Night/Holocaust Timeline Honors English 9

1928 On September 30, Elie Wiesel is born in Sighet (See-get), Transylvania, which is now a part of Romania Part of the Jewish population of Sighet in front of a wooden synagogue.

1933 Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany and the Nazi party takes control of Germany’s government. The first permanent concentration camp, Dachau (dah-kou), is established.

1935 Nuremberg Race Laws against Jews are decreed, depriving Jews of German citizenship. The Nuremberg laws defined a Jew as anyone who has three or four Jewish grandparents – even if that person had converted to another religion.

1936 The SS renames its units deployed at concentration camps as the “Death’s Head Units,” later known as the “Death’s Head Battalions.” Heinrich Himmler is appointed chief of the German Police.

1938 Kristallnacht [k R ees-tahl-nah KH t] known as the night of broken glass: a government organized massacre against Jews in Germany, Austria, and parts of Czechoslovakia results in widespread destruction of synagogues, businesses, and homes and the loss of at least 91 lives.

1939 Germany invades Poland in September, starting WWII in Europe. Great Britain, France, and British Dominions declare war on Germany. In November, the first ghetto is established in Poland. Jews in occupied parts of Poland are forced to wear armbands bearing the Star of David for identification.

1940 Germans conquer Denmark, Norway, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands Auschwitz concentration camp is established. Italy declares war on Britain and France. Romania is compelled to cede northern Transylvania, including Sighet, to Hungary. Elie Wiesel and his family become residents of Hungary. The sign, “Arbeit macht frei,” at the entrance of the camp translates to “Work makes you free.”

1941 July 31: Nazi Security Police chief Reinhard Heydrich is given authorization to plan and coordinate a “total” and “final” solution of the “Jewish Question.” Construction of Auschwitz-Birkenau (Auschwitz II) begins U.S. enters WWII on Dec. 8, a day after Japan attacks U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. On Dec. 8, the first of the killing centers in Poland begins 12-year-old Elie Wiesel begins studying the Kabbalah.

1.2 MILES

1942 A conference in Berlin ensures the full cooperation of all state, Nazi party, and SS agencies in implementing the “Final Solution” – a plan to murder the European Jews.

1943 Jews in the Warsaw ghetto rise up against their oppressors. By the end of the year, the Germans and their Axis partners have killed more than four million European Jews.

1944 Elie Wiesel is fifteen years old when he and his family are deported in May from Sighet to Auschwitz. He was deported with his mother, father, and three sisters.

1944 Germany occupies Hungary in March On June 6, D-Day, Anglo-American forces establish the first Allied beachhead in western Europe on the Normandy coast. On June 22, Soviet forces begin a massive offensive and advance to the outskirts of Warsaw in six weeks. Heinrich Himmler orders a halt to the “Final Solution” in Nov and orders the destruction of the gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

1945 Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz on January 27. Wiesel had already been transferred to Buchenwald concentration camp (pictured). U.S. troops liberate Buchenwald (where Wiesel was) on April 11. Germany surrenders on May 7.

1945 WWII in Europe ends on May 8. On September 2, Pacific War ends with the surrender of Japan after U.S. drops atomic bombs (Hiroshima and Nagasaki) in August. On Nov. 20, the Nuremberg trials begin in order to try 22 of the top Nazi leaders (Hitler and Himmler had committed suicide in May).

1946 Eighteen of the 21 defendants are convicted by the International Military Tribunal. Twelve are sentenced to death. In the following years ( ), thousands more Nazi perpetrators are tried.

1948 The State of Israel is created. It is established in accordance with the United Nations Partition Plan that proposed the partition of Palestine into two states: an Arab state and a Jewish state.