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Designed as a resource for students, this timeline chronicles key dates in the history of the Holocaust from 1933-1945. Click on specific events to deepen your learning with additional information and primary source materials. Teachers can click the  icon in the upper-right corner to find resources that can support classroom instruction.

1933
January 30 1933

Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany

February 27 1933

Reichstag arson leads to state of emergency

March 5 1933

Reichstag elections: the Nazis gain 44 percent of the vote

March 22 1933

First concentration camp is established in Dachau, Germany

March 24 1933

The Nazis sponsor the Enabling Act

April 1 1933

The Nazis declare a boycott of all Jewish businesses in Germany

April 7 1933

Civil Service Reform – Jews are barred from working in the civil service and are stripped of their equal rights

April 25 1933

School quota system limits the number of Jewish high school and university students in Germany

May 6 1933

Persecution of Jewish researcher, Magnus Hirschfeld, noted expert on sex, sexuality and gender norms

May 10 1933

The Nazis burn thousands of anti-Nazi, Jewish-authored, and other books

July 14 1933

Forced sterilization of German citizens with congenital disabilities begins

July 14 1933

Germany is proclaimed a one-party state

October 14 1933

Germany quits League of Nations and disarmament talks

November 12 1933

The Nazi Party gets 92 percent of the vote in one-party elections


1934
January 26 1934

German-Polish non-aggression pact

June 30 1934

“The Night of the Long Knives”

August 2 1934

German President Hindenburg dies

September 6 1934

Gestapo compiles list of gay men


1935
January 13 1935

Germany reclaims the Saar region

March 16 1935

Military conscription in Germany begins

April 1 1935

Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse military draft

May 31 1935

Jewish people are no longer allowed to serve in the German armed forces

September 1 1935

Paragraph 175 of the Criminal Code is amended to criminalize homosexuality

September 15 1935

Nuremberg Laws enacted

November 14 1935

Nuremberg Laws are expanded to include Roma and other groups


1936
March 7 1936

The Germans enter the Rhineland

July 17 1936

The Spanish Civil War begins

August 1 1936

The Summer Olympic Games begin in Berlin

September 9 1936

The Four Year Plan is unveiled

October 25 1936

The Rome-Berlin Axis Agreement is signed between Italy and Germany based on political interests

November 25 1936

Germany and Japan sign a military pact


1937
March 21 1937

Pope Pius XI responds to German racist policies

July 19 1937

Buchenwald concentration camp is established in Germany


1938
March 11 1938

The Anschluss –The Annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany

April 4 1938

Gay men sent to concentration camps

June 14 1938

Jewish businesses have to register as Jewish

July 6 1938

Anti-Jewish economic policies restrict Jews’ access to many fields of activity

July 6 1938

The Evian Conference

August 17 1938

Compulsory middle names for Jews in Germany are required in order to identify them as Jews

September 29 1938

The Munich Agreement: Great Britain and France accept German annexation of parts of Czechoslovakia

October 5 1938

Passports of German Jews are marked with the letter “J”

October 28 1938

17,000 Polish-born Jews are expelled from Germany to Poland; most are interned in Zbaszyn

November 9 1938

Kristallnacht Pogrom

November 10 1938

Italy adopts antisemitic racial laws

November 12 1938

Nazi leaders enact new laws to economically remove Jews from society

November 15 1938

Jewish children are banned from public schools

December 2 1938

First Kindertransport arrives in Great Britain


1939
March 15 1939

The Germans occupy Bohemia and Moravia

March 28 1939

The civil war in Spain ends

June 6 1939

The MS St. Louis, a ship with 936 Jewish refugees, is turned away by Cuba, the United States, and other countries

August 18 1939

Beginning of the Euthanasia (T4) program

August 23 1939

Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression pact

September 1 1939

Germany invades Poland, beginning World War II

September 3 1939

Great Britain, France, India, Australia, Canada, South Africa, and New Zealand declare war on Germany

September 17 1939

The Soviets invade Poland

September 21 1939

Establishment of Jewish councils and the concentration of Jews into the larger cities of Poland

September 28 1939

Poland is divided between Germany and the Soviet Union

October 4 1939

The Warsaw (Poland) Jewish Council is established

October 7 1939

Jewish “resettlement” in the Lublin district of Poland begins; plans are made to establish a Jewish “reservation”

October 8 1939

The first ghetto is established in Piotrkow Trybunalski, Poland

October 26 1939

Civil administration (Generalgouvernement) is established in Poland

November 23 1939

Jews in Poland are required to wear the Jewish Badge (Star of David)

December 2 1939

The Nazis initiate use of gas vans to eliminate German patients with mental disabilities


1940
January 24 1940

Jewish property in the Generalgouvernement is registered

April 9 1940

Germany invades Denmark and Norway

April 30 1940

The Lodz ghetto is sealed

May 10 1940

Germany invades Belgium and the Netherlands; Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of England

May 26 1940

The Allies evacuate forces to England at Dunkirk

June 14 1940

Germany occupies Paris

June 14 1940

The deportation of Polish political prisoners to Auschwitz concentration camp begins

July 10 1940

The Vichy France government is formed

August 13 1940

The Battle of Britain begins

September 7 1940

The German “Blitz” on England reaches a climax with massive air raids on British cities

October 3 1940

The Vichy government establishes anti-Jewish legislation, the Statut des Juifs

November 15 1940

The Warsaw ghetto is sealed


1941
March 20 1941

The Krakow ghetto in Poland is sealed

April 6 1941

Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece

April 24 1941

The Lublin ghetto is sealed

June 6 1941

Wehrmacht issues the “Commissar Order”

June 22 1941

Operation Barbarossa: The German invasion of the Soviet Union

June 23 1941

The Einsatzgruppen begin mass killings in the Soviet Union

June 28 1941

The Romanian “Iron Guard” kills 1,500 Jews in Iasi, Romania

June 30 1941

Germany occupies Lvov, Poland; 4,000 Jews are killed

July 1 1941

Einsatzgruppe D begins operating in Bessarabia (Romania); 160,000 Jews are murdered

July 8 1941

The systematic murder of the Jews of Vilna (Lithuania) begins at Ponary, south of Vilna

July 24 1941

The Kishinev (Moldova) ghetto is established

July 31 1941

Hermann Goering orders Heydrich to plan the “Final Solution”

August 1 1941

50,000 Jews are confined in the Bialystok (Poland) ghetto

August 24 1941

The “Second Phase” of the Euthanasia (T4) program begins

September 3 1941

The first experimental gassings are conducted at Auschwitz

September 8 1941

The siege of Leningrad (Russia) begins

September 15 1941

Romanian authorities deport 150,000 Jews to Transnistria; approximately 90,000 die

September 19 1941

German Jews are ordered to wear the Jewish Badge

September 29 1941

33,771 Jews are murdered at Babi Yar near Kiev (Ukraine) by members of Einsatzgruppe C

October 1 1941

The first transport (of prisoners of war) reaches Majdanek (Poland) extermination camp

October 15 1941

Deportation of German and Austrian Jews to ghettos in the East begins

October 28 1941

Germans murder thousands of Kovno (Lithuania) Jews

November 5 1941

Roma deported from Germany and Austria

November 24 1941

A ghetto is established in Theresienstadt, near Prague (former Czechoslovakia)

November 30 1941

30,000 Riga (Latvia) Jews are arrested and subsequently shot in the Rumbula Forest

December 7 1941

The Japanese surprise attack the American Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, then a US territory

December 7 1941

The German army issues “Night and Fog” order

December 8 1941

The United States enters World War II

December 8 1941

Killing operations begin at Chelmno (Poland) extermination camp

December 31 1941

The Jewish underground in Vilna issues a partisan manifesto calling for resistance


1942
January 16 1942

Germans begin deportation of Jews from Lodz to Chelmno

January 20 1942

The Wannsee Conference takes place

January 21 1942

The Jewish military underground is established in Vilna

March 17 1942

Belzec extermination camp begins functioning

May 3 1942

The first mass killing of Jews in Sobibor extermination camp occurs

May 27 1942

The Czech underground assassinates Reinhard Heydrich

June 2 1942

The BBC announces 700,000 Jews have been killed in Poland

June 22 1942

Auschwitz-Birkenau receives the first deportation of Jews from Drancy transit camp

July 16 1942

The Vél d’Hiv Roundup in France Begins

July 19 1942

Himmler orders elimination of all Jews in the Generalgouvernement

July 22 1942

The mass deportation from the Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka extermination camp begins

July 28 1942

The Jewish Fighting Organization (Z.O.B.) is founded in Warsaw

August 8 1942

The US receives information on a plan to annihilate Jews but delays publication to verify sources

September 12 1942

The Battle of Stalingrad begins

November 8 1942

The Allies invade North Africa

December 17 1942

The Allies condemn German mass murder


1943
January 18 1943

Jews launch an armed resistance to deportations from the Warsaw ghetto

February 2 1943

The German army surrenders at Stalingrad

February 26 1943

The first transport of Sinti-Roma reaches Auschwitz-Birkenau

April 19 1943

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins

April 19 1943

The Bermuda Conference convenes

July 10 1943

The Allies invade Sicily

August 2 1943

The uprising at Treblinka begins

September 1 1943

The Vilna underground uprising fails

September 23 1943

The Vilna ghetto is liquidated

October 1 1943

Danish Jews are rescued

October 14 1943

The uprising at Sobibor begins

November 3 1943

Germans launch Operation Harvest Festival (Erntefest)


1944
January 22 1944

The War Refugee Board is established

March 19 1944

German troops occupy Hungary

March 24 1944

President Roosevelt warns Hungary to refrain from anti-Jewish measures

April 16 1944

Hungarian government registers Jews and confiscates their property

May 15 1944

Mass deportations of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau begin

June 6 1944

D-Day (Invasion of Normandy)

June 23 1944

The Red Cross visits Theresienstadt

July 20 1944

An attempt to assassinate Hitler fails

July 25 1944

The Soviet Army liberates Majdanek

August 7 1944

The liquidation of the Lodz ghetto begins

September 20 1944

Churchill announces formation of Jewish Brigade

October 3 1944

The Polish uprising in Warsaw is crushed

October 7 1944

The Sonderkommando uprising at Auschwitz-Birkenau occurs

November 25 1944

Himmler orders gassings to stop at Auschwitz-Birkenau

December 16 1944

The Battle of the Bulge


1945
January 17 1945

The Soviets conquer half of Budapest

January 17 1945

The Germans begin “Death March” from Auschwitz-Birkenau

January 27 1945

The Soviets liberate Auschwitz-Birkenau

April 11 1945

United States Army liberates Buchenwald

April 12 1945

President Roosevelt dies

April 15 1945

British forces liberate Bergen-Belsen concentration camp

April 28 1945

Mussolini is shot

April 30 1945

Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide

May 2 1945

The Soviets occupy Berlin

May 7 1945

Germany surrenders to the Allies

May 8 1945

V-E (Victory in Europe) Day

July 16 1945

The Potsdam Conference

August 6 1945

The United States drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

August 15 1945

V-J (Victory over Japan) Day

September 20 1945

Paragraph 175 – criminalizing homosexuality – remains in effect

November 20 1945

The Nuremberg Trials begin

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