Transcript Holocaust Timeline

HOLOCAUST TIMELINE
1933
• Adolf Hitler appointed Chancellor
• Reichstag building burned to create crisis (Jews
blamed)
• Jews defined as having one Jewish grandparent
• Boycott of Jewish businesses
• Burning of books throughout Berlin
• Dachau opens in Germany (followed by
Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen, Ravensbruck)
1933 (continued)
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Hitler given dictatorial powers
Gestapo is created by Hermann Goring
Nazi party declared the only legal party
Forced sterilization for those with genetic
defects
• Jews prohibited from owning land or being
newspaper editors
• Beggars, homeless, alcoholics, unemployed can
be sent to concentration camps
1934
• Jews denied health insurance
• Night of the Long Knives (Hitler’s enemies
are destroyed) – mostly SA (Browhshirts)
• SS becomes independent from SA
• President von Hindenburg dies
• Hitler becomes Fuhrer (Leader) - 90% of
Germans vote “yes” to his new powers
1935
• Jews banned from military
• Jewish performers/artists forced to join
Jewish Cultural Unions
• Forced abortions allowed to prevent passing
of hereditary diseases
• NUREMBERG LAWS PASSED (laws
specifically applied to Jews which gradually
and systematically took away all rights)
1936
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Gestapo is placed above the law
SS given command of concentration camps
Nazis occupy the Rhineland
Heinrich Himmler appointed chief of SS
Olympic games begin in Berlin
Office for Combating Homosexuality and
Abortions set up
1938
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Anschluss (union) with Austria
Mauthausen opens
No “front ownership” of Jewish businesses
All Jewish businesses forced to register
All Jews over 15 must carry identity cards
Jewish doctors prohibited from practicing
medicine
1938 (continued)
• Women forced to add “Sarah”, men “Israel”
to names on all legal documents
• Jews prohibited from all legal practices
• Passports stamped with large red “J”
• Nazis occupy Sudetenland (Czech.)
• Polish Jews living in Germany expelled
• Ernst vom Rath murdered as a result
1938 (continued)
• Herschel Grynszpan (17), son of deportee,
accused of murder
• Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) in
retaliation
• Jews fined for damages of Kristallnacht!
• Jews expelled from German schools
• Hermann Goring takes charge of Jewish
“question”
1939
• Reinhard Heydrich ordered to speed up
emigration of Jews
• Jews forced to hand over gold and silver
• Nazis seize Czechoslovakia
• Jews relocated into Jewish houses
• Ship “St. Louis” (refugees) turned away by
many countries (including U.S.) Most died
later in camps
1939 (continued)
• Germany invades Poland (WWII begins)
• Curfew for Jews - 8:00 p.m.
• Heydrich instructs Einsatzgruppen (special
action squads) to gather Jews into ghettos
near railroads for future “final goal.”
• Nazis and Soviets divide Poland
• Euthanasia programs begin on sick and
disabled
1939 (continued)
• Forced labor decree for Jews aged 14 to 60
• Yellow stars required to be worn
• Adolf Eichmann takes over Jewish affairs
and evacuations
• Quote (newspaper) “The Jewish people
ought to be exterminated root and branch.
Then the plague of pests would disappear
from Poland in one stroke” (Streicher)
1940
• New site in Poland, Auschwitz, chosen for
new concentration camp
• First deportation of German Jews to Poland
• Nazis invade Denmark, Norway, France,
Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg
• France falls, Hitler’s greatest achievement
• Axis agreement signed between Germany,
Italy and Japan
1941
• Germany occupies Romania, Bulgaria,
Yugoslavia, Soviet Union
• Einsatzgruppen continues work in occupied
territories
• Pograms (organized attacks) take place all
over Europe
• Heydrich instructed to prepare for “Final
Solution”
1941 (continued)
• First test use of Zyklon-B gas at Auschwitz
• 33,000 murdered at Babi Yar in Russia
• Theresienstadt opens in Czech.; used as a
model ghetto for propaganda purposes
• Japanese attack Pearl Harbor (Dec. 7); U.S.
and Britain enter war
• Chelmo opens
1942
• Mass killings begin at Auschwitz (Zyklon)
• Wannsee Conference to coordinate “Final
Solution”
• Belzec extermination camp opens
• Jews from all over Europe begin
deportations to camps
• Sobibor death camp opens
• Heydrich murdered by Czech resistance
1942 (continued)
• NY Times reports murders of hundreds of
thousands of Jews by Nazis
• Sterilization experiments begin at
Auschwitz
• Treblinka death camp opens in Poland
• SS cash in possessions/valuables seized,
some goods are sent to troops and German
families
1943
• Einsatzgruppen murders pass 1 million
• U.S. and G.B. are aware of intention to
exterminate all Jewish people of Europe
• First resistance by Jews in Warsaw ghetto
• Germans defeated at Stalingrad; critical loss
• Dr. Josef Mengele arrives at Auschwitz
• Germans & Italians surrender in N. Africa
1943 (continued)
• Berlin is declared “cleansed of Jews”
• Auschwitz capacity is 5,000 bodies/day
• Danish underground transports nearly 8,000
Jews to safety in Sweden
• Massive escape from Sobibor, 300 escape
and 50 survive; camp is destroyed
• Himmler talks openly about the “Final
Solution”
1944
• Soviet troops reach Polish border
• Eichmann arrives at Auschwitz to speed up
the extermination process
• Red Cross visits Theresienstadt and gives a
favorable report
• June 6, 1944 - Allies begin invasion of
Normandy, France (D-Day)
• Auschwitz - Highest average - 9,000/day
1944 (continued)
• Soviet troops liberate first camp, Majdanek
• Anne Frank & family arrested and sent to
Auschwitz
• Last Jewish ghetto is liquidated
• Last use of gas chambers at Auschwitz;
crematoria destroyed
• Forced marches to other camps begin
• Oskar Schindler saves 1,200 Jews
1945
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As Allies advance, death marches continue
Invasion of eastern Germany by Soviets
Liberation of Warsaw
Soviets liberate Auschwitz
Allies liberate Buchenwald, Dachau,
Mathausen, Bergen-Belsen; troops are
shocked and sickened by what they see
1945 (continued)
• Hitler commits suicide in his Berlin bunker
• Germany surrenders, war in Europe ends
• Himmler, Goebbels commit suicide,
Eichmann escapes
• November - Opening of Nuremberg
Military Tribunal (war crimes trial)
Conclusion
• 1946 - Former Auschwitz commander Hoss
is hanged at Auschwitz
• Goring commits suicide 2 hours before his
execution
• 1960 - Eichmann is captured in Argentina
and executed in Israel the next year
• 1980’s - Joseph Mengele drowns in S.
America; lived 35 years as a free man