HOLOCAUST TIMELINE 1933

1. HOLOCAUST TIMELINE1933 • Adolf Hitler appointed Chancellor • Reichstag building burned to create crisis (Jews blamed) • Boycott of Jewish businesses • Burning of books throughout Berlin • Dachau opens in Germany (followed by Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen, Ravensbruck)

2. 1933 • 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

3. 1934 • Jews denied health insurance • Night of the Long Knives (Hitler’s enemies are destroyed) • 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 • 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, 1944 - 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 • 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