Timeline of the Holocaust

January 30

Adolf Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany.

March 22

Dachau concentration camp opens.

April 1

Boycott of Jewish shops and businesses.

April 7

Laws for Reestablishment of the Civil Service barred Jews from holding civil service, university, and state positions.

April 26

The Gestapo is established.

May 10

Public burning of books written by Jews, political dissidents, and others that the Nazi state disapproves of.

July 14

A law strips East European Jewish immigrants of German citizenship.

August 2

Hitler proclaims himself Führer und Reichskanzler (Leader and Reich Chancellor). Armed forces must swear allegiance to him.

May 31

Jews barred from serving in the German armed forces September 15: the “Nuremberg Laws” are enacted: anti-Jewish racial laws stipulating that Jews are no longer considered German citizens, and that Jews could not marry Aryans or fly the German flag.

September 15

The “Nuremberg Laws” are enacted: anti-Jewish racial laws stipulating that Jews are no longer considered German citizens, and that Jews could not marry Aryans or fly the German flag.

November 15

The Nazis issue a new definition of a “Jew:” anyone with three Jewish grandparents, someone with two Jewish grandparents who identifies as a Jew.

March 3

Jewish doctors barred from practicing medicine in German institutions.

March 7

Nazi forces march into the Rhineland, an area that was demilitarized as part of the Versailles Treaty that formally ended World War I.

June 17

Himmler appointed as the Chief of German Police.

July

Sachsenhausen concentration camp opens.

October 25

Hitler and Mussolini form the Rome-Berlin Axis.

July 15

Buchenwald concentration camp opens.

March 13

The Anschluss: Nazi Germany annexes Austria. All antisemitic decrees are immediately applied in the country.

April 26

Mandatory registration of all property held by Jews inside the Reich.

July 6

Evian Conference held in Evian, France. Discusses the problem of Jewish refugees.

August 1

Adolf Eichmann establishes the Office of Jewish Emigration in Vienna to increase the pace of forced emigration.

August 3

Italy enacts sweeping antisemitic laws

September 30

The Munich Conference: Great Britain and France agree to German occupation of the Sudetenland, previously western Czechoslovakia.

October 5

Following a request by Swiss authorities, Germany marks all Jewish passports with a large letter "J" to restrict Jews from immigrating to Switzerland.

October 28

17,000 Polish Jews living in Germany are expelled. Poles refused to admit them. 8,000 are stranded in the frontier village of Zbaszyn.

November 7

German diplomat Ernst vom Rath is assassinated in Paris by Herschel Grynszpan.

November 9-10

Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass: anti-Jewish pogrom in Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland leaves 200 synagogues destroyed and 7,500 Jewish shops looted. 30,000 male Jews are sent to concentration camps (Dachau, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen).

November 12

A decree is issued, forcing all Jews to transfer retail businesses to Aryan hands.

November 15

All Jewish pupils expelled from German schools.

December 12

German Jews are fined 1,000,000,000 Marks for the destruction of property during Kristallnacht.

January 30

Hitler in Reichstag speech: “if war erupts it will mean the Vernichtung [extermination] of European Jews.”

March 15

Nazi troops occupy Czechoslovakia.

August 23

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact is signed: non-aggression pact between Soviet Union and Germany.

September 1

Beginning of World War II: Germany invades Poland.

September 21

Heydrich issues directives to establish ghettos in German-occupied Poland.

October 12

The deportation of Austrian and Czech Jews to Poland begins.

October 28

First Polish ghetto is established in Piotrków.

November 23

Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland are forced to wear an arm band or yellow star.

April 9

Germany occupy Denmark and southern Norway.

May 7

Lodz Ghetto is sealed: 165,000 people are isolated in an area of 1.6 square miles.

May 10

Germany invades the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France.

May 20

A concentration camp is established at Auschwitz

June 22

France surrenders to Germany.

August 8

Battle of Britain begins.

September 27

Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis formally established.

November 16

Warsaw Ghetto sealed: ultimately contained 500,000 people.

January 21-26

Anti-Jewish riots in Romania, led by the Iron Guard, a Romanian fascist organization. Hundreds of Jews are butchered.

February 1

German authorities begin rounding up Polish Jews for transfer to Warsaw Ghetto.

March

Adolf Eichmann appointed head of the department for Jewish affairs of the Reich Security Main Office (Gestapo), Section IV B 4.

April 6

Germany attacks Yugoslavia and Greece. Occupation follows.

June 22

Germany invades the Soviet Union.

July 31

Heydrich appointed by Göring to implement the “Final Solution.”

September 1

German Jews required to wear yellow star of David with the word “Jude.”

September 28-29

34,000 Jews massacred at Babi Yar outside Kiev.

October

Establishment of Auschwitz II (Birkenau) for the extermination of Jews. Roma, Poles, Russians, and members of other groups were also murdered at the camp.

December 7

The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor.

December 8

Chelmno (Kulmhof) extermination camp begins operations: 340,000 Jews and 20,000 Poles and Czechs murdered by April 1943.

December 11

United States declares war on Japan and Germany.

January 20

Wannsee Conference in Berlin: Heydrich outlines the Nazi plan to murder Europe’s Jews.

March 17

Extermination begins in Belzec: between 434,000 and 600,000 Jews will be murdered in the camp.

May

Extermination by gas begins in Sobibor killing center: 250,000 Jews will be murdered by October 1943.

June

Jewish partisan units are established in the forests of Byelorussia and the Baltic States.

July 22

The Nazis establish Treblinka concentration camp.

Summer

Jews from Belgium, Croatia, France, the Netherlands, and Poland are deported to killing centers. In addition, armed resistance by Jews in the ghettos of Kletzk, Kremenets, Lakhva, Mir, Tuchin, and Weisweiz.

Winter

Jews from Germany, Greece, and Norway are deported to killing centers. In addition, Jewish partisan movement organized in forests near Lublin.

January

The German 6th Army surrenders at Stalingrad (Volgograd)

March

Craców ghetto is liquidated.

April 19

Warsaw Ghetto revolt begins as the Nazis attempt to liquidate 70,000 inhabitants. The ghetto’s Jewish underground fights Nazis until early June.

May

The Warsaw Ghetto is liquidated. On May 16, 1943, SS and Police Chief Jurgen Stroop reported: “the Jewish quarter of Warsaw is no more.”

June

Himmler orders the liquidation of all ghettos in Poland and the Soviet Union.

Summer

Armed resistance by Jews in the ghettos of Bedzin, Bialystok, Czestochowa, Lvov, and Tarnów.

Fall

The large ghettos of Minsk, Vilna, and Riga are liquidated.

October 14

Armed revolt in Sobibor extermination camp

October-November

Danish Jewry is rescued.

March 19

Germany occupies Hungary.

May 15

Nazis begin deporting Hungarian Jews. By June 27, some 380,000 people are sent to Auschwitz.

June 6

D-Day: Allied forces land at Normandy.

Spring/Summer

Red Army repels Nazi forces.

July 20

A group of German officers attempt to assassinate Hitler.

July 24

The Red Army liberates Majdanek killing center.

October 7

A revolt by inmates at Auschwitz. One crematorium is blown up.

November

The last Jews are deported from Theresienstadt (Terezin) to Auschwitz.

November 8

Beginning of the death march of approximately 40,000 Jews from Budapest to Austria.

January 17

Evacuation of Auschwitz, beginning of death march.

January 25

Beginning of death march for inmates of Stutthof.

April 6-10

Death march of inmates of Buchenwald.

April 30

Hitler commits suicide.

May 8

V-E Day: Germany surrenders; end of Third Reich.

August 6

Bombing of Hiroshima

August 9

Bombing of Nagasaki

August 15

V-J Day: Emperor Hirohito and President Truman announce Japan has surrendered. Victory over Japan is proclaimed.

September 2

Japan surrenders formally and World War II ends.