–1919–
September 12 – In Munich, while still on the roster of the 16th Bavarian Infantry, his World War One
regiment, and acting as an army political agent, Corporal Adolf Hitler (April 20 1889 - April 30, 1945),
attends a meeting of the German Workers' Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei DAP), a tiny right-wing group of
about 25 members. After hearing a speech he disagreed with, Hitler made a fifteen-minute rebuttal and
was invited to join the party.
–1920–
April – Hitler resigns from the army and becomes responsible for DAP propaganda.
May 20 – The right-handed swastika makes its first appearance.
August 8 – The German Workers Party is renamed the National-sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei
(Nazi) National Socialist German Workers' Party.
–1921–
April – The Reparations Commission fixes Germany's war reparations at 132 billion gold marks or 33
billion dollars.
June – The Nazi Party claims to have 3,000 due-paying members.
July 11 – At the peak of a power struggle with the executive committee of the Nazi party, Hitler threatens
to resign from the party. The executive committee backs down and Hitler becomes the uncontested
leader (Fuhrer) of the Nazi party with dictatorial authority.
July 29 – Hitler, for first time, is publicly referred to as the Fuhrer of the Nazi party.
–1922–
(Paul) Josef Goebbels (October 29, 1897 - May 1, 1945) joins the Nazi party.
Autumn – Hermann Wilhelm Goering (January 12, 1893 - October 15, 1946) joins the Nazi party.
December – Hermann Goering, WW I fighter ace and squadron commander, is appointed, by Hitler, to
lead the SA, (Sturm Abteilung (Storm Troopers) also known as the "Brownshirts".
–1923–
November 8 – In a national atmosphere of extreme economic chaos, political turmoil and armed conflict,
Hitler and his National Socialists, now claiming over 55,000 members, fail in an attempt to capture leading
members of the Bavarian government in Munich and force them to join Hitler in overthrowing the Federal
German Government, the "Beer Hall Putsch (coup)".
During his 24 day trial, in front of judges chosen by a Nazi supporter in the Bavarian government, Hitler
was allowed to propagandize for long periods of time, garnering a great deal of national press coverage
and winning many new followers across Germany. In the end he received a light five-year sentence with a
very light parole eligibility of six months. After nine months in a roomy privet cell with a view, Hitler was
paroled.
At once he began to reform the National Socialists into a highly disciplined and centralized
political/paramilitary organization, with Hitler, alone, at the centre. The Party quickly grew.
–1924–
February 26 – In Munich the trial of Hitler and others involved in the Munich "Beer Hall" Putsch begins.
April 1 – Hitler begins his prison term.
December 20 – Hitler is released from prison.
–1925–
The first volume of Hitler's "Mein Kampf (My Struggle)" entitled 'Die Abrechnung' (The Settlement' or
'Revenge') is published. Written during his time in prison, the book lays out the grounds for all Nazi action.
–1927–
July – The Legion of the Archangel Michael, a fascist and anti-Semitic Romanian political party, is
founded with Corneliu Codreanu (September 13, 1899 - November 30, 1938) as its leader. In 1929 this
party changed its name to the Iron Guard and with support from respectable sectors such as the
Romanian clergy, soon grew into a powerful movement. Even after supposedly being disbanded in 1933,
by the government, under pressure from France, the party remained a strong influence.
July – The second volume of "Mein Kampf" entitled 'Die Nationalsozialistische Bewegung' (The National
Socialist Movement) is published.
–1928–
May 20 – In the German general elections, the Nazi party earns three percent of the popular vote.
–1929–
January 6 – Heinrich Himmler (October 7, 1900 - May 23, 1945) becomes leader of the SS
(Schutzstaffel-Protective Echelon). The SS began as a small personal bodyguard for Hitler within the SA
(Sturmabteilung-Assault Division (the 'Brownshirts'). Himmler, with his chief assistant Rienhard Heydrich,
turned the SS into a monster organization that would ultimately control every aspect of policing through
out the Nazi Empire including the Gestapo and the administration of the holocaust. In addition the SS was
also involved in many business partnerships providing slave labour to various manufacturing firms.
In later years, Himmler will voice a mad dream of a "pure" SS state, beyond the political control of the
Nazi party, occupying the area of medieval Burgundy. Himmler will remain the head of the SS until the
end in 1945.
October 24 – The New York stock market crashes and signals the start of the Great Depression which,
within a short time, would become world wide.
–1930–
September – Because of the fractionalized German political system, the Nazi Party becomes the second
largest party in the Reichstag (parliament) with only 18.3% of the popular vote.
–1931–
June 4 – Heinrich Himmler first meets Reinhard Heydrich (March 7, 1904 - June 4, 1942).
–1932–
March 13 – Paul Von Hindenburg (October 2, 1847 - August 2, 1934) is unable to win a majority in the
Presidential elections. Hitler's share of the vote is 30.1%.
April 10 – In a runoff election Von Hindenburg is re-elected President with a clear majority. Hitler is
second with a significant 37% share of the vote.
July 31 – Of the four main political parties, the Nazi Party wins the most Reichstag seats (230) but not a
majority.
August 13 – Hitler demands that President Von Hindenburg appoint him Chancellor. Von Hindenburg
refuses.
August 30 – After several weeks of negotiations between the Catholic Center Party and the Nazi Party,
Hermann Goering becomes President of the Reichstag.
September 12 – President Von Hindenburg dissolves the Reichstag.
November 6 – The deadlock in the Reichstag remains unbroken following new elections. The Nazi,
however, lose 34 seats.
–1933–
January 30 – Hitler appointed Reich Chancellor of Germany by President Von Hindenburg.
February 3 – In secret, Hitler meets with the German armed forces high command and lays out his
dream for a Greater Germany.
February 4 – Provisions are announced to allow Nazi authorities to ban other political organizations from
holding meetings.
February 22 – As part of the Nazi restructuring of the police, some 40,000 SS and SA members are
sworn in as auxiliary police.
February 27 – The Reichstag is burned by person or persons still unknown. This event was blown into a
full state emergency by Reich Chancellor Hitler and used as an excuse to persuade Von Hindenburg to
issue, the day after the fire, the "Decree for the Protection of People and State". This document,
suspending parts of the Weimar Constitution, became the basis for the Nazi police state.
March 20 – At a press conference Himmler announces the establishment of the first official concentration
camp for political prisoners ('protective detainees'). The camp is to be built near the village of Dachau.
Prior to this, a number of unofficial camps, so called "wild camps", had been set up throughout Germany,
by local authorities, for the confinement of large numbers of political arrestees. Most of these were shut
down after the opening of Dachau.
March 22 – Dachau concentration camp begins operations in a former munitions factory.
March 24 – The 'emergency' dictatorial powers given Hitler after the Reichstag fire are made law when
the Reichstag passes the Enabling Act.
April 1 – In an effort to deprive Jews of their living, the German State declares a boycott of all Jewish
owned businesses.
April 11 – The German government, in a decree, sets a clear definition of what is not an "Aryan". This will
be a precursor of the "Nuremberg Laws" of 1935.
April 26 – Soon after the Nazis party gained power, Hermann Goring, as Prussian minister of the interior,
separated the political and espionage units from the regular Prussian police, enlisted thousands of Nazis
and organized them under his personal command. This was the Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei –
Secret State Police). At the same time in the remaining German states, Himmler was carrying out a
similar task and, on this date, these organizations were merged, as the Gestapo, under Himmler who, at
the same time, remained as head of the SS.
May 10 – At large, orchestrated rallies in Berlin and other cities across Germany, university students burn
books by Jewish or other writers deemed by the Party as "UnGerman". Among those burned were books
by Thomas Mann, Jack London, Freud, HG Wells and Einstein.
July 14 – The Nazi party is declared the sole legal political party in Germany.
July – The forced sterilization of those found genetically defective, by a Hereditary Health Court becomes
law.
September 29 – Jews are excluded from owning land.
October 4 – Jews are excluded from editorial positions at newspapers.
October 14 – Claiming the world was treating Germany as a second-class citizen, Hitler withdraws his
country from the League of Nations.
November 24 – A law dealing with 'Habitual and Dangerous Criminals' is put into effect. The law will also
allow for the arrest and interment of alcoholics, beggars, the homeless and the unemployed.
–1934–
January 1 – Jewish holidays are removed from German calendars.
January 7 – 'Non-Aryans' are banned from adopting 'Aryan' children.
January 12 – The Zionist Federation of Germany is permitted, by the Gestapo, to hold a Palestine
exhibition in Berlin.
January 15 – Goering orders the Gestapo to arrest any Jews or political émigrés returning from abroad.
January 21 – Approval is given, by the Austrian government, to the formation of a Jewish self-defense
organization in Vienna.
January 24 – Jews are excluded from the German Labour Front.
January 26 – A ten-year non-aggression treaty is signed between Poland and Germany.
February 2 – A new official German version of the Psalms of David, with all references to the Hebrews
removed, is published.
February 8 – German Bible Circles are ordered disbanded by the Gestapo.
February 25 – The German Association of Jewish War Veterans declares its loyalty to Germany in
honour of the 12,000 German Jews who died fighting in WW I.
March 12 – The Nazi Trade and Artisans Union declares a new boycott of Jewish businesses.
April 12 – The German Ministry of Justice introduces the "protective custody" warrant.
April 22 – Reinhard Heydrich made head of the Gestapo.
May 17 – Jews are excluded from the national health insurance.
May 31 – All persons racially classified as Jews are dismissed from the German army.
June 30 – The SS becomes an independent organization within the Nazi Party structure.
July 22 – Jews are excluded from gaining legal qualifications.
August 2


Upon President Von Hindenburg's death, Hitler becomes Head of State and Commander-in-Chief
of the armed forces.
The armed forces of Germany swear an oath of loyalty to Hitler.
August 19 – In a plebiscite German voters give an 88% approval rate of Hitler's multiple roles of
Chancellor and Fuhrer and of his dictatorial powers.
October 1 – Contrary to terms of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany begins to build a new air force.
December 27 – The French Foreign Office refuses to issue transit visas for thousands of Jews fleeing
Germany.
–1935–
March 11 – The existence of the new German air force is revealed by Hitler.
March 16 – Germany repudiates the disarmament clauses of the Versailles Treaty and reinstitutes
compulsory military service.
April 1 – Contrary to the Treaty of St. Germain, Austria reinstitutes compulsory military service.
April 23 – The Race Bureau announces that Jewish children will be excluded from German public
schools.
April 30 – Jews are forbidden to display the German Flag.
May 21 – Jews are excluded from entering the military.
June 7 – German representatives to the International Olympic Committee give assurances that at the
coming Berlin Games, there will be equal treatment between 'Aryans' and 'non-Aryans'.
June 19 – In Palestine, officials at the German consulate warn Jews not to return to Germany, because
they would be arrested by the Gestapo and put in a concentration camp for "special education."
June 24 – At least 10,000 Hitler Youth members swear formally to "eternally hate the Jews".
June 26 – A law allowing forced abortions on women to prevent the passing of "hereditary diseases" is
passed.
July 27 – Individual anti-Jewish actions become forbidden. Now all anti-Jewish activities must originate
with Hitler's chancellery.
July 31 – Provincial Jews are banned from entering the city of Berlin by its city council.
August 1 – Jews are excluded from public facilities, restaurants and stores.
September 6 – The sale of Jewish newspapers, on the street, becomes forbidden in Germany.
September 15

Hitler proclaims the Nuremberg Laws. The laws are designed to complete the isolation of the
Jews from the rest of German society and rescind their citizenship.

The swastika becomes an official part of the German Flag.
September 20 – Himmler issues orders that forbid members of the SS from taking leading roles in any
religious organization and from displaying any manifestations of religious intolerance.
October 1 – To avoid offending the Arabs, Goebbel's Propaganda Ministry explains that Nazism is 'antiJewish' rather than 'anti-Semitic'.
October 2 – German banks are forbidden from arranging credit or loans for Jews.
October 18 – The 'Marriage Protection Law" bans any person with a hereditary disease from marriage.
October 24 – Catholic and Protestant leaders, in the United States, urge their country not to attend the
Berlin Olympic Games.
November 1 – The Nuremberg Laws come, officially, into effect. The German government states that the
laws will apply to both German and foreign Jews equally.
November 14 – In an effort to more clearly define who is now considered a Jew, a supplement to the
Nuremberg Laws is published. It states that a person with at least three Jewish grandparents is a Jew.
Half-Jews, those with two Jewish grandparents, are to be counted as Jews only if they belong to the
Jewish religion or are married to a Jew.
Half-Jews and one-fourth Jews, those descended from one Jewish grandparent, and who are not
practicing Jews, are put together into a new 'non-Aryan' racial category: the 'Mischlinge' (mixed race).
November 20 – The Church of England condemns the German persecution of Jews.
–1936–
January 23 – Senator William H. King, of Utah (June 3, 1863 - November 27, 1949), urges the United
States to open its doors to Jews fleeing Germany.
February 6/16 – The Winter Olympic Games are held in the German town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
February 10 – The Gestapo is placed beyond the law.
February 18 – Goebbels issues a decree that puts strict controls on the religious press.
March 7 – Contrary to the Treaty of Locarno, German troops enter and assert control of the Rhineland.
March 25 – Germany confiscates the property of Jewish and non-Jewish writers who have gone into
exile.
March 29 – In a national plebiscite, Hitler, and his policies, receives a massive 99% of the vote. Of 45.5
million registered voters, 44.5 million vote in support of the dictator.
May 18 – Haile Selassie (July 23, 1894 - August 27, 1975) the Emperor of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) thanks
Jews for their support in the defense of his country against the Italians.
June 17 – Himmler is appointed chief of all German police.
June 21 – Catholic nuns are dismissed from teaching in Bavarian public schools. The police announce
that any priests who speak out against the order will be arrested. Priests are given instructions, by Vicar
General Buchwieser, to read a joint pastoral letter condemning the order. Arrests are not made, but
names are taken.
July 9 – Goebbels orders the anti-Jewish propaganda stopped until after the Berlin Olympics.
July 12 – Sachsenhausen concentration camp is established. The camp was built with a view of holding
the many POWs the Germans expected when war came. Almost at once was populated with political
prisoners.
July 12 – Mass arrests of Gypsies begin.
August 1-16 – Anti-Jewish signs are removed and other overt anti-Semitic activities are suspended for
the duration of the Berlin Olympic Games.
August 24 – Two-years of mandatory military service becomes law in Germany.
September 4 – The Berlin Labor Court rules that the dismissal of Germans from their jobs for marring
Jews or other "non-Aryans is allowed.
September 20 – Numbers of Zionist leaders and well-known rabbis are arrested by the Gestapo without
charges.
September 24 – All Jewish-owned employment agencies are ordered closed down.
October 4 – All Jewish art dealers in Berlin are ordered to close by the end of the year.
October 13 – The German Ministry of Justice establishes special courts to deal with charges made under
the Nuremberg Laws.
October 15 – Jewish teachers are banned from teaching 'Aryan' children.
November 23 – About 2,000 literary works, by Jewish authors, are blacklisted by the German
government.
December 1 – The Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) becomes an official agency of the government.
–1937–
January 16 – All Jewish youth organizations in Germany are closed down by the Gestapo.
January 22 – Germans are asked not to see Jewish doctors.
February 1 – Germans are forbidden to accept a Nobel Prize.
February 10 – All Catholic schools in Bavaria are closed by the government.
February 18 – Under the new conscription law 'half' and 'quarter' Jews are eligible for military and labour
service.
Spring – It is decided by Nazi officials, that all German colored children are to be illegally sterilized.
April 9 – All B'nai B'rith lodges in Germany are closed by the Gestapo.
April 11 – all Jews are deprived of municipal citizenship by the German Ministry of the Interior.
May 9 – Jews are banned from receiving university degrees.
May 14 – Jews are banned from playing music by Beethoven or Mozart during Jewish concerts.
June 12 – A secret directive, from Heydrich, orders that Jewish violators of the race laws be put into
"protective custody" after having served their prison sentences.
July 6 – Jews are forbidden from studying medicine.
July 19 – The first prisoners arrive at the new Konzentrationslager Ettersberg (Ettersberg concentration
camp) outside of Weimar.
July 28 – Ettersberg concentration camp is renamed Buchenwald.
September 4 – All Rotary Club chapters in Germany are dissolved by government orders.
November 16 – Jews may now only obtain passports for Foreign travel in very rare cases.
December 14 – Under Himmler's orders all persons who have been "identified" as "asocial" are to be
interned in concentration camps.
–1938–
January 25 – The Gestapo is given discretionary powers to put prisoners in "protective custody" (interned
in a concentration camp).
February 4 – Hitler personally takes command of the German armed forces. Many dissident general
officers are replaced with those in his control.
March 11 – Hitler issues an ultimatum demanding that Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg resign and that
Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Minister of the Interior and Austrian Nazi, be made Chancellor.
March 12


German troops enter and occupy Austria without opposition.
The German Reichstag makes the Anschluss (union) legal with the Law Concerning the Reunion
of Austria. Austria becomes a German province.
March 13


Hitler enters Vienna to the cheers of thousands.
The Gestapo move quickly to crush what few rights Jews had left in Austria. Many Jewish leaders
are arrested and Jewish property looted and destroyed.
March 22 – Britain declares a campaign against Illegal Jewish immigrants to Palestine.
March 26 – Jewish professors and instructors are dismissed from Austrian universities.
April 1 – Austrian Jews are sent to Dachau.
April 22 – It is made illegal, in Germany, for non-Jews to help hide Jewish holdings.
April 26 – Jews with assets of more than 5,000 Reichsmarks either in Germany or abroad, are ordered to
register. Exempted are American and British Jews living in Germany.
May 3 – Flossenburg concentration camp, near Bayreuth, Bavaria, becomes operational. Built originally
to hold 1,600 prisoners, in it's full time, Flossenburg, and its sub-camps, will hold more than 110,000
persons and more than 70,000 will die there.
May 9 – Munich's main synagogue is destroyed.
May 24


The Nuremberg Laws become official in Austria.
Books written by Jews, or others not acceptable to Nazi ideology, disappear from Austrian
libraries and bookstores.
June 1 – German political prisoners and Jews, with previous criminal records, are sent to Buchenwald.
June 14 – Jews are ordered to register their businesses and are under great pressure to sell to persons
or companies, close to the Nazi's, at prices far below their value.
June 15 – In Juni Aktion (Operation June) about 1,500 German Jews are arrested and interned in
concentration camps.
June 26 – In Austria "non-Aryans" are ordered dismissed from Jewish businesses.
June 29 – Almost 40,000 Austrian Jews loss their jobs.
July 6


Thirty-two countries meet at Evian-les-Bains, France for a conference, convened by President
Roosevelt, to discuss the problem of refugees, in particular Jewish refugees, from German
controlled areas. Little though, was accomplished as most western countries were not willing to
take in the refugees.
Jews excluded from trading in stocks and conducting other commercial services.
July 23 – All German Jews over the age of 15 must carry identification cards.
July 25 – Jewish doctors are excluded from calling themselves doctors and practicing medicine. They are
now permitted to treat Jews only and must be referred to as Krankenbehandler (medical orderlies).
July 27 – Jewish street names in Germany are changed.
August 8 – In order to supply slaves to a stone quarry a concentration camp at Mauthausen, 20 km from
Linz, Austria, begins operation.
August 17 – New German regulations require that Jews should have a 'Jewish; first name. If they choose
to keep their 'Aryan' first name, Jews must have a 'Jewish; middle name.
September 1 – Hitler demands that Czechoslovakia cede the Sudetenland to Germany.
September 27


Hitler threatens to take all of Czechoslovakia if his demands on the Sudetenland are not met.
German Jews are excluded from practicing law.
September 29 – Without Czechoslovakia's or the Sudetenland's, consent or even presence, the Munich
Agreement is negotiated between France, Great Britain and Germany with Mussolini mediating. In return
for promising not to make more territorial demands, Germany is allowed to annex the Sudetenland
province of Czechoslovakia.
September – Sachsenhausen becomes operational.
October 1 – The German army occupies the Sudetenland. Close to 20,000 Jews live in the province and
most escape to the still Czechoslovakian provinces of Bohemia and Moravia.
October 5 – The passports of German Jews are annulled.
October 8 – By Hitler's orders, the SS Sicherheitpolizei Sonderkommandos (Security police Special
units) are created for operations in the Sudetenland.
October 28 – Germany arrests and then expels to Poland, about 15, 000 Jews of Polish descent. Poland,
at first, refuses to allow the people to enter and they must spend several months of winter in a state of
limbo between the two countries.
November 7 – Ernst Von Rath, a diplomat with the German Embassy in Paris, is shot by a seventeenyear-old Jew, Herschel Grynszpan, whose family had been part of the October 28 expulsions to Poland.
November 9 –Hitler delegates responsibility for Jewish political affairs to Goering.
November 9-10 – Ernst Von Rath dies from his wounds and what came to be known as Kristallnacht
(Night of Broken Glass) broke forth. Anti- Semitic mobs riot across Germany and Austria looting and
burning. 76 Synagogues are destroyed completely as well as Jewish schools and businesses. At least 91
Jews are killed and 35,000 arrested and interned.
November 12


Goering orders a large number of officials from various agencies to meet with him and discuss
ways of remove the Jews from the German economy.
The Jewish population is fined one billion Reichsmarks by the German government, for damages
caused by the Kristallnacht rioting.
November 14 – President Roosevelt recalls American Ambassador Hugh Wilson to Washington as a
response to the Kristallnacht.
November 15 – the German public school system expels all Jewish children.
November 18 – In reaction to Kristallnacht, the U.S. State Department extends the visitor's visas of
nearly 15,000, mostly-Jewish, refugees already in the United States.
December 3 – German Jews are ordered to relinquish driver's licenses, vehicle registrations and liquidate
virtually all their property.
December 5 – In compliance the Reich Citizenship Act, the pensions of retired Jewish officials are
reduced.
December 13 – Neuengamme concentration camp is established as a sub-camp of Sachsenhausen. It is
built at an empty brickyard near Hamburg to supply bricks for development projects. It will eventually
become an independent camp.
December 14 – The official announcement of Goering's control of Jewish Affairs.
–1939–
January 1 – The government decrees that the Jew will be expunged from the German economy.
January 24 – Heydrich is ordered by Goring to create the Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration to
organize the expulsion of the Jews. Gestapo head Heinrich Mueller will be its director.
February 21 – German Jews are ordered to give up all silver and gold, except wedding rings.
March 15 – Civil disorder forces Czechoslovakian President Hacha to ask for German support. German
troops enter Prague and some 56,000 Jews, many refugees from Germany and Austria, who had just
recently fled to Bohemia and Moravia, are trapped.
March 16 – Hitler announces that the country of Czechoslovakia no longer exists.
March 31 – An agreement is signed between Britain, France and Poland wherein Britain and France
pledge military support to Poland in the event of an attack on Poland's western border.
April 3 – A war directive, from Hitler and marked "Most Secret", is hand delivered to his most senior
military commanders. In it he instructs them to prepare for an attack on Poland, code named "Operation
White", on, or after, September 1, 1939.
April 15 – President Roosevelt appeals to both Hitler and Mussolini for assurances against any further
aggression. He asks them to respect the independence of nations and names thirty-one countries. Later
Hitler will ridicule Roosevelt and the list, in a speech to the Reichstag.
April 17 – A Soviet proposal of an anti-Nazi alliance is rejected by Britain and France.
April 20 – Hitler's 50th birthday is celebrated with the largest military display in German history.
April 28 – In a worldwide radio broadcast, Hitler rejects Roosevelt's April 15 appeal for peace. He also
cancels the German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact and attacks the British-French-Polish Pact.
April 30 – Jews are excluded from all tenant rights and must occupy only Jewish houses.
May 18 – The first prisoners arrive at Ravensbruck, located outside Furstenburg, Germany. Ravensbruck
was the only concentration camp that was built specifically for women.
May – A limit of 75,000 Jewish refugees for admission into Palestine, over the next five years, is set by
the British.
May 3 – Hungary puts into effect laws similar to the Nuremberg Laws. Jewish war veterans and those
who had converted to Christianity before 1919 are exempted.
May 12 – A mutual assistance agreement is signed between Britain and Turkey.
May 15


The S.S. St. Louis, with 930 Jewish refugees on board, departs Hamburg for Cuba.
Ravensbrueck concentration camp for women, is established and the first prisoners arrived three
days later. It is estimated that, by 1945, 106,000 female prisoners had moved through the camp.
May 20 – The German Ambassador to the USSR, Von Der Schulenburg, is invited by Soviet Foreign
Minister Molotov to meet in the Kremlin to discuss Soviet plans for the arranging of a Soviet-German nonaggression pact.
May 22 – A full military alliance pact is signed between Hitler and Mussolini.
May 23


By a vote of 268 to 179, the British House of Commons passes the so-called White Paper, a
document that proposes slowing the growth of the Jewish settlement in Palestine by limiting both
Jewish immigration and land that can be purchased by Jews.
In preparation for war with Poland. Goebbels' propaganda machine begins to accuse Poles of
atrocities against the German-speaking minority.
May 27 – The 930 Jewish refugees on the S.S. St. Louis are refused admission to Cuba.
June 2 – The S.S. St. Louis is forced to leave Havana harbour by the Cuban government.
June 3/4 – The American government refuses admission to any of the passengers on the. St. Louis.
Even refugees with valid American quota numbers are not allowed in.
July 4 – Jews are excluded from holding government jobs.
June 13 – Belgium, Britain, France and the Netherlands agree to take in the Jews from the St. Louis.
June 29 – 440 Austrian Gypsy women, are transported to Ravensbruck concentration camp.
July 6 – Adolf Eichmann appointed director of the Prague Office of Jewish Emigration.
August 10 – SS secret-service veteran Alfred Naujocks, is personally ordered by Heydrich to stage a
Polish attack on a radio station at the German town of Gleiwitz, near the Polish border.
August 11 – The British government becomes informed that Germany is just days away from complete
military readiness.
August 12 – Italian Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano meets with Hitler and realizes that Germany
is going to attack Poland. Hitler believes that there is no chance that Britain will come to Poland's
assistance.
August 15


Captain Karl Doenitz, commander of the German U-boat fleet, is recalled from leave
unexpectedly early.
The pocket battleships Graf Spee and Deutschland and twenty-one submarines are ready to for
sea. Advance mobilization orders are sent to the German railways.
August 18 – Germany's 35 U-boats are put to sea. 18 take up station in the eastern Atlantic and the
remaining 17 in the Baltic.
August 19 – The German navy puts to sea. The pocket battleship Graf Spee takes up station off Brazil,
and the Deutschland, the North Atlantic.
August 22 – In a broadcast on the BBC, Chamberlain restates that Britain will fulfill its obligations to
Poland.
August 23 – The German/Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, a blue print for a 10-year collaboration between
the two, is signed in Moscow. A secret protocol, attached to the treaty, defines a border for the partition of
Poland.
August 24


The treaty of mutual assistance is formally signed by Britain and Poland.
The passes The Emergency Powers Act is passed by a quickly reconvened House of Commons
and the Royal Navy is ordered to war stations.
August 31 – The German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact is ratified by the Supreme Soviet.
September 1



Germany invades western Poland. Behind the regular troops go the SS Einsatzgruppe, the
murder squads, in an operation called Aktion Tannenberg, with orders to suppress general Polish
resistance through any means and to arrest or murder particular people considered hostile to
Germany.
A curfew of 8 p.m., in winter, and 9 p.m., in summer, is placed on Jews.
Though not actually written until October, The Euthanasia Decree, goes into effect in Greater
Germany. In order to empty needed hospital beds and remove "useless eaters", all Germans with
incurable diseases are to be killed.
September 2


Stutthof concentration camp, 34 km from Danzig, Poland, begins operation. Stutthof is the first
concentration camp established outside of Germany.
All Jews in Germany ages 16 to 55, are ordered to report for compulsory labour.
September 3 – France, Britain, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany.
September 9 – In the Ruhr town of Gelsenkirchen, all the Jewish men are deported to Sachsenhausen.
September 10 – Canada declares war on Germany.
September 17 – The USSR invades eastern Poland.
September 21


Reinhard Heydrich, as Chief of the newly created Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), a
combining of the SS Security Service (SD), the Secret State Police (Gestapo), the Criminal Police
(Kripo), issues a directive entitled 'The Jewish Question in Occupied Territory'. This document
orders all Jews in Poland and other German controlled areas, to be removed to mostly old and
dilapidated areas in main cities and towns. In total and through out eastern occupied Europe, 356
of these Ghettos were established. In addition to containing Jews from the region of the city or
town Jews were also sent from Austria and other occupied countries. The main purpose of the
Ghetto was to act as a holding area while the final plan was formulated and executed.
The Germans order that all Jewish communities, in Poland, with less than 500 persons are to be
dissolved and those people moved to restricted areas in the larger cities (ghettos).
September 23 – German Jews are excluded from owning radios.
September 28 – Poland is partitioned between Germany and the Soviet Union.
September 30 – Of a community that had once numbered 600,000 members, only about 200,000 Jews
remain in Germany.
October 12


The start of Jewish deportation from Austria and Moravia to Poland.
The Jewish population of Vienna is expelled.
October 19 – The fine or "atonement fee" that was leveled on the German Jews for the Kristallnacht
damages, is raised to 1.25 billion RM, to be paid by November 15, 1939.
October 25 – The SS Einsatzgruppen operation, "Aktion Tannenberg", officially ends and about 16,000
civilians, Jews and members of the Polish Christian intelligentsia, have been murdered and the rest of the
population terrorized.
October 26 – A forced labour decree issued on Polish Jews aged 14 to 60.
October 28 – Starting with the town of Piotrkow, German authorities begin confining the Jews of Poland
to a specific area of a city or town (ghetto).
October 30 – Himmler orders that rural areas of western Poland must be cleared of all Jews within three
months.
October – An "euthanasia" program is put in effect in Germany and Austria. On the strength of forms,
completed by competent, practicing members of the psychiatric and medical professions, about 75,000
mentally and physically challenged and the mentally ill are killed in the period of the program.
November 7 – The German attack in the west, scheduled for November 12, is postponed. The attack will
be postponed, for various reasons, 15 times and would not take place until May 10, 1940.
November 23 – in preparation for the establishment of the Ghettos, Hans Frank (May 23, 1900 - October
16, 1946), Gauleiter (governor) of Poland, orders all Jews, over the age of ten, to wear a yellow Star of
David.
October-November – During this time 214 Polish priests are murdered.
December 12 – A mandatory period of two years forced labor, is ordered by the Germans, for all male
Polish Jews between the ages of 14 and 60. Labor camps are soon opened throughout German Poland.
–1940–
February 12 – The first transport of German Jews to ghettos in Poland.
April 9


Germany invades Denmark and Norway.
Copenhagen is quickly captured and the Germans adopt a policy of negotiation with the Danish
government. A Danish-German Agreement is signed, which will leave Danish Jews alone, for
now.
April 27 – Auschwitz/Birkenau is established, on Heinrich Himmler's orders, near the Polish town of
Oshwiecim. First opened as a camp for political prisoners and then for POWs.
April 30 – The ghetto in Lodz, Poland, with a population of 160, 000, is closed off by the SS.
April


Belzec, in the Lublin area, is established as a labour camp.
The first crematory is built at Sachsenhausen.
May 10


Germany invades Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and France.
Churchill becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain.
May 15 – The Netherlands surrenders to the Germans.
May 16 – The first deportation of 2,800 German Gypsies takes place.
May 17 – The Germans occupy Brussels.
May 17-18 – All German refugees in the Netherlands, who had come to since 1933, are arrested and
most are transported to Poland.
May 25 – Belgium surrenders, unconditionally, to the Germans.
June 4 – Neuengamme concentration camp becomes independent of Sachsenhausen.
June 14 – Auschwitz begins operation as a punishment camp for Polish political prisoners.
June 22 – France signs an armistice with Germany. France will be partitioned into two sections; the
German occupied north and west, two-thirds of France, and the Vichy puppet state in the south.
July 14 – Factories producing, through the use of slave labour, synthetic rubber and gasoline begin
operations at Auschwitz.
July 21 – The German Military High Command is told, by Hitler, to prepare to attack the Soviet Union.
September 14 – Romania comes under the control of a domestic fascist party, the Romanian Legion
party.
October 3 – Vichy France sets into effect its own version of the Nuremberg Laws.
October 7


Germany soldiers enter Romania under the pretense of coming to help with the reorganization of
the Romanian army.
Jews, in occupied France, are ordered to register.
October 22 – 15, 000 German Jews are deported, from Alsace-Lorraine, Baden and the Saar, to
internment camps in Vichy France. Almost 2,000 people die in this camp.
October 27 – 290 elderly and disabled Jews, from the old people's home in Kalisz, are murdered in gas
trucks and buried in a mass grave in some woods outside of the town.
October – The German authorities in Norway exclude Jews from practicing any of the professions. So far
there has been none of the murders or other terror tactics, in Norway, that followed other German
occupations.
November 15 – The Warsaw Ghetto, a 3.5 square miles area in which about 160,000 would have
previously lived but now had a population close to 400, 000, is surrounded by a ten foot wall and sealed
off from the outside.
November – The Krakow Ghetto, population 70, 000, is sealed.
November 23 – Romania becomes officially allied with Germany and Italy.
–1941–
January 1 – 439 sick and elderly Jews from a nursing home in Kalisz, Poland, are murdered in gas vans.
January 22 – Bulgaria declares the 'Law for the Defense of the Nation' which forces Jewish civil servants
out of public positions, Jewish professionals out of their practices and put a tax of 25% on all property
belonging to Jews.
January – In Romania, murder squads kill over 2,000 Jews.
February 8 – Bulgaria joins the Axis.
February 15 – More than 5,000 Austrian Jews are transported to forced labor camps and ghettos in
eastern Poland.
February and March – 72,000 Jews are driven from towns in the Warsaw region and forced into the
ghetto. Almost 400,000 Jews are now crowded into the Warsaw ghetto.
March 1 – During Himmler's first visit to Auschwitz, he orders a huge expansion of the camp. Among the
additions will be a new compound for 100, 000 prisoners near Birkenau.
March 2 – Germany occupies Bulgaria.
March 3 – The Ghetto at Krakow is established and on March 20 is sealed off from the rest of the city.
The area measures only about 600 by 400 meters but, by end of 1941 will contain over 18,000 persons.
March 7 – German Jews ordered into forced labour.
March 22 – The German public school system expels all African-German and Gypsy children.
March 26 – The German Army High Command approves the tasks assigned to the Einsatzgruppen in
Poland These were murder squads made up of the SS Security Service, the Security Police and others,
organized by, and under the control of, Reinhard Heydrich. When Germany took control of western
Poland, the goal was to absorb of the territory into Germany. To achieve this the German plan was to
eradicate the Polish upper classes and the Jews and enslave the lower classes. It was the task of the SS
Einsatzgruppen to carry out the eradication.
March 29 – Vichy France establishes a commissariat for Jewish Affairs.
April 6 – Germany invades Greece and Yugoslavia.
April 9 – The Ghetto at Czestochowa, Poland, is established. With an additional 20,000 people sent from
other cities and towns, the Ghetto will soon hold over 48,000 Jews.
April 14 – The German authorities order any Jew leaving the Lodz ghetto to be shot on sight.
April – In Iraq, British troops put down a German-inspired coup and secure a valuable source of oil.
May 14 – 3,600 Jews are arrested in Paris.
May 16 – In a radio broadcast the Prime Minister of Vichy, Marshal Philippe Petain, gives public approval
of German collaboration.
June 12 – German Jews are no longer allowed to describe themselves as Jews. They must refer to
themselves as without faith.
June 17 – In Berlin, Heydrich meets with the Einsatzgruppen command to issue special oral orders for
operations during the invasion of the USSR.
June 22 – Germany invades the USSR. Behind the regular troops are the Einsatzgruppen, whose
function was to kill primarily Jews but also any one deemed a threat. At least one million Jews were
murdered this way.
June 24-25 – The first mass murder of Jews, of the invasion, is conducted in the Lithuanian city of
Garsden.
June 27 – Bialystok, Poland, is captured by the Germans. 2,000 Jews are murdered.
June 28 – In the streets of the Lithuanian city of Kaunas, local police, and others, beat to death hundreds
of Jews.
June 29 – Romanian soldiers murder 10,000 Jews in the town of Jassy.
July 3 – Latvian groups, organized by SS death units, loot Jewish houses and destroy synagogues. 400
Jews are murdered.
July 17-31 – Over 12, 250 Jews are murdered in the Ukrainian city of Kishinev.
July 18 – Reports of mass killings of Jews are published in British newspapers.
July 25-26 – Lithuanians murder 3,800 Jews in Kovno.
July 31 – Hermann Goering appoints, Gestapo head, Rienhard Heydrich to design a detailed plan for the
"final solution"(endlosung) of the "Jewish question"(Judenfrage).
July


Ghettos are created in Kovno, Minsk, Vitebsk and Zhitomer.
Jewish property is confiscated by the Vichy government.
August 1-23 – The Ghetto at Czestochowa, Poland, is sealed off.
August 26 – Hungarian troops round up 18,000 Jews in Kamenets-Podolsk, Ukraine.
August – Ghettos are created in Bialyatok and Lvov.
September 1 – German Jews are ordered to wear yellow Stars of David.
September 6 – The Vilna Ghetto is created and will have an eventual population of 40,000.
September 17 – General transport of German Jews to eastern Ghettos and camps begins.
September 27-28 – 23,000 Jews are murdered at Kamenets-Podolsk, Ukraine.
September 28-29 – 250 Polish and 600 Soviet prisoners of war are murdered at Auschwitz in Zyklon-B
gas chamber tests.
September 29-30 – 33,771 Jews are murdered at Babi Yar near Kiev by the SS Einsatzgruppen.
October 23 – Jews are forbidden to leave the territories of Germany.
October


35,000 Jews from Odessa are murdered.
Majdanek, just 2km from Lublin, Poland, is established by the SS as a POW camp with the
purpose of providing slave labour to certain industries.
November 1 – Construction begins on the extermination camp at Belzec.
November24 – Theresienstadt Ghetto is created outside of Prague, Czechoslovakia.
December 8 – Chelmo extermination camp, near Lodz Poland, begins operation. Here close to 320, 000
persons were murdered in gas vans. The gas vans were crude portable gas chambers that used the
carbon monoxide piped in from the truck's engine. Operations were halted in April 1943 but resumed for
short period during the summer of 1944.
December 11 – Germany declares war on the United States.
December 12 – The "Struma", formally the "Macedonia", a ruined, forty-five-by six meter, converted
schooner of uncertain age, with 100 bunks and one head, sets forth from Constanza, Romania for
Turkey, a trip that should take less than a day. On board are 769 Jews, fleeing, not just the Germans, but
also a Romanian government that had been, for several years, operating its own sporadic but murderous
campaign against Jews.
At this time the Germans had requisitioned every ship and boat, big and small, for transporting material.
That the "Struma", had not been taken has to suggest that the Germans did not consider it worthy enough
to risk their supplies.
Shocked by the state of the boat, the refugees reconsidered. They were told that the "Struma" was only to
transport them to a much larger American ship waiting in international waters. There was, of course no
American ship and they arrived, three days later, December 15, in the neutral port of Istanbul, Turkey, the
engine failing and the hull leaking. The "Struma" would remain at anchor, in the quarantine area for 71
days.
As part of the very large amount paid for passage, the refugees had been expecting travel documents
that would had allowed them to move on, either overland through Turkey, or by boat, to British Mandated
Palestine. Upon arrival it quickly became clear that there were no such papers.
The passengers, not allowed ashore without visas from Britain, were assisted, in the main, by the local
Jewish community, but also by the Turkish Red Crescent. Turkey, due, in part, to pressures from other
Muslim countries, was not willing to take in the refugees but approached Britain to see what might
otherwise be done. In the end, after more than two months of discussion, nothing is done.
On February 23, 1942, after its' anchor line was cut by the Police and despite resistance from the
refugees, the Struma, its engine still not working, was towed into the Black Sea and outside Turkish
territorial waters, then released.
With the exception of an oil company executive, whose company was able to arrange visas for Palestine
for him and his family, and a woman who, because of a miscarriage, was in a hospital, all the refugees
left with the boat.
The next morning, at about nine o'clock, a sudden explosion ripped the "Struma" apart. There was only
one survivor, a 21-year-old man, found by fishermen twenty-four hours after the explosion. 763 children,
women and men, plus the captain and crew were lost.
Sadly the "Struma", while extreme in its loss of life (the second worst civilian marine disaster of the war),
was just one of about thirty boats, in various conditions, that made this journey. A journey which
illustrated, so graphically, the terrible desperation of Europe's Jewish population's to escape the horror
and the unwillingness of even the Allies to take responsibility.
–1942–
January 20 – Top Nazi bureaucrats meet with Reinhard Heydrich, in the Berlin district of GrossenWannsee for the Wannsee Conference. Here they hear and approve of Heydrich plans for dealing with
the "Jewish question".
First, captured Jews from all the German occupied territory, including Vichy, would be sent to the east, in
particular Poland, where they would be organized into labour gangs and where many were expected to
die from the very harsh conditions, "natural diminution". The survivors would then be "treated
accordingly".
January 23 – At Sovi Sad, in occupied Yugoslavia, Hungarian fascists murder 2,550 Serbs and 700
Jews.
January – The large scale zyklon-b gassings begin at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The bodies were, at first,
buried in nearby mass graves.
March 17 – The first transport of Jews arrives at Belzec. A transport consisted of 2000 to 2,500 persons
in 40 to 60 railcars. The murder method employed was carbon monoxide. In less than ten months, an
estimated 600,000 Jews and 12,000 gypsies will be killed.
March 24 – The first transport of Slovakian Jews departs for Auschwitz.
March 27 – The first transport of French Jews departs for Auschwitz.
April 3 – The last 129 German Jews from Augsburg are transported to Belzec.
April 10 – Almost 3,000 Jews are transported from Grabow and Leczyca, Poland to Chelmno
extermination camp.
April 16 – 2,000 Jews from Gostynin, Poland are transported to Chelmno.
April 17 – 2,250 Jews from Gabin and Sanniki, Poland are transported to Chelmno.
April 22 – From Wloclawk, Poland, 3,000 Jews are transported to Chelmo.
April 26 – Hitler becomes Supreme Law Lord of Germany.
April


Majdanek extermination camp becomes operational. In addition to the use of gas chambers and
zyklon-b gas, mass shootings were employed as a means of murder. It is thought that as many
as half a million people were processed through Majdanek. 200,000 did not leave and of the dead
about 125,000 were Jews.
Sobibor extermination camp established in eastern Poland begins operation.
May 4 – The murder facilities at Auschwitz goes into operation with the gassing of 1,200 Jews.
May 9 – In the Netherlands it becomes compulsory for Jews to wear a yellow star of David.
May 10 – In the Ukraine city of Dunajevtsi more than 3,000 Jews are murdered.
May 21 – 4,300 Jews from Chelm, Poland are transported to Sobibor.
May 27

At about 10:30 am, in Prague, Czechoslovakia, hand grenades, thrown into the car of Reinhard
Heydrich, Chief of the RSHA, by two Czech resistance fighters, detonate. The two resistance
fighters are British trained and under orders of the exiled Czechoslovakian government in

London. Heydrich is seriously injured and the consequences of this act fall upon the oppressed
populations immediately. Hitler, within hours, orders the deaths of 10,000 Czechs.
In the Ukraine city of Dubno more than 5,000 Jews are murdered.
May 28 – Between this day and June 8, 6,000 Jews are transported from the Krakow Ghetto to Belzec. In
the process of the round up 300 persons are murdered. The Ghetto's 600 by 400 m area, still with a
population of some 12,000 people, is then halved.
May 29 – Many high-ranking German officials are invited to observe the effectiveness of the new
extermination unit (Station Z) at Sachsenhausen. 96 Jews are murdered for the demonstration.
June 1 – Jews living in Belgium, Croatia, France, Romania and Slovakia are ordered to wear the yellow
Star of David.
June 4 – Heydrich dies of his wounds. Hitler increases the number of Czechs to be murdered, in reprisal,
to 30,000.
June 9


An elaborate state funeral is held for Heydrich in Berlin.
A gas van is sent to Riga, Latvia, to aid in the killing of not just Riga's resident Jews, but also the
many thousands of Jews deported from Germany months earlier.
June 10 – Early in the morning the Bohemian village of Lidice is surrounded by SS troops. All of the 192
men, plus 71 women, are shot in groups of ten through the day. The 198 remaining women are removed
to Ravensbruck. The fate of the ninety or so children is unclear. Lidice was then dynamited and bulldozed
flat. Finally the name removed from German maps. As well, 252 relatives of people from Lidice were later
arrested and sent to Mauthausen, in Austria. After the war, no more than sixteen children and one
hundred forty-three women return.
June 11 – Eichmann meets with representatives from the puppet governments of Belgium, France and
Holland in order to coordinate plans for the transport of Jews.
June 15 – A second gas van is sent to Riga.
June 30 – A second gas chamber becomes operational at Auschwitz/Birkenau.
July 2 – Polish-Jewish spokesman Szmul Zygielbojm, featured in a BBC broadcast, states bluntly that the
German plan for Poland is the methodical "extermination of a whole nation by means of shot, shell,
starvation, and poison gas".
July 7 – Permission is given, by Himmler, for sterilization experiments to be conducted at
Auschwitz/Birkenau.
July 15 – The first transport of 1,135 Dutch Jews departs for Auschwitz.
July 16 – In Paris, almost 13,000 Jews are arrested and removed to the Drancy Internment Camp
outside of the city.
July 17


The citizenship of Dutch Jews is rescinded by the Germans.
Visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau, Himmler witnesses the murderous 'processing' of 449 Dutch Jews.
Afterwards he gives the camp commandant Rudolf Höss (1900 - April 16, 1946), approval for a
large expansion of the extermination centre.
July 19 – Himmler orders the start of "Operation Reinhard", named after Heydrich. The operation involves
the establishment of more killing centres, in particular Treblinka, Sobibor and Madjanek, and the mass
transport of Polish Jews to them.
July 23 – Treblinka, first opened in 1941 as a forced labour camp, begins operation as an extermination
camp upon receiving transports of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto.
July 28 – The Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa (Jewish Fighting Organization, ZOB) is founded in the
Warsaw Ghetto.
July 29 – Eduard Schulte, general manager of the Giesche mining operation near Auschwitz, leaves
Breslau for Switzerland by train, There he plans to disclose the German plan for the "final solution of the
Jewish question," through several Jewish organizations to the world.
August 4 – The first transportation of Belgian Jews takes place. Of a total of 25,631 persons transported,
1,244 survive.
August 13 – Swiss authorities begin turning back Jewish refugees who have been able to cross into
Switzerland.
August 29 – After the murder of 20,000, out of a population of 23,000 persons, Serbia's Jewish problem
is officially declared solved.
September 2 – About 820 Jews, lead by Dov Lopatin, revolt in the Ghetto of Lachwa, Poland. About 700
are killed and 120 escape.
September 10 – 533 Jews are transported from Nuremberg to the ghetto in Theresienstadt.
September 23 – With the intention of making the Lodz ghetto a "working ghetto." the SS clear children
under 10, men and women over 60, and the sick or disabled from the ghetto and transport them to
Chelmno. Over the next two weeks more than 16,000 are murdered.
September 25 – 700 Romanian Jews are arrested in Paris and transported to Auschwitz.
October 24 – The 252 relatives, men, women and youths, of the Lidice villagers, are murdered at
Mauthausen.
October 25 – 209 Jewish males over the age of 16 are transported from Norway, to Auschwitz.
October 27-28 – In the Krakow Ghetto, 600 Jews are murdered by the SS in the process of rounding up
7,000 for transport to Belzec and Auschwitz. The area of the Ghetto is further reduced (see May 28-June
8, 1942) and divided into two parts: 'A' which held Jews working in SS partnered factories in and around
the Ghetto, and 'B', holding the rest of the population.
November 2 – In the Polish region of Bialystok the Germans begin to round up the 110,000 Jews, who
had been, until now, restricted to their villages, and transport them to Auschwitz and Treblinka.
November 6 – 10,000 Jews from the ghetto at Chelm, Poland, are transported to Sobibor.
November 25 – 531 Jewish women and children are transported from Norway to Auschwitz.
December 4 – 817 Dutch Jews are transported to Auschwitz.
December 8 – 927 Dutch Jews are transported to Auschwitz.
December 12 – 757 Dutch Jews are transported to Auschwitz.
December


A unit of the Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa (Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB), is established
in the Ghetto at Czestochowa, Poland.
Belzec extermination camp ceases operation.
–1943–
January 3 – In the Ghetto at Czestochowa, Poland, 25 Germans are killed by the ZOB unit. In reprisal
250 children and elders and 127 others, are murdered by the SS.
January 18 – With the start of "January Aktion" (Operation January) the SS was to begin a new series of
transfers of Jews, from the Warsaw Ghetto, to Treblinka extermination camp. The Germans attempts to
collect Jews were met by armed resistance from ZOB. The fight went on for four days before the
Germans, with about 50 dead, withdrew and discontinued the operation. Many more than 50 Jews died in
the fighting.
February 2 – The German army at Stalingrad surrenders. The first great defeat for Germany.
February 11 – 1,000 French Jews are transported to Auschwitz.
February 17 – Dr. S. Rascher reports on freezing experiments.
February


The Romanian government proposes to the Allies that 70,000 Jews be transferred to British
Mandated Palestine. Neither the US nor Britain responds.
Greek Jews are ordered into ghettos.
March 9 – A decree, from Himmler, states that only physicians with training anthropology should make
the decisions of who to kill at the extermination camps, and then supervise the murders.
March 10 – In Bulgaria, the King, Parliament and general population, in defiance of the SS, refuse to
allow the transport of the 49,000 Jews of that country, to Poland.
March 13


In front of high-ranking officials from Berlin the first Birkenau crematorium begins operation. The
guests come invited to witness, as a demonstration of the new facility, the gassing and cremation
of Jews from Krakow.
The A section of the Krakow Ghetto is liquidated. About 2,000 Jews are removed to Plaszow
labour camp.
March 14 – The B section of the Krakow Ghetto is liquidated. About 2,300 Jews are transported to
Auschwitz- Birkenau death camp. 700 persons are murdered in the process. This is the end of the ghetto.
March 15 – Over 2,800 Jews are transported from Thessaloniki, Greece to Poland.
March 17 – The Parliament of Bulgaria unanimously votes against the deportation of Bulgarian Jews. The
Jewish population of Bulgaria will actually increase in the years between 1933 and 1945.
March 22 – Gas chamber/crematorium IV begins operation at Auschwitz/ Birkenau.
March 23 – A statistical report on the Jewish extermination plan, ordered by Himmler, is prepared by the
SS-statistician Dr. Korherr. The report stated that, as of January 1, 1943, 2.4 million Jews had been
transported to the extermination camps.
March 25 – 4,000 Jews from Marseilles are transported to Sobibor.
March 29 – Dutch Gypsies are ordered transported to Auschwitz.
March 31 – Gas chamber/crematorium II begins operation at Auschwitz/ Birkenau.
March – A gas chamber becomes operational at Sachsenhausen.
April 4 – Gas chamber/crematorium V begins operation at Auschwitz/ Birkenau.
April 9 – The extermination camp Chelmno temporarily ceases operations after 145,000 persons are
murdered in the gas vans. While the victims are mostly Jews there are also 5,000 Gypsies included in
that number.
April 18 – Very early on the morning of this day, the eve of Passover, the SS surround the Warsaw
Ghetto in preparation for "Grand Aktion" (Operation Grand), the clearing of the ghetto of its 56, 000
inmates.
April 19 – A mixed force of SS, German army, German allies and Police enter the Warsaw Ghetto to
implement "Grand Aktion". They are met with organized armed resistance from ZOB and other smaller
groups. In the 87 days since "January Aktion", the entire Ghetto has been turned into a tangle of
defensive bunkers and tunnels. While the 750 Jewish fighters have little in the way of arms, they all aware
of what awaits them in the end, so the fight is fierce.
Three days were originally allowed for "Grand". Himmler had ordered the ghetto cleared as a birthday
present for Hitler (April 20), but even with overwhelming numbers and the use of dogs, gas and flame
throwers, it will take until May 16, eight days after the ZOB command bunker was taken, for the Germans
to finish liquidating the ghetto.
On the first day, 580 Jews are caught.
April 19-30 – In Bermuda, US and British representatives meet for the "The Bermuda Conference" to, in
part, find a sanctuary for Jewish refugees. They fail.
April 20 – Two actions, in support of the ghetto uprising, are committed by two Polish resistance groups.
One group, the Home Army (AK) attack soldiers guarding a part of the ghetto wall. Two of their members
are killed and two wounded. The other, the People's Army (AL), attack an artillery position with a loss of
one killed.
April 21 – 5,200 Jews are caught in the Warsaw Ghetto.
May 16 – It is reported, by the German commander of Warsaw, that "the former Jewish quarter of
Warsaw is no longer in existence". 56,000 Jews have been killed or transported to Treblinka. About
15,000 Jews escape the Ghetto with most surviving to end of the war.
May 30 – SS Doctor Josef Mengele begins work at Auschwitz. In return for specimens and test results,
Mengele's experiments have been funded by Professor Otmar von Verschuer's Institute for Hereditary
Biology and Racial Purity at Frankfurt University.
May – In the Netherlands the Catholic bishops forbid the collaboration of Catholic policemen in the
hunting down of Jews.
June 5 – 1,266 Jewish children, under the age of 16, are transported from Holland to Sobibor.
August 2 – Many of Treblinka's 850 workers during an uprising are able to break out. Though after
German reinforcements arrive only about 100 will stay free.
August 16 – A Jewish revolt at Bialystok is crushed.
August 19 – Treblinka receives its last shipment of Jews, a transport from the Bialystok ghetto.
September – With October 1 set by the Germans as date of deportation, many Danish citizens help with
the movement of over 6,000 Jews and part Jews and almost 700 non-Jewish spouses to Sweden and
safety.
September 2 – While working outside Treblinka, a group of 13 Jewish slave laborers kill their SS guard
and, with their leader in the guard's uniform, march off and escape.
September 23 – The Ghetto at Vilna, Poland, is closed by the Germans.
October 1 – The Germans can find just 500 Jews in all of Denmark. These people are sent to the Ghetto
at Theresienstadt and 423 will survive.
October 11 – The last transport to be murdered at Sobibor arrives.
October 14 – At Sobibor concentration camp during a mass escape attempt, about 60 prisoners get
away. As many as 24 guards are killed. There are about 600 Jews in the camp. About 200 die escaping
and of the 400 that get away 100 are captured and killed. Of the rest only 30 will survive the war.
The camp was closed immediately following this incident. It is estimated that 250, 000 persons were
murdered here.
October 15 – The Germans begin to round up Jews in Rome.
October 18 – Over 1,000 Roman Jews are caught and transported to Auschwitz. Just one woman and 14
men will return. By mid November about 8, 360 Italian Jews will have been transported to Auschwitz.
On a little brighter note, some 7, 000 Roman Jews avoid capture. Many of them hide, with the Pope's
approval, in monasteries and other Catholic buildings in Rome.
November 3 – Alfred Rosenberg orders Operation Harvest Festival and 40,000 Polish children ages 10
to 14 are transported to forced labor camps in Germany.
November 3 – 17, 000 Jews are machine gunned dead at Majdanek.
November – Operations at Treblinka are ended, all traces of what was removed and a farm put upon the
site. During the twenty months Treblinka was an extermination camp some 750, 000 people were
murdered.
December 15-18 – 5,000 Jews are transported from the Theresienstadt Ghetto to Auschwitz.
–1944–
February 3 – The 67th transport of Jews from Paris, 1,214 persons, departs for Auschwitz.
March 15 – In Greece, German authorities begin to round up the estimated 10,000 Greek Jews. 5,000
are soon arrested and transported to Auschwitz.
March 19 – German troops begin to occupy Hungary.
March 20 – The Majdanek death camp is evacuated. Fit men are sent to Gross Rosen and women to
Ravensbrück and Natzweiler. The others are sent to Auschwitz for immediate murder.
March 22 – During an uprising at the Koldyczewo slave labor camp 10 guards are killed and hundreds of
inmates escape.
April – Chelmno resumes operations to assist in the extermination of the inmates of the Lodz Ghetto.
April 15 – Tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews are forced from their homes, and into ghetto areas.
May 14-July 8 – 437, 402 Hungarian Jews, in 48 trains, are transported to Auschwitz. This is thought to
the largest single deportation of the Holocaust.
July – Chelmno extermination camp ceases operations after the last of 25,000 Jews from the Lodz
Ghetto are murdered in the gas vans. A crew of slave labourers from Sonderkommando 1005, the
organization responsible for the removal of camp evidence, remained until January 1945.
July 24 – Majdanek extermination camp is liberated by the Soviet army. They find only a few hundred
prisoners alive.
August 6 – The Lodz ghetto, the last remaining Polish ghetto, is closed and its' 60, 000 inmates sent to
Auschwitz.
October 7 – During a prisoner uprising at Auschwitz/Birkenau, crematorium IV is destroyed.
November – A gas chamber is built at Ravensbruck.
–1945–
January 5 – The last transport of Hungarian Jews leaves for Auschwitz.
January 17
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At Chelmno extermination camp, about fifty Jewish slave laborers, knowing Soviet troops are not
far off and that they are soon to be shot, break out. They are cornered in a building, by SS
guards. The building was set on fire and all, except one, die either in the flames or by
machinegun fire trying to escape.
According to SS records, there are more than 30,000 slave laborers still in the Auschwitz region.
January 18
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Slave labor camps in Upper Silesia are ordered to evacuate. Thousands die through exposure,
exhaustion or are directly murdered by guards.
Auschwitz begins to evacuate. Almost 100,000 Jews will be removed.
January 20
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Over 4,000 Jews are murdered by shooting at Birkenau.
At Auschwitz/Birkenau, in an apparent effort to hide evidence, SS personal destroy crematorium
II with explosives.
January 20-27 – 29,000 persons, the most of which are Jewish women, are evacuated from Stutthof...
26,000 die in the process.
January 27 – Soviet troops reach Auschwitz-Birkenau. They find the remains of about 470 persons and
less than 3000 live.
February 19 – Over 500 Jews who, because of marriage to Christians, have been protected from
persecution, are arrested across Germany and sent to Theresienstadt.
April 2 – Hitler states that in the future the world will be grateful for his efforts to exterminate the Jews.
April 4 – American troops find mass graves at the Ohrdruf concentration camp in Germany. Over 4000
persons had been killed in the proceeding months and in the days leading to the American arrival
hundreds more where shot.
April 8 – Jewish prisoners at Buchenwald are evacuated ahead of advancing Americans. Non-Jews are
left behind.
April 9 – The Dora-Mittelbau and Nordhausen concentration camps are liberated by Americans.
April 11 – American troops liberate Buchenwald.
April 20-21 – With the Soviets only days away, 33,000 prisoners are forced out of Sachsenhausen on a
death march.
April 22 – Sachsenhausen concentration camp is liberated by units of the Soviet army. The Soviets find
only 3,000 starving survivors, half of which were women.
April 23 – Flossenburg is liberated by units of the 2nd US Calvary. When the Americans arrived there
were only a few hundred very ill and weak prisoners in the camp. The rest, over 14,000 people, had been
driven out and by the SS on to a death march.
April 29 – Dachau is liberated by the US army.
April 30 – Ravensbruck is liberated by the Soviet army. It is estimated that 50,000 persons were
murdered at Ravensbruck.
May 3 – In the afternoon three RAF fighters attack three freighters moored in Neustadt harbour. On board
the three ships are a total of 7,500 inmates, some of which had been 'death marched' there from several
concentration camps. After the attack only 500 prisoners are alive.
May 5 – Mauthausen is liberated by the US army. It is estimated that 150,000 persons were murdered at
Mauthausen.
May 10 – Stutthof concentration camp is liberated by the Soviet army. It is estimated that a minimum of
85,000 persons were murdered here. While, during the time the camp was in operation, a total of 127,000
prisoners were registered, this cannot be considered a true refection of the number of people who came
to the camp. People destined for immediate murder upon arrival were not registered. This was a common
practice in other camps as well.
May – Neuengamme concentration camp is liberated by the British army. It is estimated that 56,000
people were murdered here.
–1946–
October 1 – The War Crimes Commission in Nuremberg delivers its verdict. Of the 21 defendants three
are acquitted, eight are sentenced to long prison terms, and eleven are to be hanged.
October 15
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Hermann Goering commits suicide by cyanide two hours before he is scheduled to be hanged.
Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop; Hitler's chief military advisor, Field Marshal General
Wilhelm Keitel; General Alfred Jodl; Gestapo Chief Ernst Kaltenbrunner; Hans Frank, GovernorGeneral of occupied Poland; Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick, Austrian Nazi leader Arthur SeyssInquart, Fritz Sauckel, Alfred Rosenberg and Julius Streicher are all hanged in Landsberg Prison
in Nuremberg, Germany, for crimes against humanity.