1. 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)

2. 1933 (continued) 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

3. 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

4. 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)

5. 1936 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

6. 1938 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

7. 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

8. 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”

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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)

12. 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

13. 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”

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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”

19. 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, Allies begin invasion of Normandy, France (D-Day)
Auschwitz - Highest average - 9,000/day

20. 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

21. 1945 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

22. 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)

23. Conclusion
Former Auschwitz commander Hoss is hanged at Auschwitz
Goring commits suicide 2 hours before his execution
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