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Holocaust Timeline
1933–1945...THE HOLOCAUST
Sequence of Events
1933
1934
1935
January – Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany
1936
Spanish Civil War begins
Olympic Games held in Berlin
1937
1938
Systematic dispossession of Jews. ‘Aryanisation’ begins
1939
Night of Long Knives
Nuremberg Rally
Nuremberg Laws – Jews discriminated by law; Jews could not be Reich
citizens; gave legal basis for the racist definition of Jews; marriages between
Jews and non-Jews banned
Anschluss– German annexation of Austria
Kristallnacht
– Night of Broken Glass (November Pogrom)
15 March – Germany dismantles the Czechoslovakian state
1 September 1939–Germany invades Poland
3 September 1939–Britain and France declare war on Germany
World War II begins
1940
Nazi Germany controls most of Europe
Widespread establishment of ghettos
Tripartite Pact signed between Germany, Italy and Japan
1941
Nazi Germany invades Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa. Mobile killing
squads (Einsatzgruppen) begin mass killings in the territories occupied by the
German army.
Gassing of Jews begins at Chelmno
Pearl Harbor – The United States enters the war
1942
Wannsee Conference
Operation Reinhard
1943
Warsaw Ghetto uprising
Rescue of Danish Jews
1944
Round-up, deportation and extermination of Hungarian Jews
D-Day
Soviet troops liberate Majdanek
Start of Death Marches/destruction of evidence
1945
Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz-Birkenau
Hitler commits suicide
Germany surrenders
World War II ends
4
1937
n
Intensity of German antisemitism and
anti-Jewish propaganda increases
n
Jews forbidden to work as doctors, dentists or
academics
n
Jews fobidden to serve in the army
Crowds cheering Hitler
Book cover of “The Eternal Jew” symbolically presenting many of the
arguments against Jews. The ugly Jew is holding part of Russia under his
arm, branded with the hammer and sickle. One hand holds a whip. The
other hand holds bloody coins.
Hitler Youth (girls)
Hitler Youth (boys)
9
1944
A transport of Hungarian Jews on their way to extermination
n
19 March – Germany occupies Hungary
n
Round-up and deportation of Hungarian
Jews under the direction of Adolf
Eichmann
n
In just eight weeks, 437,000 Jews of
Hungary were deported to Auschwitz.
It is estimated that between 500,000
and 560,000 Jews of Hungary were
murdered by the Nazis and their
collaborators during the war.
AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU
The largest of the camp complexes, which had 40 subcamps. Incorporated into the site at Auschwitz-Birkenau,
which also served as a labour camp, concentration camp
and extermination camp, were a women’s camp, a Gypsy
camp, and others.
Murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau
1,100,000
c150,000
23,000
15,000
25,000
_________
Jews
Poles
Gypsies
Soviet POWs
Others
n
6 June – D-Day – Allied landing in
Normandy
Total number of victims: 1,313,000
n
Start of Death Marches and destruction
of evidence
Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by the Soviet Army on
27 January 1945. They found 7,650 prisoners alive.
n
24 July – Soviet troops liberate Majdanek
(Data provided by Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum)
DEATH MARCHES
As the Allies closed in, the Nazis wanted to remove all traces of their murderous deeds in the concentration camps and
killing centres. They forced prisoners out of the camps on foot to march back towards Germany. These were known as
‘Death Marches’. Thousands of prisoners, already weakened by malnutrition, hard labour and ill treatment, perished on
these marches.
Death March from Auschwitz to Gross Rosen
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