Atimeline of the Holocaust is detailed in the events which are listed below. Also referred to as the Shoah (in Hebrew),the Holocaust was agenocide in which some six millionEuropeanJews were killed byNazi Germany and itsWorld War IIcollaborators. About 1.5 million of the victims were children. Two-thirds of the nine million Jews who had resided in Europe were murdered. The following timeline has been compiled from a variety of sources, including theUnited States Holocaust Memorial Museum.[1][2][3][4][5]
| Date | Major events |
|---|---|
| 1869 | German composerRichard Wagner republishes his antisemitic articleDas Judenthum in der Musik. Now, with his name explicitly linked to the text, Wagner makes several attacks targeted to Jewish composers and believes that the influence of these people on German culture is degrading. |
| 1879 | Wilhelm Marr becomes the first proponent ofracial antisemitism, blaming Jews for political movements promoting constitutional democracy, equality of rights under the law, socialism, and pacifism.[6] |
| 20 April 1889 | Adolf Hitler was born in a small town inBraunau am Inn,Austria-Hungary (nowAustria). |
| 1894 | TheDreyfus affair begins, this event would inspired Hungarian journalistTheodor Herzl to create theZionist movement. |
| 1899 | The British-German racistHouston Stewart Chamberlain publishesThe Foundations of the Nineteenth Century, in which he writes that the 19th century is "the Jewish age" and he also writes that Europe's social problems are the result of its domination by the Jews. The book eventually influences theNazi Party.[7] |
| 1903 | The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a document forged by theOkhrana purporting to reveal the secret plans of a conspiracy of Jewish religious leaders for world conquest through the imposition ofliberal democracy, is published inZnamya in theRussian Empire. It is later distributed across the world after 1917 bywhite Russian émigrés and becomes a popular antisemitic tract even after it was proved to have been forged andplagiarized.[7][8] |
| 1911 | Occultic and antisemitic writerGuido von List established the High Armanen Order, through which he publishes six of his books about ariosophy. Thus solidifying and furthering his influence in thevölkisch movement in Germany and Austria |
| 28 June 1914 | Archduke Franz Ferdinand and hiswife wereassassinated in the town of Sarajevo by Bosnian Serb studentGavrilo Princip, triggeringWorld War I. |
| 24 October 1917 | TheBolsheviks led byVladimir Lenin take power in Russia with theOctober Revolution. The subsequentRevolutions of 1917–1923 cause fears of Communist expansion into Europe that would influence the Europeanfar right.[9] |
| August 1918 | Former member of Guido von List Society,Rudolf von Sebottendorf establishes theThule Society |
| 11 November 1918 | World War I ends with theCompiègne Armistice after theGerman Empire collapses due to theRevolution. |
| 1919 | France deploysAfrican colonial troops in theAllied occupation of the Rhineland, resulting inmixed-race children between the troops and German women. The children, disparagingly called "Rhineland Bastards" are subject toracial discrimination and prejudice.[10] |
| February 1919 | Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund - the largest antisemitic organisation at the time in Germany was founded. Many of its members, such as:Philip Bouhler,Werner Best andFranz Xaver Schwarz will become high ranking Nazis |
| 5 January 1919 | TheGerman Workers' Party is founded byAnton Drexler andKarl Harrer as an offshoot of theThule Society, one of the many far-right,antisemitic,anti-communist andvölkisch groups which were formed in Germany after the war.[11] |
| 7 May 1919 | TheTreaty of Versailles is presented to the German delegation at theParis Peace Conference. Most Germans disapprove of thereparations payments and the forced acceptance of German war guilt entailed inArticle 231.[12] |
| 16 September 1919 | Adolf Hitler, having joined the German Workers' Party, makes his first endorsement of racial antisemitism.[13] |
| 18 November 1919 | GeneralfeldmarschallPaul von Hindenburg gives testimony to theWeimar National Assembly'scommittee of inquiry into guilt for the war, blaming the loss of World War I on "the secret intentional mutilation of the fleet and the army" and made misleading claims that a British general admitted that theGerman Army was "stabbed in the back", giving rise to the popularstab-in-the-backconspiracy theory.[14][15] He is later elected President of Germany in the1925 presidential election. |
| 24 February 1920 | In a speech before approximately 2,000 people in theMunich Festival of theHofbräuhaus, Hitler proclaimed the25-point program of the German Workers' Party, later renamed theNational Socialist (Nazi) German Workers' Party. Among other things, the program called for the establishment of aPan-German state, with citizenship, residency, and other civil rights only reserved for ethnic Germans, explicitly excluding Jews and all non-Germans. |
| 1921 | The Nazi Party forms theSturmabteilung (SA) under the Division for Propaganda and Sports.[7] |
| 20 April 1923 | The first issue ofDer Stürmer, a highly antisemitictabloid-format newspaper published byJulius Streicher, is released.[16] |
| 8 November 1923 | Inspired by theMarch on Rome, Hitler organizes theBeer Hall Putsch, an attemptedcoup d'état. Although Hitler is sentenced to 5 years inLandsberg Prison and the Nazi Party is briefly proscribed, Hitler gains public notice for the first time.[11] |
| 18 July 1925 | Adolf Hitler publishesMein Kampf. |
| 24 October 1929 | TheWall Street crash of 1929 occurs, beginning theGreat Depression and allowing Hitler to gain support.[7] |
| 1931 | To prevent the transfer of currency out of the country, President von Hindenburg decrees a 25 percent emigration tax, theReich Flight Tax. The Tax later becomes a hindrance to Jews trying to emigrate out of Germany.[7] |
| July 1932 | Nazis became the largest party in theReichstag, capturing 230 of the 608 seats in theGerman federal election of July 1932. |
| 30 January 1933 | Adolf Hitler appointedChancellor of Germany |
| February 1933 | Chancellor Hitler sets his military policy as "the conquest of newLebensraum (living space) in the East and its ruthless Germanization" in a secret meeting with the Reichswehr.[7] |
| 27 February 1933 | TheReichstag fire. The subsequentReichstag Fire Decree suspends the German Constitution and most civil liberties. |
| 22 March 1933 | Dachau concentration camp, the first concentration camp in Germany, opens 10 miles northwest ofMunich at an abandoned munitions factory. |
| 13 March 1933 | TheReich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda is established underJoseph Goebbels.[7] |
| 21 March 1933 | Oranienburg concentration camp is opened at a former brewery inOranienburg by anSA brigade near Berlin.[17] |
| 23 March 1933 | TheEnabling Act of 1933 enacted, allowing Hitler torule by decree. |
| 31 March 1933 | Hanns Kerrl andHans Frank issue legislation in the states ofPrussia andBavaria dismissing Jewish judges and prosecutors and imposing quotas for lawyers andnotaries.[7] |
| 1 April 1933 | Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses begins. |
| 7 April 1933 | TheLaw for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, banning most Jews and Communists from government employment, is passed. Shortly after, a similar law affects lawyers, doctors, tax consultants, musicians, and notaries. |
| 22 April 1933 | The Decree Licensing Physicians from the National Health Service passed on the pressure of Dr.Gerhard Wagner excludes Jewish doctors from medical service.[7] |
| 25 April 1933 | The Law for Preventing Overcrowding in German Schools and Schools of Higher Education severely limits Jewish enrollment inGerman public schools.[18] |
| 29 April 1933 | Gestapo (German Secret Police) established byHermann Göring. |
| 2 May 1933 | German trade unions banned and replaced by theGerman Labor Front under the leadership ofRobert Ley.[18] |
| 10 May 1933 | Nazi book burnings begin. Books deemed "un-German", including all works by Jewish authors and writers are consumed in ceremonial bonfires, including a large one on theUnter den Linden adjacent to theUniversity of Berlin. |
| 1 June 1933 | The Law for the Prevention of Unemployment providesmarriage loans to genetically "fit" Germans.[18] |
| 22 June 1933 | Inmates fromDüsseldorf begin arriving atEmslandlager. |
| 14 July 1933 | TheLaw for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring, calling for compulsory sterilization of the "inferior." On the same day German citizenship is revoked fromRoma and Sinti in Germany, and the Nazi Party is made the only legal political party in Germany. |
| 20 July 1933 | TheReichskonkordat is concluded after negotiations betweenFranz von Papen andCardinal Eugenio Pacelli, who later become Pope Pius XII, ensuring Nazi Germanylegitimacy with theinternational community and allowing the government to gain the loyalty ofGerman Catholics.[18] |
| 20 August 1933 | TheAmerican Jewish Congress begins theAnti-Nazi boycott of 1933.[18] |
| 17 September 1933 | TheReichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden is established as the legal representative body of German Jews under the leadership ofLeo Baeck andOtto Hirsch.[19] |
| 21 September– 23 December 1933 | Leipzig trial acquits 3 of 4 men accused of Reichstag fire. Furious, Hitler establishes aPeople's Court to try political crimes. |
| 22 September 1933 | TheReich Chamber of Culture is established, effectively barring Jews from the arts.[18] |
| 29 September 1933 | German Jews and Germans with any Jewish ancestry dating to 1800 are banned fromfarming under theReichserbhofgesetz, and their land is redistributed to ethnic Germans.[18][20] |
| 4 October 1933 | Jews are prohibited from journalism under the Editor Law.[18] |
| 24 October– 24 November 1933 | The government passes a law allowing "dangerous and habitual criminals" – includingvagrants,alcoholics, theunemployed, and thehomeless – to be interned in concentration camps. The law is later amended to allow for their compulsory sterilization.[18] |
| 1 January 1934 | Hitler removes allJewish holidays from the German calendar.[21] |
| 24 January 1934 | All Jews are expelled from the German Labor Front.[21] |
| April 1934 | Heinrich Himmler, who had become the leader of the entire German police force outside ofPrussia the previous year, is appointedReichsführer-SS. TheVolksgericht is established to prosecute political dissidents.[21] |
| 1 May 1934 | TheOffice of Racial Policy is established within the Nazi Party.[21] |
| 17 May 1934 | Jews lose access tostatutory health insurance. TheGerman American Bund holds a rally inMadison Square Garden.[21] |
| 9 June 1934 | TheSD is established as the Nazi Party'sintelligence agency.[21] |
| 14 June 1934 | Hitler begins a purge of theSA and the non-Naziconservative revolutionary movement through theSS under pressure from theReichswehr. Hitler's colleagueErnst Röhm, the former ChancellorKurt von Schleicher, andGustav Ritter von Kahr are killed. The move guarantees Hitler military support, quashes his opposition, and enhances the power of theSS.[22] It also begins an increase in thepersecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany.[21] |
| 4 July 1934 | TheConcentration Camps Inspectorate (IKL) is established underTheodor Eicke.[21] |
| 2–19 August 1934 | Hitler becomesPresident of Germany upon the death of Paul von Hindenburg, and becomes an absolute dictator by merging the office with the Chancellor to become theFührer.[23] All Reichswehr members swear theHitler oath.[21] |
| 7 October 1934 | Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany issue letters protesting thepersecution of their religion and affirming their political neutrality.[23][21] |
| December 1934 | Himmler gains control of the Gestapo through his subordinateReinhard Heydrich.[21][23] |
| 1 April 1935 | Antisemitic legislation is expanded to theSaarland after the1935 Saar status referendum.[24] |
| May 1935 | Jews are excluded from theWehrmacht, military members are banned from marrying "non-Aryans".[25] |
| 26 June 1935 | The Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring is amended to institute compulsory abortion.[24] |
| 28 June 1935 | Paragraph 175 is expanded to prohibit all homosexual acts.[25] |
| 15 September 1935 | Nuremberg Laws are unanimously passed by the Reichstag. Jews are no longer citizens of Germany and cannot marry Germans. |
| December 1935 | TheSS Race and Settlement Main Office establishes theLebensborn program.[24] |
| 10 February 1936 | The Gestapo is given extrajudicial authority.[26] |
| 3 March 1936 | German Jewish doctors are banned from practicing on German patients.[26] |
| 7 March 1936 | Germany remilitarization of the Rhineland. Using the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance as a pretext, Hitler ordered the Wehrmacht to march 20,000 German troops into the Rhineland. The United Kingdom and France did not resist German actions. |
| 29 March 1936 | TheSS-Totenkopfverbände is established.[26] |
| 6 June 1936 | Minister of the InteriorWilhelm Frick authorizes the deportation of theRomani people to concentration camps such asMarzahn.[27] |
| June 1936 | Himmler becomes Chief of German Police, and establishes theOrpo, theSipo, and theKripo under SS control. |
| 12 July 1936 | Concentration camp inmates are transferred to Oranienburg to begin construction onSachsenhausen concentration camp.[28] |
| 1 August 1936 | The1936 Summer Olympics open in Berlin, leading to a temporary abatement in open antisemitism.[27] |
| 28 August 1936 | Mass arrests of Jehovah's Witnesses begin.[27] |
| 7 October 1936 | A 25 percent tax is imposed on Jewish assets.[26] |
| 1937 | Beginning of the Nazis' policy of seizure of Jewish property through "Aryanization".[29] |
| 27 February 1937 | The Kripo begins the first mass roundup of political opponents.[30] |
| 14 March 1937 | Pope Pius XI publishes anencyclical,Mit brennender Sorge, condemning the Nazis and accusing them of violating theReichkonkordat.[29] |
| 15 July 1937 | Buchenwald concentration camp opens inEttersburg five miles fromWeimar.[31] |
| 8 November 1937 | Der ewige Jude (The Eternal Jew) exhibition opens in Munich.[30] |
| 14 December 1937 | Himmler issues a decree that the German Criminal Police (Kripo) does not have to have evidence of a specific criminal act to detain persons suspected of asocial or criminal behavior indefinitely.[30] |
| 12 March 1938 | Austria annexed by Nazi Germany (theAnschluss). All German anti-Jewish laws now apply in Austria. |
| 24 March 1938 | Flossenbürg concentration camp is opened inFlossenbürg, Bavaria, ten miles from the border withCzechoslovakia.[32] |
| 26 April 1938 | Jews are required to register all property overℛℳ5,000 under theFour Year Plan.[33] |
| 29 May 1938 | Hungary, underMiklós Horthy, passes the first of a series of anti-Jewish measures emulating Germany's Nuremberg Laws. |
| 13–18 June 1938 | The first mass arrests of Jews begin throughAktion Arbeitsscheu Reich.[34] |
| 6–15 July 1938 | U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt convenes theÉvian Conference inÉvian-les-Bains,France, to settle the issue ofJewish refugees, but onlyCosta Rica and theDominican Republic allow more refugees.[35] |
| 14 July 1938 | Manifesto of Race published inFascist Italy, led to stripping the Jews of Italian citizenship and governmental and professional positions |
| 8 August 1938 | The SS opens theMauthausen-Gusen concentration camp complex nearLinz, and establishesDEST to operate astone quarry.[36] |
| 27 September 1938 | The German government completely prohibits Jews from practicing law.[37] |
| 30 September 1938 | The German government completely prohibits Jews from practicing medicine.[37] |
| 30 September 1938 | The United Kingdom and France agree to allow Hitler to seize control of theSudetenland under theMunich Agreement.[33] |
| 5 October 1938 | Jews are required to have a red J in theirpassports.[7] |
| 9–10 November 1938 | Kristallnacht "the night of the broken glass" |
| 12 November 1938 | Jews are banned from buying and selling goods under Decree on the Elimination of the Jews from Economic Life, and are fined $400 million to repair damage from Kristallnacht.[34][33] |
| 15 November 1938 | All Jewish children are expelled from German public schools.[33] |
| December 1938 – August 1939 | German Jewish child refugees are allowed to emigrate to the United Kingdom andFrance through theKindertransport program.[33] |
| 1 January 1939 | All Jewish-owned businesses are closed under the Law Excluding Jews from Commercial Enterprises.[37] |
| 24 January 1939 | Hitler directs Heydrich to establish theCentral Office for Jewish Emigration.[38] |
| 30 January 1939 | Hitler declares his30 January 1939 speech in Reichstag, which states that an outbreak ofWorld War II will result in the extermination of the Jewish race in Europe. |
| 14–16 March 1939 | Czechoslovakia is dissolved asSlovakia declares independence as asatellite state, and the Nazis occupy the remainder as theProtectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.[38][39] |
| 21 March 1939 | TheKlaipėda Region is annexed by Germany.[39] |
| 13 May 1939 | MSSt. Louis sails from Hamburg toCuba with 937 refugees, mostly Jews. Only 29 are allowed in. The rest, refused by Cuba, the United States and Canada are returned to Europe. |
| 17 May 1939 | Jewish immigration toMandatory Palestine is curtailed by the British government through theMacDonald White Paper. |
| June 1939 | TheWagner–Rogers Bill, which would have increasedImmigration quotas for German Jewish children, dies in committee despite endorsement from the Roosevelt administration.[40] |
| 18 August 1939 | TheInterior Ministry requires midwives and pediatricians to report infants with hereditary disorders.[37] |
| 18 October 1939 | First shipment of Jews toLublin Reservation |
| 1 September 1939 | TheGerman invasion of Poland startsWorld War II in Europe. Thousands ofPolish Jews and non-Jews are killed by theSS-Einsatzgruppen duringOperation Tannenberg. |
| 2 September 1939 | Stutthof concentration camp is established nearDanzig.[38] |
| 21 September 1939 | Heydrich orders all German Jews to be shipped to Poland and for all Polish Jews to be concentrated in major cities.[38] |
| October 1939 | Thousands of Jews are shipped from Vienna,Ostrava, andKatowice to theLublin Reservation inZarzecze, Nisko County.[38] |
| October 1939 | The Netherlands establishes arefugee camp for Central European Jewish refugees atWesterbork,Drenthe. After the German invasion the camp is converted into atransit camp to transport Jews to death camps. |
| 8 October 1939 | The firstNazi ghetto is completed inPiotrków Trybunalski. |
| 26 October 1939 | All territory not directly annexed by Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union is placed under theGeneralgouvernment.[38] |
| 28 October 1939 | The Generalgouvernment imposes compulsory labor requirements on Jews.[37] |
| 1940 | Bergen-Belsen is opened nearCelle as aprisoner-of-war camp.[41] |
| 30 January 1940 | The German government decides to expel Gypsies to Poland.[37] |
| April 1940 | Rudolf Höss visitsOświęcim to inspect its suitability as a concentration camp for Polish political prisoners and as a colony for German settlers inLower Silesia. Himmler approves construction ofAuschwitz concentration camp.[42] |
| 9 April 1940 | TheGerman invasion of Denmark and theNorwegian Campaign begin. |
| 30 April 1940 | TheŁódź Ghetto, the firstNazi ghetto, is sealed. |
| 10 May 1940 | TheBattle of France begins, andNetherlands,Belgium, andLuxembourg quickly fall under German control. |
| 15 May 1940 | The Netherlands capitulates to the Germans, andArthur Seyss-Inquart is appointed to lead theReichskommissariat Niederlande.[43] |
| 28 May 1940 | Belgium capitulates to the Germans |
| May 1940 | Auschwitz I opens |
| June 1940 | TheNational Assembly votes to surrender with theArmistice of 22 June 1940.Vichy France is established as acollaborationist state underPhilippe Pétain andPierre Laval.[44] |
| 4 June 1940 | The IKL designatesNeuengamme concentration camp in the outskirts ofHamburg as an independent concentration camp.[45] |
| 14 June 1940 | The first prisoners arrive at Auschwitz.[37] |
| 19 June 1940 | All telephones are confiscated from Jews.[37] |
| June 1940 | The Soviet Union annexes theBaltic states,Northern Bukovina, andBessarabia with German support.[45] |
| July 1940 | Germany directly annexesAlsace andLorraine, and 3,000Alsatian Jews are deported to thezone libre of southern France.[45] |
| 17 July 1940 | Non-French aliens are banned from taking public posts in Vichy France, a measure targeting Jews.[7] |
| 15 August 1940 | Adolf Eichmann proposes theMadagascar Plan.[37] |
| September 1940 | The Vichy government convertsRefugee camps established forSpanish Republican and German Jewish refugees, such asGurs andRivesaltes, intotransit camps.[43] |
| September 1940 | Antisemitic legislation is formulated in Slovakia under pressure from the German government.[7] |
| September 1940 | All public officials in theReichskommissariat Niederlande are forced to attest to their Aryan background, and all Jews are eventually ordered to resign by 31 December.[7] |
| 6 September 1940 | King Carol II abdicates after theSecond Vienna Award forcesRomania to surrenderTransylvania to Hungary. TheNational Legionary State, a coalition between theRomanian army underIon Antonescu and the fascistIron Guard underHoria Simia, comes to power.[45] |
| 20 September 1940 | Breendonk internment camp, a formerNational Redoubt fortress inAntwerp, is opened for prisoners inNazi-occupied Belgium.[45] |
| 24 September 1940 | Veit Harlan's antisemiticpropaganda filmJud Süß premieres in Germany.[43] |
| 27 September– 24 November 1940 | Germany, Italy, andJapan conclude theTripartite Pact establishing theAxis powers. Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania accede to the Pact as well. |
| 3 October 1940 | Vichy France issues theStatut des Juifs discriminating against Jews. The law leads to similar antisemitic actions inFrench North Africa.[7] |
| 12 October 1940 | All Jews are deported from Luxembourg on the orders ofGustav Simon.[7] TheWarsaw Ghetto, the largest ghetto in the General Government, is established.[37] |
| 28 October 1940 | GeneralAlexander von Falkenhausen issues an order prohibiting Jews from working as civil servants, teachers, lawyers, broadcasters, or newspaper editors in theReichskommissariat of Belgium and Northern France.[7] |
| 15 November 1940 | The Warsaw Ghetto is sealed.[45] |
| 28 November 1940 | Fritz Hippler's antisemitic pseudo-documentaryThe Eternal Jew premieres.[43] |
| 18 December 1940 | Hitler approvesOperation Barbarossa, the plan for the German invasion of the Soviet Union[45] |
| 21–23 January 1941 | The Iron Guard attempts a coup d'état against Antonescu in theLegionnaires' rebellion. The Army suppresses the coup with aid from the Wehrmacht and theGerman Foreign Office, and executes a pogrom inBucharest.[46] |
| 24–25 February 1941 | TheFebruary strike is organized by theDutch Communist Party to protest deportations of Jews. Although suppressed, the strike leads to a temporary abatement of antisemitic policy.[7] |
| March 1941 | TheKraków Ghetto is established.[46] |
| 1 March 1941 | Himmler orders the expansion of Auschwitz.[37] |
| 6 April 1941 | Nazi Germany invadesYugoslavia andGreece.[37] |
| 10 April 1941 | TheIndependent State of Croatia is established. |
| 21 May 1941 | TheNatzweiler-Struthof concentration camp is established nearStrasbourg.[47] |
| 22 June 1941 | Operation Barbarossa commences and the Wehrmacht enters Soviet territory |
| 23 June 1941 | TheEinsatzgruppen begin extermination operations.[37] |
| 28 June 1941 | Minsk is captured after theWehrmacht offensive in Belarus.[37] |
| 1 July 1941 | Riga andLviv are captured by the Wehrmacht.[37] |
| 11 July 1941 | TheKovno Ghetto is established.[37] |
| 20 July 1941 | TheMinsk Ghetto is established.[37] |
| 21 July – 31 August 1941 | Bessarabian Jews are massacred by the Wehrmacht, theRomanian Army, andEinsatzgruppe D.[37] |
| August 1941 | TheDrancy internment camp is established by the Sipo near Paris, and is staffed byFrench gendarmes.[48] |
| 1 August 1941 | Eastern Galicia and Lvov are annexed to the General Government, and theBiałystok Ghetto is established.[37] |
| 3 September 1941 | First gassings atAuschwitz usingZyklon B |
| 15 September 1941 | Dutch Jews are prohibited from appearing in public and are deprived of the majority of their assets. The deportation of Romanian Jews toTransnistria begins.[37] |
| 29–30 September 1941 | Babi Yar massacre of 33,771 Jews |
| 10 October 1941 | Field Marshal Walter von Reichenau of theGerman Sixth Army issues a secret memorandum ordering the Wehrmacht to approve violations ofinternational law in the invasion of theSoviet Union.[49] |
| 11–12 December 1941 | Jews are rounded up inLublin and interned inMajdanek concentration camp[50] |
| 12 December 1941 | Hitler declares the 'destruction of the Jewish race' to the Nazi Party leadership, orders theHolocaust, thegenocide of EuropeanJews |
| 20 January 1942 | Wannsee Conference plans "final solution" |
| 27 March 1942 | first of at least 75,721 FrenchJews deported from France, to Auschwitz |
| 6 July 1942 | Anne Frank and her family go into hiding |
| 22 July 1942 | first deportation fromWarsaw Ghetto toTreblinka duringGrossaktion Warsaw |
| 23 July 1942– 19 October 1943 | Treblinka death camp operates, 700,000–900,000 Jews murdered |
| 4 August 1942 | Jewish internees at Breendonk are sent to theMechelen transit camp in preparation for deportation to Auschwitz.[51] |
| 23 October 1942 | Jewish emigration from Nazi-controlled territory is prohibited.[37] |
| 19 November 1942 | firstshipment of Jews from Norway |
| 19 April 1943– 16 May 1943 | Warsaw Ghetto uprising |
| 1943 | Bergen-Belsen is converted into a concentration camp.[41] |
| 2 August 1943 | Treblinka revolt |
| 16 August 1943 | TheBiałystok Ghetto is liquidated.[37] |
| 2 September 1943 | TheTarnów Ghetto is liquidated.[37] |
| 11–14 September 1943 | TheMinsk Ghetto is liquidated.[37] |
| 14 October 1943 | Sobibor uprising and escape |
| 3 November 1943 | German forces commenceOperation Harvest Festival, resulting in the deaths of 43,000 Jews in theLublin District.[37] |
| 9 November 1943 | The 43-nationUnited Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration is founded by theAllied Powers at theWhite House, and is placed under the authority of theSupreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force[52] |
| 1944 | Raphael Lemkin, a former law lecturer atDuke University andU.S. War Department analyst, coins the termgenocide in his bookAxis Rule in Occupied Europe[53] |
| 19 March 1944 | German troopsoccupy Hungary |
| early May 1944 | firsttransport of Hungarian Jews, to Auschwitz, began |
| 9 July 1944 | Miklós Horthy halts deportations of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz.[37] |
| 22 June 1944 | Red Cross representatives see elaborately staged Nazi propaganda ruse atTheresienstadt designed to portray camps as benign |
| 20 July 1944 | Attempt to assassinate Hitler fails |
| 22 July 1944 | Majdanek, first major death camp liberated, by the advancing SovietRed Army along withLublin. |
| 24 July 1944 | Greek Jews in Rhodes are deported to Auschwitz.[37] |
| 1 August 1944 | Warsaw uprising begins |
| 4 August 1944 | Anne Frank and her family arrested and eventually deported to Auschwitz |
| 16 August 1944 | Nazi authorities flee the Drancy camp, and it is taken by theFrench Red Cross.[48] |
| 3 September 1944 | The final transport of Dutch Jews from Westerbork leaves for Auschwitz.[37] |
| October 1944 | Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, created the previous summer when Buchenwald inmates were sent toNordhausen to construct underground aircraft factories to produceV-2 rockets, is made an independent concentration camp. |
| 7 October 1944 | Crematorium IV atAuschwitz destroyed inSonderkommando uprising |
| 15 October 1944 | Miklós Horthy's government in Hungary is overthrown inOperation Panzerfaust and deportations to Auschwitz resume under theGovernment of National Unity.[37] |
| 5 November 1944 | Adolf Eichmann authorizes the firstdeath marches to theBudapest Ghetto.[37] |
| 25 November 1944 | Heinrich Himmler orders the gas chambers of Auschwitz destroyed as incriminating evidence of genocide |
| 27 January 1945 | Auschwitz death camp liberated by the60th Army of theFirst Ukrainian Front.[54] Anniversary is observed asInternational Holocaust Remembrance Day. |
| February or March 1945 | Anne Frank and her sister Margot die in Bergen-Belsen |
| 4 April 1945 | Ohrdruf of Buchenwald is liberated by the4th Armored Division, and is the first German concentration camp to be reached by American military forces |
| 11 April 1945 | Buchenwald death camp liberated by the6th Armored Division of theU.S. Third Army.[55] Dora-Mittelbau is liberated by theU.S. 104th Infantry Division[56] |
| 12 April 1945 | Westerbork transit camp is liberated by the2nd Canadian Infantry Division[57] |
| 15 April 1945 | Bergen-Belsen death camp is liberated by the11th Armoured Division of theBritish Army[58] |
| 19 April 1945 | 9,000 prisoners of Neuengamme are evacuated toLübeck due to the advancing British Army, while 3,000 prisoners are murdered and 700 German prisoners remain behind to destroy files and are conscripted into the SS. |
| 29 April 1945 | Dachau liberated by the Americans |
| 30 April 1945 | Adolf Hitler suicide andRavensbrück liberated by the Soviets |
| 3 May 1945 | The SS attempts to evacuate the remaining prisoners onOcean liners, resulting in the deaths of thousands of prisoners after aRoyal Air Force raid sinks theCap Ancona and theThielbek.[59] |
| 3–6 May 1945 | Mauthausen liberated by the Americans |
| 4 May 1945 | Neuengamme liberated by the British |
| 8 May 1945 | Victory in Europe Day, Germany signs its unconditional surrender.Theresienstadt liberated by the Soviets |
| 23 May 1945 | Heinrich Himmler suicide |
| June 1945 | TheU.S. State Department commissions areport onUNRRA displaced persons camps byEarl G. Harrison, who protests poor conditions in the camps. The Harrison Report is read by U.S. PresidentHarry S Truman and British Prime MinisterClement Attlee and published inThe New York Times[60] |
| 20 November 1945– 1 October 1946 | firstNuremberg trials, of 24 top Nazi officials |
| 20 December 1945 | TheAllied Control Council issues Law No. 22 allowing individual courts to try war criminals and Holocaust perpetrators.[37] |
| 22 December 1945 | President Truman issues anexecutive order mandating that displaced persons from the Holocaust be given preference in the U.S. immigration system.[61] |
| 2 July 1946 | Orson Welles'The Stranger, first feature film with concentration camp footage, released. Hundreds morefeature films and documentaries about the Holocaust would be made. |
| 1947 | UNRRA is superseded by theInternational Refugee Organization[52] |
| 25 June 1947 | The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank's diary, is published in the Netherlands[62] |
| 11 July 1947 | SSExodus departs France for theBritish Mandate of Palestine. Her 4,515 passengers, mostly Holocaust survivors, are intercepted by the British Navy and shipped back to camps in Germany. |
| 1948 | The80th United States Congress passes theDisplaced Persons Act allowing 200,000 displaced persons to enter the United States[63] |
| 14 May 1948 | State of Israel declares independence |
| 9 December 1948 | The United Nations ratifies theConvention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide[53] |
| 1949 | Separate postwar civilian governments inEast andWest Germany are formed due to thebeginning of the Cold War[64] |
| 1950 | The Displaced Persons Act is amended to remove restrictions to Jewish displaced persons.[63] |
| 1951 | West German ChancellorKonrad Adenauer and Israeli Prime MinisterDavid Ben-Gurion begin negotiations for an agreement on reparations.[65] |
| 1952 | The last displaced persons camps in Europe are closed, with most of its inhabitants having been successfully resettled[63] |
| 10 September 1952 | Israel and West Germany ratify theReparations Agreement in Luxembourg allowing for reparations payments between the two countries between 1953 and 1965.[65] |
| 25 August 1953 | TheKnesset foundsYad Vashem.[37] |
| 11 May 1960 | Adolf Eichmann, one of the major organizers of the Holocaust, is captured in Argentina, and brought to Israel where he is tried, convicted. |
| 31 May 1962 | Adolf Eichmann executed |
| 20 December 1963– 19 August 1965 | TheFrankfurt Auschwitz trials occur, the first trial of German Holocaust perpetrators by theWest German civilian judicial system[65] |
| December 7 1970 | German West ChancelerWilly Brandt makes an important visit to polish capital Warsaw and knels before a Memorial to theWarsaw Ghetto Uprising. This event is remmember as theKniefall von Warschau |
| December 1980 | The Graphic NovelMaus is first serialized at theRaw Magazine. |
| 1986 | Elie Wiesel, a Romanian-bornHolocaust survivor and the author of the 1958 semi-autobiographical bookNight, is awarded theNobel Peace Prize for hishuman rights activism.[66] |
| 22 August 1993 | TheUnited States Holocaust Memorial Museum is founded in Washington, D.C.[37] |
| 30 November 1993 | Steven Spielberg'sSchindler's List is first released to the public at Washington, D.C.[67] |
| 1998 | Maurice Papon, a former civil servant who facilitated the deportation of Jews fromBordeaux, is convicted for crimes against humanity by a French court, renewing public awareness of the role of French collaborationists in the Holocaust.[68] |
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