From Chancellor Hitler to Camp Liberation: See the Timeline of the Holocaust
Timeline:
It’s easy to mix up the Holocaust timeline. Although far from a
comprehensive timeline of the Holocaust and all that happened, this list of key
historical events helps show the progression of persecution to mass murder and
the subsequent liberation of concentration camps.
Holocaust
Timeline:
The following details a list of key chronological events of the
Holocaust, spanning from 1933 to 1945.
1933
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 Re-establishment of the Civil Service barred Jews from
holding civil service, university, and state positions
May
10: Public burnings of books written by Jews, political dissidents,
and others not approved by the state
July
14: Law stripping East European Jewish immigrants of German
citizenship
1934
June
30-July 2: In the “Röhm Affair,” also known as “Night of the Long Knives,”
Hitler orders the purge of the top leadership of the Nazi Party paramilitary
formation, the SA (Sturmabteilungen; Assault Detachments). Pressured by German
army commanders, whose support Hitler needed to become President of Germany
upon Hindenburg’s impending death, Hitler used the SS to murder SA Chief of
Staff Ernst Röhm and his top commanders.
August
2: German President von Hindenburg dies. With the support of the
German armed forces, Hitler becomes President of Germany.
August
19: Hitler abolishes the office of President and declares himself
Führer of the German Reich and People, in addition to his position as
Chancellor. In this capacity as Führer, Hitler’s decisions are not bound by the
laws of the state. Hitler now becomes the absolute dictator of Germany; there
are no further legal or constitutional limits to his authority.
November-December: SS chief Himmler consolidates control over and
de facto unifies the German state political police forces into the Gestapo
office in Berlin under the authority of his deputy, Reinhard Heydrich.
December
10: SS chief Himmler creates the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps
under the leadership of SS General Theodor Eicke. This move formalizes the SS
takeover and centralization of the concentration camp system that had taken
place in July 1934.
1935
September
15: “Nuremberg Laws”: Anti-Jewish racial laws enacted; Jews no
longer considered German citizens; Jews could not marry Aryans, nor could they
fly the German flag
November 15: Germany defines a “Jew”: Anyone with three
Jewish grandparents; someone with two Jewish grandparents who identifies as a
Jew
1936
March 3: Jewish doctors barred from practicing medicine in German
institutions
July: Sachsenhausen concentration camp opens
1937
July 15: Buchenwald concentration camp opens
1938
March 13: Anschluss (incorporation of Austria): All anti-Semitic decrees
immediately applied in Austria
April 26: Mandatory registration of all property held by Jews inside the
Reich
August 1: Adolf Eichmann establishes the Office of Jewish Emigration in
Vienna to increase the pace of forced emigration
September 30: Munich Conference: Great Britain and France
agree to German occupation of the Sudentenland, previously western
Czechoslovakia
October 5: Following request by Swiss authorities,
Germans mark all Jewish passports with a large letter “J” to restrict Jews from
immigrating to Switzerland
November 9-10: Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass):
Anti-Jewish program in Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland; 200 synagogues
destroyed; 7,500 Jewish shops looted; 30,000 male Jews sent to concentration
camps (Dachau, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen)
November 12: Decree forcing all Jews to transfer retail
businesses to Aryan hands
November 15: All Jewish pupils expelled from German
schools
December 12: One billion mark fine levied against German
Jews for the destruction of property during Kristallnacht
1939
March 15: Germans occupy Czechoslovakia
September 1: Beginning of World War II: Germany invades
Poland
October 28: First Polish ghetto established in Piotrkow
November 23: Jews in German-occupied Poland forced to
wear an arm band or yellow star
1940
April 9: Germans occupy Denmark and southern Norway
May 7: Establishment of Lodz Ghetto
May 10: Germany invades the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemberg, and France
May 20: Concentration camp established at Auschwitz
November
16: Establishment of Warsaw Ghetto
1941
January
21-26: Anti-Jewish riots in Romania, hundreds of Jews murdered
April
6: Germany attacks Yugoslavia and Greece, occupation follows
June
22: Germany invades the Soviet Union
September
28-29: 34,000 Jews massacred by Einsatzgruppen at Babi Yar outside Kiev
October:
Establishment of Auschwitz II (Birkenau)
December
8: Chelmno death camp begins operations
January
20: Wannsee Conference in Berlin: Plan is developed for “Final
Solution”
March
17: Gassing of Jews begins in Belzec
May: Gassing
of Jews begins Sobibor
June: Jewish
partisan units established in the forests of Byelorussia and the Baltic states
Summer:
Deportation of Jews to killing centers from Belgium, Croatia, France, the
Netherlands, and Poland; armed resistance by Jews in ghettos of Kletzk,
Kremenets, Lachva, Mir, and Tuchin
Winter:
Deportation of Jews from Germany, Greece and Norway to killing centers; Jewish
partisan movement organized in forests near Lublin
1943
March:
Liquidation of Krakow ghetto
April
19: Warsaw Ghetto revolt begins
Summer: Armed
resistance by Jews in Bedzin, Bialystok, Czestochowa, Lvov, and Tarnow ghettos
Fall:
Liquidation of large ghettos in Minsk, Vilna, and Riga
October
14: Uprising in Sobibor
October-November: Rescue
of the Danish Jewry
1944
March
19: Germany occupies Hungary
May
15: Nazis begin deporting Hungarian Jews
July
24: Russians liberate Majdanek
October
7: Revolt by inmates at Auschwitz; one crematorium blown up
November: Last
Jews deported from Terezin to Auschwitz
1945
January
17: Evacuation of Auschwitz; beginning of death marches
January
27: Beginning of death march for inmates of Stutthof
April
6-10: Death march of inmates of Buchenwald
April
15: Liberation of Bergen Belsen by British Army
April:
Liberation of Nordhausen, Ohrdruf, Gunskirchen, Ebensee and Dachau by American
Army
May
5: Liberation of Mauthausen and Gusen by American Army
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