruppen, mobile units of the German army which carry out mass killing of Jews and other "undesirables," follow the invading German army and start operations in the Soviet Union.
JULY 31
Reinhard Heydrich is appointed to implement the "Final Solution" of the "Jewish question" -- the extermination of European Jewry.
FALL
"Babi Yar" massacre of approximately 100,000 people, most of whom were Jews, near Kiev.
DECEMBER 7
Japan attacks U.S. at Pearl Harbor; U.S. declares was on Japan and her Allies.
DECEMBER 11
Germany and Italy declare war on the United States.
Beginning in 1941, there were numerous mass killings of Jews, first in Russia and then throughout the rest of Europe. Many victims were transported to concentration camps where they were worked to death or murdered.
1942
JANUARY 20
The Wannsee Conference is held in Berlin with fifteen high-ranking Nazi party and German government leaders to coordinate the "Final Solution" – the extermination of all Jews.
SPRING - SUMMER
Deportations from Polish ghettos to death camps begin.
NOVEMBER
Many ghettos are emptied as Jews are deported to concentration camps and death camps. The Jewish partisan movement is organized in forests near Lublin, Poland.
1943
APRIL 19
Bermuda Conference ends in a fruitless discussion of rescuing Jewish victims.
The liquidation of Warsaw ghettos begins.
APRIL 19 - MAY 16
The Warsaw Ghetto uprising begins as Germans attempt to liquidate 70,000 inhabitants.
JUNE 11
Heinrich Himmler orders the liquidation of all ghettos in Poland, which continues until August, 1944.
OCTOBER 1 - 2
The Danish population begins a systematic rescue of 7,200 Danish Jews by ferrying them to Sweden, saving most of the Danish Jews.
1944
MARCH 15
Soviet forces begin the liberation of Transnistria, crossing the Bug River and reaching the Dneister River on March 20. Only 30,000 of the 330,000 Jews in the region are still alive.
JUNE 6
D-Day: Allied forces land in Normandy with the largest seaborne force in history.
JULY
Soviet troops liberate the Majdanek camp outside of Lubin, Poland.
1945
JANUARY 27
Death marches from the camps begin. Soviet troops liberate the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.
APRIL - MAY
The Allied Forces continue to liberate concentration camps.
APRIL 30
Hitler commits suicide in his bunker in Berlin.
MAY 7
Germany surrenders unconditionally to the Allies.
MAY 8
V.E. Day - Victory in Europe. The war in Europe officially ends.
NOVEMBER
The Nuremberg Trials begin. Trials of Nazi war criminals are held before the International Military Tribunal (IMT). This group tries captured political, military and economic Nazi leaders for crimes against humanity.
1933
JANUARY 30
Adolf Hitler becomes the chancellor of Germany.
FEBRUARY 28
Nazis declare act of emergency after Reichstag fire and used it to consolidate power.
MARCH 22
First concentration camp is opened in Dachau, near Munich in southern Germany.
MAY 10
Books written by Jewish authors and other Nazi opponents are publicly burned.
JULY 14
Law is passed in Germany providing forced sterilization of handicapped persons, Gypsies and Blacks. Nazi Party becomes the one and only legal party in Germany.
1934
JANUARY 26
Germany and Poland sign a non-aggression pact.
AUGUST 2
Hitler proclaims himself Führer and Reichskanzler - Leader and Reich Chancellor. Armed forces must swear allegiance to him.
1935
APRIL 1
The Nazi government banned the Jehovah’s Witnesses because of the religion’s refusal to swear allegiance to the state.
JUNE 16
The German Ministry of Justice revised the criminal code to make it a crime to perform homosexual acts between men.
SEPTEMBER 15
Nuremberg Laws are passed. These Laws state that Jews are no longer considered German citizens, cannot marry Aryans, and cannot fly the German flag.
NOVEMBER 15
The term "Jew" is defined as anyone with three Jewish grandparents or someone with two Jewish grandparents who identifies him/herself as a Jew.
1936
MARCH 7
Germany occupies Rhineland, flouting the Versailles Treaty.
AUGUST
The 1936 Olympic Games take place in Berlin.
OCTOBER 25
Hitler and Benito Mussolini form the Rome-Berlin Axis.
1937
JUNE 15
Buchenwald concentration camp opens in eastern central Germany.
SEPTEMBER 7
Hitler declares the end of the Versailles Treaty.
NOVEMBER 25
Germany and Japan sign a military and political pact.
1938
MARCH 13
Austria is annexed by Germany (the "Anschluss"). All anti-Semitic decrees are immediately applied to the Jews of Austria.
JULY 6-13
Evian Conference is held at Evian-les-Bains in France to discuss the Jewish refugee problem. Little action is taken to solve the problem.
JULY 8
The Great Synagogue in Munich is torn down on Nazi orders.
SEPTEMBER 29
The Munich Conference is held. Great Britain and France agree to grant Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia, to Germany.
OCTOBER 28
15,000 Polish citizens who live in Germany are forced to go back to Poland, which denies them entry.
NOVEMBER 9-10
Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass): a systematically planned anti-Jewish pogrom in Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland. In this tragedy, 200 synagogues are destroyed, 7,500 Jewish shops are looted, and 30,000 Jewish males are sent to concentration camps.
1939
JANUARY 30
Hitler announces in a Reichstag speech that if a war erupts, it will mean the extermination of European Jews.
MAY
The "St. Louis", a ship, carrying 937 Jews, is denied entrance to Cuba and the U.S, sending its passengers back to Nazi occupied Germany.
MAY 17
The British White Paper is published. This paper limits the number of Jewish immigrants to Palestine, a Middle-Eastern territory where Jews desired a homeland.
AUGUST 23
A non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Germany is signed.
SEPTEMBER 1
Germany invades Poland, beginning World War II
SEPTEMBER 2
Great Britain and France declare war against Germany.
SEPTEMBER 17
The Red (Soviet) Army annexes parts of eastern Poland.
OCTOBER 8
The first ghetto is established in Poland, in Protrokow Trybunalski.
NOVEMBER 23
Jews in German-occupied Poland are forced to wear an armband with a yellow star.
1940
SPRING
Germany occupies Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland and Northern France.
MAY 7
The Lodz Ghetto is created in Lodz, Poland.
MAY 20
The Auschwitz concentration camp is established outside of Osweicim, Poland.
OCTOBER 16
The Nazis order the creation of the Warsaw Ghetto in Warsaw, Poland.
NOVEMBER 16
The Warsaw Ghetto, containing 500,000 people, is sealed.
1941
JANUARY 21-31
Anti-Jewish riots in Romania: hundreds of Jews are killed.
MARCH
Jews throughout Eastern Europe are forced into ghettos.
JUNE
11,000 Jews are massacred in Romania.
JUNE 23
The Einsatzgruppen, mobile units of the German army which carry out mass killing of Jews and other "undesirables," follow the invading German army and start operations in the Soviet Union.
JULY 31
Reinhard Heydrich is appointed to implement the "Final Solution" of the "Jewish question" -- the extermination of European Jewry.
FALL
"Babi Yar" massacre of approximately 100,000 people, most of whom were Jews, near Kiev.
DECEMBER 7
Japan attacks U.S. at Pearl Harbor; U.S. declares was on Japan and her Allies.
DECEMBER 11
Germany and Italy declare war on the United States.
Beginning in 1941, there were numerous mass killings of Jews, first in Russia and then throughout the rest of Europe. Many victims were transported to concentration camps where they were worked to death or murdered.
1942
JANUARY 20
The Wannsee Conference is held in Berlin with fifteen high-ranking Nazi party and German government leaders to coordinate the "Final Solution" – the extermination of all Jews.
SPRING - SUMMER
Deportations from Polish ghettos to death camps begin.
NOVEMBER
Many ghettos are emptied as Jews are deported to concentration camps and death camps. The Jewish partisan movement is organized in forests near Lublin, Poland.
1943
APRIL 19
Bermuda Conference ends in a fruitless discussion of rescuing Jewish victims.
The liquidation of Warsaw ghettos begins.
APRIL 19 - MAY 16
The Warsaw Ghetto uprising begins as Germans attempt to liquidate 70,000 inhabitants.
JUNE 11
Heinrich Himmler orders the liquidation of all ghettos in Poland, which continues until August, 1944.
OCTOBER 1 - 2
The Danish population begins a systematic rescue of 7,200 Danish Jews by ferrying them to Sweden, saving most of the Danish Jews.
1944
MARCH 15
Soviet forces begin the liberation of Transnistria, crossing the Bug River and reaching the Dneister River on March 20. Only 30,000 of the 330,000 Jews in the region are still alive.
JUNE 6
D-Day: Allied forces land in Normandy with the largest seaborne force in history.
JULY
Soviet troops liberate the Majdanek camp outside of Lubin, Poland.
1945
JANUARY 27
Death marches from the camps begin. Soviet troops liberate the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.
APRIL - MAY
The Allied Forces continue to liberate concentration camps.
APRIL 30
Hitler commits suicide in his bunker in Berlin.
MAY 7
Germany surrenders unconditionally to the Allies.
MAY 8
V.E. Day - Victory in Europe. The war in Europe officially ends.
NOVEMBER
The Nuremberg Trials begin. Trials of Nazi war criminals are held before the International Military Tribunal (IMT). This group tries captured political, military and economic Nazi leaders for crimes against humanity.