Prelude to WW II
Prelude to WW II
1929 October
1933
1933
1933
1918 - 1919
1920-1926
1933 January
January – March
March – April
April - July
- Nov 11, 1918 – Armistice
Day: Armistice ending World
War I is signed. Allied nations
(U.S., UK, France, Italy) are
victorious over Germany. WW
I claimed 37 million casualties
and 9 million dead. Germany
struggles with political
extremes, economic problems,
and general disorder.
- January, 1920 -The
League of Nations formed to
enforce treaties that ended
WW I. U.S. doesn’t join; warweakened European nations
responsible for enforcing
treaties.
- October, 1929 - New
York Stock Exchange
Crashes! The “Great
Depression” starts.
- January – March
1933 First anti-Jewish
laws are introduced.
Hitler makes speeches
attacking Jewish
population. Nazi
propaganda stirs up
anti-Jewish feeling.
- March 22, 1933 Nazis open Dachau
concentration camp
near Munich.
classifies the
descendant as nonAryan ...especially if
one parent or
grandparent was of
Jewish faith."
- Feb 22, 1933 40,000 SA and SS
men are sworn in as
auxiliary police.
- April 1, 1933 - Nazi
boycott of Jewish
owned shops and
businesses.
June 1919 - Treaty of
Versailles divides German
territory between victors and
Germany's neighbors to
weaken German power and
prevent future aggression. It
also limits the size of German
forces and requires Germany
to pay high reparation costs.
- 1919 - Adolf Hitler joins the
German Worker’s Party, later
called the Nazi Party.
- 1921 - Hitler becomes
leader of the Nazi Party.
- 1923 - Hitler attempts to
seize power in Munich. He is
sentenced to five years in
prison.
- July 18, 1925 - Hitler
Publishes Mein Kampf,(My
Struggle) where he describes
his plan to eliminate Jews
from Europe.
- Sept 8 1926 - Germany
Admitted to the League of
Nations.
- Sept 14, 1930 –
Germans Elect Nazis
Party: now 2nd largest
political party in Germany.
- 1930 – 1933 Germany
passes exceptional laws
which steadily erodes
democracy.
- January 30, 1933 –
Hitler Appointed
Chancellor of Germany
Nazi Party has two million
members. Jewish
population of Germany is
566,000.
- Feb 27, 1933 - Nazis
burn the Reichstag
(government) building
to create a crisis
atmosphere.
- Feb 28, 1933 Emergency powers
granted to Hitler as a
result of Reichstag fire.
- March – April 1933
Jewish businesses in
Germany boycotted.
Jews banned from
teaching, holding
government jobs.
- March 23, 1933 Enabling Act gives
Hitler dictatorial power.
- April 7, 1933 – Laws
for Reestablishment of
the Civil Service bar
Jews from holding civil
service, university, and
state positions
.- April 11, 1933 Nazis issue a decree
defining a non-Aryan
as "anyone descended
from non-Aryan,
especially Jewish,
parents or
grandparents. One
parent or grandparent
- April 26, 1933 Gestapo (Secret
State Police)
established by
Hermann Göring.
- May 10, 1933 –
Books by Jewish and
“un-German” authors
Publicly Burned.
- July 14, 1933 - Hitler
bans all political
parties except the
Nazi Party,& passes
Law
stripping East
European Jews of
German citizenship.
- July 1933 - Law for
forced sterilization of
those found by a
Hereditary Health
Court to have genetic
defects.
1933 September –
November
- Sept 1933 - Nazis
establish Reich
Chamber of Culture,
and exclude Jews from
the Arts.
- Sept 29, 1933 - Jews
prohibited from owning
land.
- Oct 4, 1933 - Jews
prohibited from being
newspaper editors.
- Oct 14, 1933 Germany Leaves the
League of Nations
- Nov 24, 1933 - Law
against Habitual and
Dangerous Criminals,
allows beggars, the
homeless, alcoholics
and the unemployed
sent to concentration
camps.
1934 January –
August
- Jan 24, 1934 - Jews are
banned from the German
Labor Front.
- May 17, 1934 - Jews not
allowed national health
insurance.
- June 30, 1934 - Night of the
Long Knives
Leading Nazi Party members
who disagree with Hitler’s
policies are murdered. Hitler,
Göring and Himmler eliminate
those in the SA (storm
troopers) who oppose them.
- July 20, 1934 – SS (Secret
Police) is made independent
from SA.(Storm Troopers)
- Aug 2, 1934 - German
President Hindenburg Dies
1934 August –
1935 August
- August 2, 1934 - Hitler
Proclaims himself “Führer
und Reichskanzler” (Leader
and Reich Chancellor) As
leader Hitler is now the
supreme military commander.
- March 16, 1935 - Hitler
Violates the Treaty of
Versailles: starts military
conscription.
- May 31, 1935 - Nazis ban
Jews from serving in the
military.
- Aug 6, 1935 - Nazis force
Jewish performers/artists to
join Jewish Cultural Unions.
1935 September –
February
- Sept 15, 1935 Nuremberg Laws
Passed: defines Jews as
non-German and racially
inferior; strips them of their
rights. Jews are no longer
considered German
citizens. Jews prohibited
from marrying Aryans.
(Aryan is defined as a
person of Germanic
heritage with blond hair
and blue eyes.) Jews
prohibited from flying
German flag.
Nov 15, 1935 – Germany
defines a “Jew” anyone
with three Jewish
grandparents or one with
two Jewish grandparents
who identifies as a Jew.
- Feb 10, 1936 - German
Gestapo is placed above
the law.
1936 March –
May
- March 3, 1936 –
Jewish doctors
barred from
practicing medicine
in German clinics or
hospitals
- March, 1936 - SS
Deaths Head Division
established to guard
concentration camps.
- March 8, 1936 –
Germany Occupies
The Rhineland! (a
demilitarized zone
bordering Germany)
- May 9, 1936 –
Mussolini Invades
Ethiopia! Benito
Mussolini, leader of the
Italian Fascist Party,
rules with authoritarian
power
1936 June –
July
1936 August –
October
- June 17, 1936 Himmler appointed
chief of the German
Police.
- August 1, 1936 Olympic Games
Begin in Berlin: Hitler
displays Nazi might.
- July 1936 – Opening
of Sachsenhausen
Concentration Camp
near Berlin, Germany.
- August 1936 - Nazis
set up Office for
Combating
Homosexuality and
Abortions (for healthy
women).
- July 18, 1936 - Civil
War Erupts in Spain!
Spanish conservatives
and army officers (the
Nationalists) launch a
coup to take control of
the Spanish Republic.
Germany and Italy
support the
Nationalists and test
battle techniques.
USSR supports
Republican forces;
other major powers
stay neutral. In April
1939 the Nationalists
prevail.
- Oct 1, 1936 - Franco
Declared Head of
Spanish State: A
dictator whose rule
was known for Spanish
nationalism, and
imperial aspirations.
- Oct 26, 1936 Rome-Berlin Axis:
Mussolini, forms
military alliance with
Hitler.
1937
January -November
- January 1937 - Jews
are banned from many
professional
occupations including
teaching Germans, and
from being accountants
or dentists. They are
also denied tax
reductions and child
allowances.
- July 15, 1937 –
Opening of
Buchenwald
Concentration Camp
near Weimar in central
Germany.
- Nov 5, 1937 Hossbach
Conference. Hitler
reveals secret war
plans to Nazi officials.
1938 March - July
1938 July – Aug.
1938 Aug. – Sept.
1938 Oct. – Nov.
1938 Nov. – Dec.
1939 Jan. – March
1939 April - July
- March 13, 1938 - Germany
Annexes Austria! Hitler’s first
move to create “Greater
Germany”. Anti-semitic
decrees immediately applied
in Austria.
- March 1938 - SS is placed in
charge of Jewish affairs in
Austria. Adolf Eichmann
establishes an Office for
Jewish Emigration in Vienna.
Himmler opens Mauthausen
concentration camp near Linz.
- April 22, 1938 - Nazis
prohibit Aryan 'frontownership' of Jewish
businesses.
- April 26, 1938 - Mandatory
registration of all wealth and
property held by Jews.
- June 14, 1938 - Nazis order
Jewish owned businesses to
register.
- July, 1938 - Evian, France:
League of Nations
Conference: Delegates from
32 countries consider helping
Jews fleeing Hitler. No action
is taken as no country will
accept them.
- July 6, 1938 - Nazis prohibit
Jews from trading and
providing specified
commercial services.
- July 23, 1938 - Nazis order
Jews over age 15 to apply for
identity cards from the police,
to be shown on demand to
any police officer.
- Aug 11, 1938 - Nazis
destroy the synagogue in
Nuremberg.
- Aug 12, 1938 - German
Military Mobilizes!
- Aug 17, 1938 - Nazis
require Jewish women to
add Sarah and men to add
Israel to their names on all
legal documents including
passports.
- Sept 1938 - Munich
Agreement: Signed by
Germany, Great Britain,
Italy, and France, it allows
Germany to annex the
Sudetenland from
Czechoslovakia in
exchange for Hitler's
pledge of peace.
Czechoslovakia does not
take part in the
negotiations.
- Sept 27, 1938 - Jews are
prohibited from all legal
practices.
- Oct 5, 1938 - Law
requires Jewish
passports to be
stamped with a large
red "J."
- Oct 15, 1938 - Nazi
Troops Occupy
Sudetenland!
- Oct 28, 1938 - Nazis
arrest 17,000 Jews of
Polish nationality and
expel them to Poland
which refuses them
entry, leaving them in
'no-man's land' near
the Polish border for
several months.
- Nov 7, 1938 - Ernst
vom Rath, Secretary in
the German Embassy
in Paris, Shot! Mortally
wounded by Herschel
Grynszpan, 17 year old
son of deported Polish
Jews
- Nov 9, 1938 –
vom Rath dies
- Nov 10, 1938 Kristallnacht! (The
Night of Broken
Glass)Nazi’s kill 91
Jews and loot Jewish
businesses, in revenge
for his death.
- Nov 12, 1938 - Nazis
fine Jews one billion
marks for damages
related to Kristallnacht.
- November 12 – 15,
1938 26,000 German
Jews are arrested and
sent to concentration
camps.
- Nov 15, 1938 Jewish pupils are
expelled from all nonJewish German
schools.
- Dec 14, 1938 Hermann Göring takes
charge of resolving the
"Jewish Question."
- Jan 24, 1939 - SS
leader Reinhard
Heydrich ordered by
Göring to speed up
emigration of Jews.
- Jan 30, 1939 Hitler threatens
Jews during
Reichstag speech.
- Feb 21, 1939 Nazis force Jews to
hand over all gold
and silver items.
- March 15/16, 1939
- Germany Invades
Czechoslovakia!
(Jewish pop
350,000) This
violates the terms of
the Munich
Agreement. Britain
and France agree to
support Poland if
Germany invades.
- March 28, 1939 Spanish Civil War
Ends.
- April 19, 1939 Slovakia passes its own
version of the Nuremberg
Laws.
- April 30, 1939 - Jews
lose rights as tenants and
are relocated into Jewish
houses.
- May 1939 - The St.
Louis, a ship crowded
with 930 Jewish
refugees, is turned away
by Cuba, the U.S. and
other countries and
returns to Europe.
- May 22, 1939 - Nazis
Sign 'Pact of Steel' with
Italy!
- July 21, 1939 - Adolf
Eichmann is appointed
director of the Prague
Office of Jewish
Emigration.
1939 August – Sept.
1939 September
1939 September
1939 September
1939 Oct. – Nov.
Dec1939 - Jan1940
1940 Feb. – April
- Aug 23, 1939 - Nazis and
Soviets Sign Mutual NonAggression Pact!
- Sept 3, 1939 - Britain &
France Declare War on
Germany! World War II
begins.
- Sept 17, 1939 – Soviet
Troops Invade Eastern
Poland!
- Sept 27, 1939
Heydrich becomes
leader of RSHA (
Reich Main Security
Office) which
combines the SS
Security Service (SD),
Secret State
Police(Gestapo),
Criminal Police, and
foreign intelligence
service into one
centralized
organization that will
terrorize the entire
continent of Europe
and organize mass
murder on a scale
unprecedented in
human history.
- October, 1939 - Nazi
“euthanasia” on sick
& disabled in
Germany.
- Dec 14, 1939 - Soviet
Union Expelled From
League of Nations.
- Feb 12, 1940 - First
deportation of
German Jews into
occupied Poland.
- Aug 25, 1939 - Britain and
Poland Sign Mutual
Assistance Treaty!
- Sept 4, 1939 - Warsaw Cut
Off By German Army!
- Aug 31, 1939 - British Fleet
Mobilizes; Civilians Evacuated
from London!
- Sept 4, 1939 - British Royal
Air Force Attacks German
Navy!
- Sept 1, 1939 - Germany
Invades Poland!
(Jewish pop. 3.35 million, the
largest in Europe) beginning of
SS activity in Poland.
- Sept 5, 1939 -German
troops cross the Vistula
River in Poland. U.S.
remains neutral
- Sept 1, 1939 - Jews in
Germany forbidden to be
outdoors after 8 p.m. in winter
and 9 p.m. in summer.
- Sept 10, 1939 - Canada
declares war on Germany!
Battle of the Atlantic
Begins.
- Sept 21, 1939 - Heydrich
instructs the SS
Einsatzgruppen (special
action squads) in Poland,
to gather Jews in ghettos
near railroads for the
future "final goal." He
orders a census and the
establishment of Jewish
administrative councils
within the ghettos to
implement Nazi policies
and decrees.
- Sept 23, 1939 - German
Jews are forbidden to own
wireless (radio) sets.
- Sept 27, 1939 - Warsaw
Surrenders!
- Sept 29, 1939 Nazis and Soviets
Divide up Poland.
Over two million Jews
reside in Nazi
controlled areas,
leaving 1.3 million in
the Soviet area.
- Oct 6, 1939 Proclamation by Hitler
on the isolation of
Jews.
- Oct 12, 1939 Evacuation of Jews
from Vienna.
- Oct 26, 1939 Forced labor decree
issued for Polish
Jews aged 14 to 60.
- Nov 8, 1939 Assassination
Attempt on Hitler
Fails.
- Nov 23, 1939 Polish Jews over age
10 required to wear
Yellow stars.
- Nov 30, 1939 Soviets attack Finland!
- Jan 8, 1940 Rationing Begins in
Britain.
- January 1940 Germans open a ghetto
in Lódz, Poland, forcing
the city's 200,000 Jews
into it. Some 20,000
more Jews from other
countries will be
deported to Lódz in
coming years. Lódz will
be one of over 300
ghettos in Nazi territory.
The ghettos are holding
places for Jews on the
way to death camps.
- Jan 25, 1940 –
Auschwitz
Concentration Camp
Opens in Poland near
Krakow.
- March 12, 1940 Finland Signs Peace
Treaty with Soviets.
- March 16, 1940 Germans Bomb
Scapa Flow Naval
Base near Scotland!
- April 9, 1940 Nazis Invade
Denmark and
Norway!
Denmark has a
Jewish population of
8,000. Norway’s
Jewish population is
2,000.
- April 30, 1940 Lodz Ghetto Sealed.
230,000 Jews are
locked inside.
1940 May – June
1940 June
1940 June - July
1940 July - August
1940 Aug. – Sept.
1940 September
1940 Oct. - Nov.
- May 1, 1940 - Rudolf Höss is
chosen to be kommandant of
Auschwitz.
June 3, 1940 - Germans
bomb Paris! Dunkirk
evacuation ends.
- June 18, 1940 - Soviets
Occupy Baltic States!
Hitler and Mussolini
Meet in Munich.
- Aug 13, 1940 Germany Bombs
England! Airfields &
factories targeted.
- Sept 7, 1940 German Blitz
Against England
Begins!
- Oct 3, 1940 - Vichy
France passes its own
version of the Nuremberg
Laws.
- May 10, 1940 - Germany
Invades! Netherlands,
France, Belgium,
Luxembourg
- June 10, 1940 - Norway
Surrenders to Germany!
Italy Declares War on Britain
and France!
- July 5, 1940 Government of
occupied France
severs diplomatic ties
with Britain.
- Aug 15, 1940 - Air
Battles and Daylight
Raids Over Britain!
- Sept 13, 1940 Italy Invades Egypt!
- Oct 7, 1940 - Nazis
Invade Romania! (Jewish
population 34,000).
Jewish populations of these
countries were France:
350,000, Belgium: 65,000, the
Netherlands: 140,000,
Luxembourg: 3,500.
Winston Churchill becomes
British Prime Minister.
- May 15, 1940 - Holland
Surrenders to Germany!
- May 26, 1940 – Start
Evacuation of Allied troops
from Dunkirk.
- May 28, 1940 - Belgium
Surrenders to Germany!
- June 14, 1940 - France
surrenders to Germany!
Paris Occupied By Nazis!
Germany annexes the
French provinces of Alsace
and Lorraine and installs a
puppet government in
southern France based in the
town of Vichy, from which the
new government takes its
name.
- June 22, 1940 - France
Signs Armistice with Hitler!
- June 28, 1940 - Britain
Recognizes Gen. Charles
de Gaulle as the Free
French Leader.
- July 1940 Madagascar Plan:
Eichmann proposes to
deport all European Jews
to the island
ofMadagascar, off coast
of E. Africa.
- July 1, 1940 - German
U-boats Attack Merchant
Ships in the Atlantic!
- July 10, 1940 - Battle
of Britain Begins!
- July 17, 1940 - First
anti-Jewish measures
in Vichy France.
- Aug 17, 1940 - Hitler
Declares Blockade of
British Isles!
- July 23, 1940 Soviets take Lithuania,
Latvia and Estonia!
- Aug 23/24, 1940
German Air Raids on
Central London!
- Aug 3-19, 1940
Italians Occupy British
Somaliland in East
Africa!
- Aug 8, 1940 Romania introduces
anti-Jewish measures
restricting education
and employment.
- Aug 25/26 British
Royal Air Force Bombs
Berlin!
- Sept 3, 1940 Operation Sea Lion:
Hitler plans the
invasion of Britain.
- Sept 15, 1940 Massive German Air
Raids Strike
London, Bristol,
Southampton,
Cardiff,Liverpool and
Manchester!
- Sept 16, 1940 United States
Military
Conscription Bill
Passed.
- September 1949 –
Japan Allies With
Germany! Tripartite
(Axis) Pact signed
by Germany, Italy
and Japan.
- Oct 12, 1940 Germans postpone
Operation Sea Lion until
the Spring 1941.
- Oct 22, 1940 Deportation of 29,000
German Jews from
Baden, the Saar, and
Alsace-Lorraine into
Vichy France.
- Oct 28, 1940 - Italy
Invades Greece!
- November 1940 Krakow Ghetto Sealed,
containing 70,000 Jews.
1940 November
Nov 1940 - 41 Jan
1941 Jan. – Feb.
1941 March
1941 March
1941 Mar. – Apr.
1941 April - May
- Nov 16, 1940 - Warsaw
Ghetto Sealed:eventually
contains over 500,000 Jewish
people.
- Nov 5, 1940 - Roosevelt
Re-elected as U.S.
President.
- Nov 10/11 - Torpedo
Bomber Raid Cripples
Italian Fleet at Taranto, Italy.
- Nov 14/15 - Germans Bomb
Coventry, England!
- Nov 20, 1940 - Hungary
Joins Axis Powers!
- Nov 22, 1940 - Greeks
Defeat Italian 9th Army!
- Nov 23, 1940 - Romania
Joins Axis Powers!
- November 1940 - Slovakia
Allies With Germany!
- Dec 9/10, 1940 - British
begin Western Desert
Offensive in North Africa,
battling against the Italians.
- Jan 22, 1941 – Tobruk,
North Africa Falls to British
and Australians!
- Feb 1, 1941 – German
authorities rounding up
Polish Jews for transfer to
Warsaw Ghetto.
- Dec 29/30, 1940 - Massive
German Air Raid on London!
- Feb 11, 1941 - British
forces advance into
Italian Somaliland in
East Africa.
- Jan 21–26, 1941 – AntiJewish Riots in Romania:
Hundreds of Jews are killed.
- Feb 12, 1941 - German
General Rommel arrives
in Tripoli, North Africa.
- Feb 14, 1941 - First
German 'Afrika Korps'
arrive in North Africa.
- Feb 22, 1941 - 430
Jewish hostages are
deported from Amsterdam
after a Dutch Nazi is killed
by Jews.
- March 1941 - Adolf
Eichmann appointed
head of department for
Jewish affairs of Reich
Security Main Office
Section IV B 4.
- March 1941 – Hitler’s
Commissar Order
authorizes execution of
anyone suspected of
being a Communist
official in territories
about to be seized
from the Soviets.
- March 1, 1941 – On
Himmler’s first visit to
Auschwitz he orders
Kommandant Höss to
begin massive
expansion, including a
new compound at
nearby Birkenau that
can hold 100,000
prisoners.
- March 2, 1941 Nazis Occupy
Bulgaria! (Jewish pop.:
50,000).
- March 7, 1941 German Jews
ordered into forced
labor.
- March 29, 1941
'Commissariat' for
Jewish Affairs is set
up in Vichy France.
- March 7, 1941 British Forces
Deployed in Greece.
- April 3, 1941 Pro-Axis Regime
Set Up in Iraq.
March 11, 1941 Lend-Lease Act: U.S.
agrees to supply U K,
USSR, China, France
and other Allies with
war materials (1941 –
1945) in return for, in
the case of Britain,
military bases.
- April 6, 1941 –
Germany Attacks
Yugoslavia and
Greece! German
occupation follows.
Yugoslavia’s Jewish
population was
75,000 and the
Jewish population of
Greece was 77,000.
- March 26, 1941 German Army High
Command gives
approval to the Reich
Main Security Office
& Heydrich for SS
murder squads in
occupied Poland.
- March 27, 1941 Yugoslavia Coup
Ousts Pro-Axis
Government!
- April 14, 1941 –
Nazi General
Rommel Attacks
Tobruk, North
Africa.
- April 17, 1941 Yugoslavia
Surrenders to Nazis!
- April 27, 1941 – Greece
Surrenders to Nazis!
May 1, 1941 - German
Attack on Tobruk is
Repelled.
- May 10/11 - Heavy
German Bombing of
London; British Bomb
Hamburg.
- May 14, 1941 - 3,600
Jews arrested in Paris.
- May 15, 1941 Operation Brevity:
British forces begin
counter-attack in Egypt.
- May 16, 1941 - French
Marshal Petain issues a
radio broadcast
approving collaboration
with Hitler.
1941 May - June
1941 June - July
1941 July
1941 July
1941 July - August
1941 Aug. – Sept.
1941 Sept. – Oct.
- May 24, 1941 - British Ship
“Hood” Sunk by the Bismarck!
- June 28, 1941 - Germany
Captures Minsk!
- May 27, 1941 - British Navy
Sinks the Bismarck!
- June 1941- Nazi SS
Einsatzgruppen (murder
squads) begin mass murder.
- June 4, 1941 - Pro-Allied
Government Installed in
Iraq.
- June 8, 1941 - Allies Invade
Syria and Lebanon!
- June 14, 1941 - United
States Freezes German and
Italian Assets in America.
- June 22, 1941 – Germany
Invades the Soviet Union!
(Jewish population: Three
million).Operation Barbarossa
begins.
- June 29/30, 1941 Romanian troops conduct
pogrom against Jews in
Jassy, killing 10,000.
- Summer of 1941 - Himmler
summons Auschwitz
Kommandant Höss to Berlin
and tells him, "The Führer
has ordered the Final
Solution of the Jewish
question. We, the SS, have
to carry out this order...I have
therefore chosen Auschwitz
for this purpose."
- July 3, 1941 - Stalin
Calls for Scorched Earth
Policy! Stalin orders both
soldiers and civilians to
deny the invading
Germans basic supplies as
they move eastward.
- July 10, 1941 - Germans
Cross River Dnieper in
the Ukraine.
- July 1941 - As Germans
advance, SS follow along
and conduct mass murder
of Jews in seized lands.
- July 1941 - Ghettos are
established at Kovno,
Minsk, Vitebsk and
Zhitomer. The government
of Vichy France seizes
Jewish owned property.
- July 12, 1941 Mutual Assistance
Agreement: UK and
USSR agree to joint
action in war and to
peace keeping after
war, and to the
prevention of further
aggression by
Germany and Axis
nations.
- July 14, 1941 British Forces Occupy
Syria.
- July 17, 1941 - Nazi
racial 'philosopher'
Alfred Rosenberg
appointed Reich
Minister of territories
seized from the Soviet
Union.
- July 21, 1941 Majdanek
Concentration Camp
opens in occupied
Poland near Lublin.
- July 25/26, 1941 3,800 Jews are killed
during a pogrom by
Lithuanians in Kovno.
- July 26, 1941 Roosevelt Freezes
Japanese Assets in
U.S. and Suspends
Relations.
- July 31, 1941 –
Heydrich appointed by
Goering to implement
the “Final Solution”.
- August 1941 - Jews
in Romania forced into
Transnistria. By
December, 70,000
perish.
- Ghettos established
at Bialystok and Lvov.
- Aug 1, 1941 – U. S.
Announces Oil
Embargo Against
Aggressor States.
- Aug 14, 1941 –
U.S. and UK
Announce Atlantic
Charter which states
common principles
in their national
policies on which
they base their
hopes for a better
future for the world.
- Aug 20, 1941 Nazis Lay Siege to
Leningrad.
- Sept 6, 1941 - The
Vilna Ghetto is
established containing
40,000 Jews.
- Sept 17, 1941 Beginning of general
deportation of German
Jews.
- Sept 19, 1941 - Nazis
take Kiev!
- Sept 27/28 - 23,000
Jews killed at KamenetsPodolsk, in the Ukraine.
- Aug 26, 1941 The Hungarian Army
- Sept 28 – 29, 1941 –SS
rounds up 18,000
Einsatzgruppen
Jews at Kamenetsmassacre 34,000 Jews at
Podolsk.
Babi Yar, near Kiev.
- Sept 1, 1941 - October 1941 –
German Jews
Auschwitz II (Birkenau)
ordered to wear
built for the extermination
yellow stars.
of Jews; Gypsies;Poles;
Russians; & others.
- Sept 3, 1941 35,000 Jews from
First test of
Odessa are shot.
Zyklon-B gas at
Auschwitz, first
victims are mostly
Russian prisoners of
war.
1941 October
1941 Oct. – Nov.
1941 Nov. – Dec.
1941 December
1941 December
1941 December
1942 January
- Oct 2, 1941 - German Army
Moves Towards Moscow!
Operation Typhoon begins.
- Oct-Dec 1941 -Moscow
Under Siege! Germans reach
outskirts of the Soviet capital.
Soviets reinforce troops as a
winter sets in. Germans are
unprepared for the weather,
and their offensive stalls.
- Oct 16, 1941 - Odessa Falls
to the Germans!
- Oct 23, 1941 - Nazis forbid
emigration of Jews from the
Reich.
- Oct 24, 1941 - Kharkov Falls
to the Germans!
- Oct 30, 1941 - Germans
Reach Sevastopol.
- Nov 27, 1941 - Soviet
Troops Retake Rostov!
- Nov 1941- SS
Einsatzgruppe B reports a
tally of 45,476 Jews killed.
- Nov 30, 1941 - Near
Riga, a mass shooting of
Latvian and German Jews.
- Nov 13, 1941 – British
Aircraft Carrier Sunk Off
Gibraltar By German U-boat!
- Dec 5, 1941 – Germany
Abandons Attack On
Moscow!
- Nov 20, 1941 - Rostov Falls
to the Germans!
- Dec 6, 1941 - Soviet
Army Launches Major
Counter-Offensive Near
Moscow!
- Nov 24, 1941 Theresienstadt Ghetto near
Prague, Czechoslovakia is
shown off as a “model ghetto”
to the international
community. Propaganda films
show comfortable conditions
to counter reports of
miserable conditions in other
ghettos.
- Dec 7, 1941 - Japan
Bombs American Navy at
Pearl Harbor!
- Dec 7, 1941 – Hitler
issues Night and Fog
Decree, replacing the
Nazi policy of taking
hostages to undermine
underground activity.
Suspected agents will
now “vanish” into the
night and fog.
- Dec 8, 1941 –
Chelmno
Extermination Camp
Opens. Jews are put
in mobile gas vans and
driven to a burial place
while carbon monoxide
from exhaust is fed into
the sealed vans, killing
them. First victims
include 5,000 Gypsies
deported from the
Reich to Lodz. By April
1943 -340,000 Jews
and 20,000 Poles and
Czechs are murdered.
- December 1941 Hitler officially halts
“Euthanasia Program”
after public criticism,
but killing goes on
secretly. 70,000 people
- Dec 11, 1941 - Hitler
have been killed. By
Declares War on U.S.!
1945 150,000 die in
programs of mass
- Dec 11, 1941 – U.S.
killing.
& Britain Declare War
on Germany and
Japan! The U.S.
concentrates 90% of
its military resources to
defeat Hitler.
- Dec 12, 1941 - The
ship "Struma" leaves
Romania for
Palestine carrying
769 Jews but is later
denied permission
by British authorities
for passengers to
disembark. In Feb.
1942, it sails back to
the Black Sea,
where it is
intercepted by a
Soviet submarine
and is sunk as an
"enemy target."
- Dec 16, 1941 – In
North Africa German
forces under
Rommel (“The
Desert Fox”) retreat
to El Agheila.
- Dec 19, 1941 Hitler takes
complete
command of the
German Army.
Jan 1, 1942 - Declaration
of the United Nations
Signed by 26 Allied
Nations! This became the
basis of the modern UN.
During WW II “United
Nations” became
synonymous with the
Allies and was
considered to be the
formal name they were
fighting under…Allied
Nations, or United
Nations. Signing nations
pledged to uphold the
Atlantic Charter, to use all
their resources in the war
against the Axis powers,
and that none would seek
to negotiate a separate
peace.
- Jan 13, 1942 - German
U-boat Offensive off East
Coast U.S.
1942 January
1942 Jan. – Mar.
1942 Mar. – Apr.
1942 April - May
1942 May
1942 May - June
1942 June
- Jan 20, 1942 - The
Wannsee Conference: Nazi
officials discuss “Final
Solution” a plan to kill all
European Jews, Soviet
prisoners of war and Gypsies.
This will involve several
ministries in the government
and an extensive rail system
to move victims from across
Europe to a network of
ghettos, sub camps, and labor
camps before they are sent to
extermination camps. 3.5
million Jews will die in the
camps. Six million Jews and
five million other victims will be
killed. Heydrich gets full
support of Nazi officials fort
this plan.
- Jan 21, 1942 – Rommel
Begins Counter-offensive
from El Agheila
- March 24, 1942 Deportation of Slovak
Jews to Auschwitz.
- April 23, 1942 German Air Raids
Bomb Cathedral Cities
in Britain!
- March 27, 1942 Deportation of French
Jews to Auschwitz.
- May 30, 1942 –
1,000 British
Bombers
Launched Against
Cologne, Germany!
- June 5, 1942 - SS
reports 97,000 persons
have been "processed" in
mobile gas vans.
- Jan 26, 1942 - American
Forces Arrive in Great Britain!
- May – June 1942 Sobibor, Treblinka,
and AuschwitzBirkenau death
camps are opened in
Greater Germany and
occupied Poland.
- Jan 1942 - Mass killings of
Jews Using Zyklon-B begins
at Auschwitz-Birkenau, in
Bunker I(a red farmhouse).
Bodies are buried in mass
graves in a nearby meadow.
- Jan 31, 1942 - SS
Einsatzgruppe- A reports a
tally of 229,052 Jews killed.
- March 1942 –
Extermination Begins in
Belzec gas chambers by
piping in carbon monoxide
from engines outside, (will
later use Zyklon-B). 600,000
Jews are killed by 1942.
- March 17, 1942 Deportation of Jews from
Lublin to Belzec.
- March 28, 1942 - Fritz
Sauckel named Chief of
Manpower to expedite
recruitment of slave labor.
- March 30, 1942 - First
trainloads of Jews from
Paris arrive at Auschwitz.
- April 1942 - First
transports of Jews arrive at
Majdanek.
- April 1042 - JapaneseAmericans sent to
relocation centers.
- April 20, 1942 - Jews are
banned from using public
transportation.
- April – May 1942 –
Allies Bomb
Germany! UK and
U.S. combine forces
for mass bombing.
- April 1942 –
Americans Bomb
Tokyo!
- May 1942 –
Extermination Begins
in Sobibor in three
gas chambers using
carbon monoxide
piped in from engines,
(later use Zyklon-B).
250,000 Jews are
murdered by 1943.
- May 1942 - Jewish
Agency for Palestine
reports Nazis have
begun exterminating
European Jews.
- May 8, 1942 Germany on the
Offensive in the
Crimea.
- May 18, 1942 - New
York Times reports
Nazis have machinegunned over 100,000
Jews in the Baltic,
100,000 in Poland and
twice as many in
western Russia.
- May 26, 1942 Rommel Begins
Offensive Against
Gazala Line.
May 27, 1942 - SS
Leader Heydrich
Mortally Wounded by
Czech Underground.
- June 1942 –
Jewish Partisan
Fighting Units
Established.
Hidden in forests of
the Baltic States &
Byelorussia,
partisan units fight
back.
- Gas vans used in
Riga.
– Slovakia agrees
to deport Jews to
Auschwitz and pays
Germany to take
their families.
- June 1, 1942 Jews in France,
Holland, Belgium,
Croatia, Slovakia,
Romania must wear
yellow stars.
- June 4, 1942 Heydrich dies of
his wounds.
- June 4-7 1942 -Battle of
the Midway! U.S.
destroys the four air
carriers that had attacked
Pearl Harbor. This defeat
of Japanese navel power,
gains U.S. strategic
initiative; the two fleets
are now equal and the U.
S. takes the offensive,
shortening the war in the
Pacific.
- June 5, 1942 –
Germany Lays Siege to
Sevastopol.
- June 10, 1942 - Lidice
ghetto liquidated in
retaliation for
Heydrich's death.
1942 June
Summer of 1942
1942 July
1942 July
1942 July
1942 August
1942 September
- June 11, 1942 - Eichmann
meets representatives from
France, Belgium and Holland
to coordinate deportation
plans for Jews.
- June 30 & July 2, 1942 London Daily Telegraph
Reports that 1,000,000
Jews Already Killed!
- July 2, 1942 - Jews from
Berlin sent to
Theresienstadt.
- July 16/17 - 12,887
Jews of Paris are
rounded up and sent to
Drancy Internment
Camp. 74,000 Jews,
including 11,000
children, will be
transported from
Drancy to Auschwitz,
Majdanek and Sobibor.
- July 19, 1942 –
Operation Reinhard:
Himmler orders all
ghettos liquidated,
Polish Jews to be sent
to extermination camps
to be murdered by year
end, enlargement of
Birkenau camp at
Auschwitz.
- Aug 1942 - Start of
deportations of
Croatian Jews to
Auschwitz.
Sept 2, 1942 - Battle of
Alam Halfa, North
Africa: Montgomery
drives back Rommel.
- Aug 6, 1942 –
2,000 Jews arrested
in Amsterdam, sent
to Westerbork, and
on to Auschwitz.
- July 17/18, 1942 Himmler visits
Auschwitz-Birkenau
and inspects ongoing
construction of four
large gas chamber
/crematories. He
observes the
extermination process
from start to finish as
two trainloads of Jews
arrive from Holland.
Kommandant Höss is
promoted.
- July 23, 1942 Treblinka
Extermination Camp
Opened in Occupied
Poland, near Warsaw.
It has two buildings
with 10 gas chambers,
each able hold 200
persons. Carbon
monoxide is piped in
from engines outside,
(Zyklon-B is later
used). Bodies are
burned in open pits.
Deportation of Jews
from the Warsaw
Ghetto to Treblinka
begins. Deportation of
Belgian Jews to
Auschwitz begins.
- Aug 7, 1942 –
General Bernard
Montgomery Takes
Command of British
Eighth Army in North
Africa.
- Sept 9, 1942 - Open pit
burning of bodies
begins at Auschwitz.
Bodies already buried,
107,000 corpses, are dug
up and burned to prevent
fouling of ground water.
- June 20, 1942 - Kazimierz
Piechowski, Polish political
prisoner, organizes an escape
from Auschwitz.
- June 21, 1942 - Rommel
Captures Tobruk!
- June 25, 1942 – U.S.
President Eisenhower
Arrives in London.
- June 30, 1942 - Rommel
Reaches El Alamein Near
Cairo, Egypt.
- June 30, 1942 - At
Auschwitz, a second gas
chamber, Bunker II, is made
operational at Birkenau due to
number of Jews arriving.
- Summer 1942 - Deportation
of Jews from Belgium,
Croatia, France, the
Netherlands, and Poland to
killing centers; armed
resistance by Jews in ghettos
of Kletzk, Mir, Kremenets,
Lachva, and Tuchin. World
Jewish Congress receives
information from a German
industrialist about Nazi plans
to exterminate the Jews, and
pass it on to London and
Washington.
- July 1-30 –
First Battle of
El Alamein.
- July 3, 1942 Sevastopol Falls to the
Germans!
- July 5, 1942 - Soviet
Resistance in Crimea
Ends.
- July 6, 1942 – Britain
Defeats Germany in
North Africa!
- July 7, 1942 - Himmler
grants permission for
sterilization experiments
at Auschwitz.
- July 9, 1942 - Germany
Drives Toward Stalingrad
in the USSR.
- July 14, 1942 Deportation of Dutch Jews
to Auschwitz.
- Aug 12, 1942 Churchill Meets
Stalin in Moscow.
- Aug 17, 1942 – 1st
All-American Air
Attack in Europe!
- Aug 23, 1942 –
Massive German
Air Raid on
Stalingrad!
- Aug 26-28, 1942 7,000 Jews arrested
in unoccupied
France.
- Sept 13, 1942 - Battle
for Stalingrad begins
with German attacks on
the city. Russians slow
the assault, launch a
counteroffensive, and
encircle large groups of
German soldiers. Hitler
stops German troops
from retreating, airlifting
supplies for later battle.
German air force cannot
keep up with the army's
needs; over the winter
their situation
deteriorates.
1942 Sept. – Oct.
1942 October
1942 November
1942 Nov. – Dec.
1942 December
1942 Dec-1943 Jan
1943 January
- Sept 18, 1942 - Reduction of
food rations for Jews in
Germany.
- Oct 14, 1942 - Mass
killing of Jews from
Mizocz Ghetto in the
Ukraine.
- Winter 1942 –
Deportation of Jews form
Germany, Greece and
Norway to killing centers.
Jewish partisan movement
organized in forests near
Lublin.
- November 1942 Mass killing of 170,000
Jews in the area of
Bialystok.
- Dec 13, 1942 Rommel Ousted from
El Agheila!
- Dec 28, 1942 Sterilization
experiments on
women at Birkenau
begin.
- Jan 14-24 Churchill and
Roosevelt Meet in
Casablanca.
Roosevelt announces
the war can end only
with an unconditional
German surrender.
- Sept 26, 1942 - SS begins
cashing in possessions and
valuables of Jews from
Auschwitz and Majdanek.
German banknotes are sent to
the Reichs Bank. Foreign
currency, gold, jewels and
other valuables are sent to
SSHeadquarters of the
Economic Administration.
Watches, clocks and pens are
distributed to troops at the
front. Clothing is distributed to
German families. By Feb.
1943, over 800 boxcars of
confiscated goods have left
Auschwitz.
- Oct 5, 1942 - Himmler
orders all Jews in
concentration camps in
Germany to be sent to
Auschwitz and Majdanek.
- Oct 18, 1942 - Hitler
orders the execution of all
captured British
commandos.
- Oct 22, 1942 - SS put
down a revolt at
Sachsenhausen by a group
of Jews about to be sent to
Auschwitz.
- Oct 25, 1942 Deportations of Jews from
Norway to Auschwitz begin.
- Oct 28, 1942 - First
transport from
Theresienstadt arrives at
Auschwitz.
- Nov 1, 1942 - Operation
Supercharge: Allied forces
break the Axis lines at El
Alamein, N Africa!
- Nov 8, 1942 - Operation
Torch: U.S. invasion of
North Africa.
- Nov 11, 1942 - Germany
and Italy Invade
Unoccupied Vichy France!
- Nov 19, 1942 Operation Uranus:
Soviets Stage Counteroffensive at Stalingrad!
- December 1942 Exterminations at
Belzec cease after an
estimated 600,000
Jews have been
murdered. Camp is
dismantled, plowed
over and planted.
- Dec 2, 1942 Professor Enrico Fermi
sets up an atomic
reactor in Chicago.
- Dec 10, 1942 - The
first transport of Jews
from Germany arrives
at Auschwitz.
- Dec 12, 1942 –
Soviet Offensive
Operations on the
Stalingrad Front
- Dec 16, 1942 Soviets Defeat
Italians on the Don
River in the USSR!
- December 1942 Himmler orders most
Gypsies in Germany to
be deported to
Auschwitz.
- Dec 17, 1942 British Foreign
Secretary Eden tells
the British House of
Commons the Nazis
are "now carrying into
effect Hitler's oft
repeated intention to
exterminate the Jewish
people of Europe."
U.S. declares those
crimes will be
avenged.
- Dec 31, 1942 German and British
Ships Battle on the
Barents Sea.
By 1943 the number of
Jews killed by SS
Einsatzgruppen
passes one million.
Nazis use special
units of slave laborers
to dig up and burn the
bodies to remove all
traces.
- Jan 2/3, 1943
Germany Withdraws
From the Caucasus!
- Jan 10, 1943 Operation Ring:
Soviet Offensive in
Stalingrad.
- Jan 18, 1943 - First
resistance by Jews in
the Warsaw Ghetto.
- Jan 23, 1943 –
General
Montgomery's
Eighth Army Takes
Tripoli!
- Jan 27, 1943 - First
American Bombing
Raid on Germany
- Jan 29, 1943 Nazis order all
Gypsies arrested and
sent to extermination
camps.
1943 February
1943 Feb. – Mar.
1943 March
1943 Mar. – Apr.
Apr. 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
1943 April
February 1943 - Romanian
government proposes to the
Allies the transfer of 70,000
Jews to Palestine, but
receives no response from
Britain or the U.S. Greek
Jews are ordered into
ghettos.
- Feb 18, 1943 - Nazis
arrest White Rose
resistance leaders in
Munich. This anti-Nazi
group formed by university
students called for ending
the war and overthrowing
Hitler. The leaders are
executed.
- March 2, 1943 - Germany
Withdraws From Tunisia,
Africa!
- March 22, 1943 Newly built gas
chamber/crematory
IV opens at
Auschwitz.
- April 19, 1943 - Waffen SS attacks Jewish
Resistance in Warsaw Ghetto.
- Feb 27, 1943 - Jews
working in Berlin
armaments industry are
sent to Auschwitz.
- March 15, 1943 Germans Re-capture
Kharkov!
Jewish fighters resist
for another month,
hiding in the sewers,
which become an
escape route to the
Polish side of Warsaw
for some Jews. In the
end the uprising is
brutally suppressed,
the ghetto in ruins and
emptied of people.
Thousands of Jews
are dead, but damage
has been inflicted on
the Germans. The
remaining Jews are
deported to Treblinka.
- Feb 2, 1943 - German
Sixth Army Surrenders at
Stalingrad! First big defeat of
Hitler's armies.
- Feb 8, 1943 - Soviet
Troops Take Kursk!
- Feb 14-25 - Battle of
Kasserine Pass: U.S. 1st
Armored Division and
German Panzers battle in
Tunisia, North Africa.
- Feb 16, 1943 - Soviets Retake Kharkov!
- March 1943 Deportations of Jews from
Greece to Auschwitz,
lasting until August, totaling
49,900 persons.
- March 1, 1943 - Mass
Rally at Madison Square
Garden! American Jews
pressure U.S. government
to help Jews of Europe.
- March 14, 1943 –
Krakow Ghetto is
Liquidated: 12,000 Jews /
week deported from
Netherlands.
- March 16-20, Battle of
the Atlantic: At least 27
merchant ships sunk by
German U-boats.
- March 17, 1943 Bulgaria states opposition
to deportation of its Jews.
- March 20-28 –
Montgomery's Eighth
Army Breaks Through
Mareth Line in Tunisia!
- March 31, 1943 Newly built gas
chamber/crematory
II opens at
Auschwitz.
- April 4, 1943 Newly built gas
chamber/crematory
V opens at
Auschwitz.
- April 6/7, 1943 Axis Forces in
Tunisia Withdraw To
Enfidaville as US
and UK Forces Link.
- April 9, 1943 Exterminations at
Chelmno cease. But
camp is reactivated in
spring of 1944 to
liquidate ghettos.
Chelmno will total
300,000 deaths.
- April 19 – May 16, 1943 – Warsaw Ghetto
Uprising: After deportations of 300,000 Jews
from the ghetto during 1942, only about 55,000
remain. Youth resistance groups are
instrumental in forming the Jewish Fighting
Organization (ŻOB). The youth had anticipated
German intentions to annihilate Warsaw Jews
and began a move away from an educational
and cultural focus to self-defense and
eventually armed struggle. When the Nazis
issue a decree stating all Jews confined in the
Warsaw Ghetto, regardless of age and sex, will
be resettled in the East, and call them to report
for deportation in January, the ZOB takes
control of the ghetto and calls on Jews to fight
back. 5,000 Jews are killed, but the Germans
retreat from the ghetto. After fortifying
themselves, the Jews wait for the next battle,
which comes during Passover and is later
called the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. At 6am on
April 19, 2,000 German troops enter the ghetto
and are repulsed within 90 minutes by ZOB
fighters with homemade weapons. The
Germans cut off gas, water, and electricity to
the ghetto. Street fighting continues for a few
days until Germans order the ghetto burned.
- April 19-30 Bermuda
Conference: the U.S.
and Britain discuss
the problem of
refugees from Nazioccupied countries,
but no action is taken
concerning the plight
of the Jews.
1943 May
1943 June - July
1943 July
1943 Aug. – Sept.
1943 September
1943 October
1943 October
- May 1943 - SS Dr. Josef
Mengele, “The Angel of
Death” arrives at
Auschwitz.
- June 10, 1943 'Pointblank' directive to
improve Allied bombing
strategy issued.
- July 9/10, 1943 - Allies
Land in Sicily!
- September 1943 –
Allies Land in Italy!
Hope grows for an
end to the war.
- May 7, 1943 – Allied
Forces Take Tunisia!
- June 11, 1943 - Himmler
orders the liquidation of
all Jewish ghettos in
Poland.
- Aug 2, 1943 –
200 Jews escape
from Treblinka
extermination camp:
Nazis hunt them
down.
- October 1943 German diplomat
Georg Ferdinand
Duckwitz and Werner
Best, German ruler of
Denmark, meet about
Nazi plans for
rounding up Danish
Jews, which the
Danes had so far
resisted. Best alerts
Danish leaders. Upon
receiving warning The
Danish Underground
helps transport 7,220
Danish Jews to safety
in Sweden by sea.
- October 1943 –
Moscow Declaration:
Churchill, Roosevelt,
and Stalin condemn
Nazi atrocities in
Europe and promise
to prosecute Nazi
perpetrators.
- May 13, 1943 – German
and Italian Troops in North
Africa Surrender to Allies!
- May 16, 1943 - Jewish
resistance in the Warsaw
ghetto ends.
- May 16/17 - British
Bombers Raid the Ruhr!
- May 19, 1943 - Nazis
declare Berlin to be
Judenfrei (cleansed of
Jews).
- May 22, 1943 - Dönitz
suspends U-boat operations
in the North Atlantic.
- June 25, 1943 - Newly
built gas chamber /
crematory III opens at
Auschwitz.
Auschwitz now has daily
capacity of 4,756 bodies.
- Summer 1943 – JewIsh
Armed Resistance in
Bedzin, Bialstok,
Czestochowa, Lvov, and
Tarnow.
- July 5, 1943 - Germans
begin their last offensive
against Kursk.
- July 19, 1943 - Allies
Bomb Rome!
- July 22, 1943 Americans Capture
Palermo, Sicily!
- July 24, 1943 - Britain
Bombs Hamburg!
- July 25, 1943 –
Mussolini Overthrown!
Italian Fascist leader is
arrested and the
government falls.
- July 27/28 - Allied Air
Raid Ignites Firestorm in
Hamburg!
- Aug 12-17 Germans Evacuate
from Sicily.
- Aug 16, 1943 Bialystok Ghetto is
liquidated.
- Aug 17, 1943 – U.S.
Daylight Air Raids
on Germany; Allies
Reach Messina,
Sicily.
- Aug 23, 1943 Soviet Troops
Recapture Kharkov.
- Aug 1943 Exterminations
cease at Treblinka,
after 870,000 deaths.
- Sept 1943 - Vilna &
Minsk Ghettos are
liquidated.
- Sept 8, 1943 - Italy
Surrenders!
- Sept 9, 1943 - Allies
Land at Salerno &
Taranto!
- Sept 11, 1943 Germans Occupy
Rome! They already
occupy northern and
central Italy, Jewish
pop.: about 35,000.
- Sept 11, 1943 –
Jewish family
transports from
Theresienstadt to
Auschwitz.
- Sept 12, 1943 Mussolini Rescued by
Germans.
- Sept 23, 1943 Mussolini Reestablishes Fascist
Government!
- Oct 1, 1943 – Allied
Forces Enter Naples,
Italy.
- Oct 4, 1943 Himmler talks openly
about the Final
Solution in speech at
Posen, Poland. He
praises the SS, citing
their honesty,
character, and
commitment to duty.
- Oct 13, 1943 - Italy
Declares War on
Germany!
- Oct 14, 1943 Sobibor Death Camp
Uprising: Jews and
Soviet POWs stage a
resistance and 600 try
to break out; 300
make it into nearby
woods. Only 50 will
survive.
Exterminations cease
at Sobibor, after more
than 250,000 deaths.
All traces of the death
camp are removed
and trees are planted.
1943 Oct. – Nov.
Dec ’43-Jan 1944
1944 Jan. – Mar.
1943 March
1944 April
1944 Apr.- May
1944 May
- Oct 16, 1943 - Jews in
Rome rounded up, with over
1,000 sent to Auschwitz.
- Dec 2, 1943 - First
transport of Jews from
Vienna arrives Auschwitz.
- Jan 22, 1944 – Allies
Land at Anzio
- March 4, 1944 Daylight Bombing of
Berlin by Allied
Squadrons.
- April 8, 1944 Soviet Troops
Launch Offensive to
Liberate Crimea.
- April 14, 1944 First transports of
Jews from Athens to
Auschwitz; 5,200
persons.
- May 12, 1944 Germans Forces
Surrender in the
Crimea!
- March 15, 1944 Second Allied
Attempt to Capture
Monte Cassino.
- Apr 5, 1944 - A
Jewish inmate,
Siegfried Lederer,
escapes from
Auschwitz-Birkenau
and makes it safely to
Czechoslovakia. He
warns the Elders of
the Council at
Theresienstadt about
Auschwitz.
- Nov 1943 - Riga Ghetto is
liquidated. U.S. Congress
holds hearings into U.S. State
Department inaction
regarding European Jews,
despite mounting reports of
mass extermination.
- Nov 3, 1943 - Operation
Harvest Festival: In
occupied Poland Nazis kill
42,000 Jews.
- Nov 6, 1943 - Russians
Recapture Kiev!
- Nov 18, 1943 – Largest
British air raid ever
launched targets Berlin,
Germany.
- Nov 28, 1943 - Roosevelt,
Churchill, and Stalin Meet in
Teheran.
- Dec 16, 1943 -Chief
surgeon at Auschwitz
reports 106 castration
operations have been
performed.
- Dec 24-26 - Soviets
Launch Offensives on the
Ukrainian Front.
- Jan 3, 1944 - Soviet
Troops Reach Former
Polish Border.
- Jan 6, 1944 - Soviet
Troops Advance in
Poland.
- Jan 17, 1944 – Allied
Troops Advance Toward
Cassino, Italy.
Jan 27, 1944 – Seige of
Leningrad Lifted After
900-days!
- Jan 24, 1944 – U.S. War
Refugee Board Created in
response to political
pressure to help Jews.
- Feb 1944 – Allies Seize
Gilbert and Marshall
Islands from Japanese!
- Feb 15-18 - Allies Bomb
Monastery at Monte
Cassino.
- Feb 16, 1944 - Germans
Counter-attack Anzio
Beachhead.
- March 4, 1944 - Soviet
Troops Launch Offensive
on Belorussian Front.
March 18, 1944 British Drop 3000
Tons of Bombs in
Air Raid on
Hamburg!
- March 19, 1944 Nazis Occupy
Hungary! (Jewish
pop.: 725,000).
Eichmann arrives with
Gestapo "Special
Section Commandos."
- March 24, 1944 –
U.S. President
condemns German
and Japanese
"crimes against
humanity."
- Apr 7, 1944 - Two
Jewish inmates
escape from
Auschwitz-Birkenau
and make it safely to
Czechoslovakia. One
of them, Rudolf Vrba,
submits a report to the
Papal Nuncio in
Slovakia which is
forwarded to the
Vatican and received
there in mid June.
May 1944 - Himmler's
agents secretly
propose to the
western Allies to trade
Jews for trucks, other
commodities or
money.
- May 8, 1944 - Rudolf
Höss returns to
Auschwitz, ordered by
Himmler to oversee
the extermination of
Hungarian Jews.
- May 9, 1944 - Soviet
Troops Recapture
Sevastopol!
- May 11, 1944 –
Allied Forces Attack
the Gustav Line
South of Rome.
- May 15, 1944 –
German Forces
Withdraw to the
Adolf Hitler Line!
- May 15, 1944 – Start
of deportation of Jews
from Hungary to
Auschwitz.
- May 16, 1944 - Jews
from Hungary arrive at
Auschwitz. Eichmann
arrives to oversee and
speed up the
extermination
process. By May 24,
100,000 people have
been gassed.
Between May 16 and
May 31, the SS report
collecting 88 pounds
of gold and white
metal from the teeth of
those gassed. By the
end of June, 381,661
persons arrive at
Auschwitz.
1944 May – June
- May-July1944 - The Nazis
send Hungarian Jew Joel
Brandt on a mission to try to
trade one million Jews to the
Allies in exchange for ten
thousand trucks. The British
reject the offer.
1944 D-Day
landing on the beaches of
Normandy, massive air
attacks, naval
bombardments, the Allies
began to take control of the
beaches. In the evening
the remaining parachute
divisions landed. Known
- May 25, 1944 - Germany
as Operation Overlord,
Retreats From Anzio!
more than 850,000 troops
crossed the English
- June 1944 - Red Cross
Channel from the United
Delegation Visits
Kingdom to land on several
Theresienstadt. which Nazis beaches between June 6
have carefully prepared to get and the end of June, 1944.
a favorable report.
These forces came from
Canada, the Free French
- June 5, 1944 – Allied
Forces, the United
Forces Enter Rome!
Kingdom, and the United
States. Later, Polish forces
- June 6, 1944 – D-DAY!
also participated as did
Allied Forces Land in
contingents from Belgium,
France! Invasion begins
overnight with parachutes
and gliders landing behind
German lines. After an early
morning amphibious
1944 June
Summer of 1944
1944 July
1944 July
1944 July – Aug.
Czechoslovakia, Greece,
and the Netherlands. Most
of these countries also
provided air and naval
support, as well as the
Royal Australian Air Force,
Royal New Zealand Air
Force and the Royal
Norwegian Navy.
- June 13, 1944 Germans use new VI Rocket in Attack on
Britain!
- July 1944 - Swedish
diplomat Raoul
Wallenberg arrives in
Budapest, Hungary,
and saves nearly
33,000 Jews by
issuing diplomatic
papers and
establishing 'safe
houses.'
- July 28, 1944 Soviet Troops Take
Brest-Litovsk!
American Troops
Take Coutances!
- June 9, 1944 – Soviets
Launch Offensive against
Finnish Front.
- June 27, 1944 –
American Troops
Liberate Cherbourg!
negotiate an end to
the war. Nazis hunt
down many military
commanders and
suppress the
conspiracy to
overthrow Hitler.
Thousands were killed
or sent to
concentration camps
in retribution.
- June 10, 1944 - Nazis
Liquidate Town of
Oradour-sur-Glane in
France.
- Summer of 1944 Auschwitz-Birkenau
records highest-ever
daily number of
persons gassed and
burned: over 9,000.
Pits are used to burn
bodies, as number
exceeds the capacity
of crematories.
- July 24, 1944 –
Soviet Army
Liberates Death
Camp in Poland!
Majdanek becomes
the first death camp to
be liberated. Soviets
photograph the
horrors they find. Over
360,000 have been
murdered.
- Aug 6, 1944 – Lodz
Ghetto Liquidated:
Last ghetto in Poland:
60,000 Jews sent to
Auschwitz.
- June 12, 1944 - Hay
Action
The kidnapping of 40,000
Polish children aged ten to
fourteen for slave labor in
the Reich.
- June 22, 1944 Operation Bagration:
Soviet Summer
Offensive.
- Summer of 1944 –
Death Marches: As
Germany begins to
lose war, they destroy
camps & force ill &
starving Jews on
marches to Germany.
- July 3, 1944 Soviets capture Minsk!
'Battle of the
Hedgerows' in
Normandy.
- July 9, 1944 - Caen
Captured by
Canadian and British
Troops!
- July 18, 1944 American Troops
Reach St. Lô.
- July 20, 1944 German
Assassination
Attempt on Hitler
Fails. Those who plot
the coup in East
Prussia hope to
- July 25, 1944 Operation Cobra:
American forces fight
their way off the
beaches of Normandy
breaking out west of
St. Lô and move into
central France.
- Aug 1, 1944 Polish Home Army
Uprising in Warsaw!
American Troops
Reach Avranches.
- Aug 7, 1944 Germans Launch
Major Counter-attack
on Avranches!
- Aug 15, 1944 Operation Dragoon:
Allies Invade Southern
France.
- Aug 19, 1944 –
French Resistance
Uprising Paris!
1944 Aug. – Sept.
1944 Sept. – Oct.
1944 October
1944 Oct. – Nov.
1944 Nov. – Dec.
1944 December
1945 January
- Aug 19/20, 1944- Soviets
Begin Balkan offensive
with Attack on Romania!
- Sept 13, 1944 – U.S.
Troops Reach the Siegfried
Line.
- Oct 14, 1944 - Allies
Liberate Athens! Rommel
commits suicide.
- Oct 21, 1944 Massive German
Surrender at Aachen!
- Nov 24, 1944 French Capture
Strasbourg!
- Aug 20, 1944 – Allied
Troops Trap Germans in
Falaise Pocket!
- Sept 17, 1944 Operation Market
Garden: Allied Airborne
Assault on Holland!
- Oct 15, 1944 - Nazis
Seize Control of Hungarian
Government. As Soviets
approach the country, the
government of Miklos
Horthy announces a truce
with the Allied powers.
Horthy is overthrown and
replaced by the pro-Nazi
Arrow Cross Party. They
resume deportation of
Jews, which had
temporarily ceased due to
international political
pressure to stop Jewish
persecutions.
- Oct 28, 1944 -Last
transport of Jews
gassed, 2,000 from
Theresienstadt,
arrives at Auschwitz.
- Nov 25, 1944 Himmler orders the
destruction of the
crematories at
Auschwitz.
Allies, creating a huge
bulge in the Allied line,
but cannot break
through. The Allies
regroup and
counterattack,
eventually encircling
the Germans.
As Allies advance, the
Nazis conduct death
marches of
concentration camp
inmates away from
outlying areas.
- Aug 25, 1944 - Paris
Liberated!
- Sept 26, 1944 - Soviet
Troops Occupy Estonia!
- Aug 29, 1944 – Slovaks
Stage an Uprising!
- Oct 2, 1944 - Warsaw
Uprising Ends; Polish
- Aug 31, 1944 – Soviet Army Home Army Surrenders
Takes Bucharest!
Germans.
- Sept 1-4, 1944-Verdun,
Dieppe, Artois, Rouen,
Abbeville, Antwerp,
Brussels Liberated by
Allies!
- Sept 4, 1944 - Finland and
Soviet Union Agree to
Cease-fire!
- Oct 7, 1944 - A Revolt
by Sonderkommando
(Jewish slave laborers) at
Auschwitz-Birkenau results
in complete destruction of
Crematory IV.
- Oct 10-29 - Soviets
Capture Riga!
- Oct 17, 1944 – Adolph
Eichmann arrives in
Hungary.
- Oct 30, 1944 - Last
use of gas chambers
at Auschwitz.
- Nov 8, 1944 - Nazis
force 25,000 Jews to
walk over 100 miles in
rain and snow from
Budapest to the
Austrian border,
followed by a second
forced march of
50,000 persons,
ending at
Mauthausen.
- Dec 4, 1944 - Civil
War in Greece!
Athens placed under
martial law.
- Dec 16-27 - Battle
of the Bulge Begins
in the Ardennes. A
stalemate sets in
between Allies and
Germans in Western
Europe. In midDecember, taking
advantage of widely
spread out Allied
troops, reinforced
Nov 20, 1944 German armies attack
French Troops Break several positions,
Through 'Beffort
hoping to break
Gap'; Reach the
through and divide
Rhine!
Allied forces. The
Germans push hard
against the
- Dec 17, 1944 Waffen SS Murder 81
U.S. POWs at
Malmedy.
- Dec 26, 1944 –
General Patton
Relieves Bastogne.
- Jan 1-17 - Germans
withdraw from the
Ardennes.
- Jan 6, 1945 Soviets Liberate
Budapest! Over
80,000 Jews freed!
- Dec 27, 1944 Soviets Besiege
Budapest!
- Jan 14, 1945 Soviet Troops
Invade Eastern
Germany!
- Late 1944 - Oskar
Schindler saves 1200
Jews by moving them
from Plaszow labor
camp to his hometown
of Brunnlitz.
- Jan 16, 1945 - U.S.
1st & 3rd Armies
Link Up After month
long separation in
Battle of the Bulge.
- Jan 17, 1945 –
Soviets Liberate
Warsaw!
1945 January
Battle of Pacific
1945 February
1945 March
1945 Mar. – Apr.
1945 April
1945 April
- Jan 18, 1945 - Nazis
Evacuate 66,000 Prisoners
from Auschwitz. As Allied
troops advance, tens of
thousands of prisoners from
concentration camps are
forced to march to other
camps in Germany.
Thousands too weak to
march or who commit any
infraction during the march
are shot.
- Jan – Aug 1945 - The
Battle in the Pacific: U.S.
forces under General
MacArthur launch an
invasion to liberate the
Philippines. In the battle to
take Manila, Japanese
burn parts of the city and
massacre many citizens.
This Japanese resistance
draws in American artillery,
which further destroys the
city and kills more civilians.
In early March Americans
take control of the city,
after more than 100,000
Filipinos have been killed.
In the countryside, the
Japanese continue to fight
a drawn-out battle in the
mountains, until after the
war ends and the emperor
orders Japanese forces to
surrender.
- Feb. 1, 1945 -U.S. State
Department Declares
Perpetrators of Crimes
Against Jews Will be
Punished!
- March-April, 1945 Allied Forces Cross
the Rhine! Within a
week, British Field
Marshall Montgomery
has moved thousands
of troops and tanks
across the river.
Unable to move
toward Berlin,
because agreements
made by political
leaders at Yalta had
given the Soviets the
right to capture Berlin,
U.S. General
Eisenhower orders
Montgomery to move
towards N. Germany.
- March – August,
1945 – American
forces begin to use
napalm in the Pacific.
- April 4, 1945 Ohrdruf Camp
Liberated!
April 16, 1945 Americans Enter
Nuremberg!
- April 10, 1945 Allies Liberate
Buchenwald!
April 18, 1945 German Forces in
the Ruhr Surrender!
- April 12, 1945 –
American President
Roosevelt dies of
massive cerebral
hemorrhage after
more than 12 years in
office. Vice President
Harry S. Truman is
sworn in as President.
- March 6, 1945 –
Germans Attempt to
Secure Hungarian
Oil Fields. In their
final offensive of the
war Germany begins
to defend oil fields in
Hungary.
April 1945 - Allies
Uncover Stolen Nazi
Artworks and other
wealth hidden away in
salt mines.
- April 23, 1945 Soviet Troops Attack
Berlin! In the final
Soviet offensive
against Berlin, though
outnumbered by
Soviet troops, many
Germans fight
fanatically, fearing
Nazis among them as
well as Soviet
soldiers. In two weeks
the Soviets lose
100,000 men,
Germans lose
thousands as well.
- Jan 27, 1945 - Soviet
Troops Liberate Auschwitz!
An estimated 2,000,000
persons, including 1,500,000
Jews, have been murdered.
Although only a few thousand
remain, since the evacuation.
- Feb - Mar 1945 - British,
Canadian, and U.S. troops
launch multi-pronged
attack to reach the Rhine
River. Allied forces meet
moderate resistance from
German troops largely
retreat.
- Feb 4-11 - Roosevelt,
Churchill, and Stalin Meet
at Yalta to discuss plans for
postwar Germany, the
entry of the Soviets in the
war against Japan, and the
formation of the United
Nations.
- Feb 13/14 - Dresden
Destroyed in Firestorm!
- March 7, 1945 Allies Capture
Cologne! and build a
bridge across the
Rhine at Remagen.
- March 9-10, 1945 U.S. Bombs Ignite
Firestorm in Tokyo!
84,000 people killed.
U.S. bombing
destroys major cities,
killing over 100,000
more civilians, but
Japan does not
surrender.
- March 30, 1945 Soviets Capture
Danzig!
- April 1, 1945 – U.S.
Forces Surround
Germans in the
Ruhr! Allies Launch
Offensive in N. Italy.
- April 15, 1945 –
British Free 40,000
Prisoners at BergenBelsen! Liberators
report "both inside and
outside the huts was a
carpet of dead bodies,
human excreta, rags
and filth."
April 28, 1945 Mussolini Captured!
Hanged by Italian
Partisans! Allies
Take Venice!
Apr. 30, 1945 –Hitler
shoots himself while
in his bunker.
1945 May
1945 May - July
1945 July – Aug.
1945 August
1945 Sept. – Nov.
Dec.’45 –Mar 1946
1946 Oct. – Dec.
May 2, 1945 - Red Cross
Takes Over Theresienstadt.
- May 23, 1945 - SS
Reichsführer Himmler
Commits Suicide.German
High Command and
Provisional Government
Imprisoned.
- July 16 – August 2,
1945 Potsdam
Conference: America
Gives Japan Ultimatum
to Surrender. Truman,
Churchill, and Stalin meet
to discuss how postwar
Germany will be governed.
During the meeting, British
elections remove Churchill
from office and Clement
Attlee is the new prime
minister.
The bomb kills as
many as 70,000
people the day it is
dropped, another
70,000 died from
injuries or illness due
to exposure to
radiation released by
the bombs.
Sept 2, 1945 Japanese Sign
Surrender Agreement!
V-J Day! (Victory
over Japan)
- Dec 20, 1945 The military
governors of the
four occupation
zones of Germany
agree that
individual zones
can establish
courts to try Nazi
war criminals.
- Oct 1, 1946 - The
Nuremberg court issues
its first verdicts: eleven
of the twenty-one
defendants are
sentenced to death.
Those condemned to
death are executed on
October 16.
May 2, 1945 - German
Troops in Italy Surrender!
- May 5, 1945 - Mauthausen
Liberated!
- May 7, 1945 Unconditional German
Surrender! signed by Gen.
Jodl at Reims.
- May 8, 1945 - V-E Day!
(Victory in Europe)
- May 9, 1945 - Hermann
Göring Captured by
Members of U.S. 7th Army!
- June 5, 1945 - Allies
Divide up Germany and
Berlin and Take Over
Government.
- June 26, 1945 - United
Nations Charter Signed
in San Francisco 50
Nations Sign UN Charter.
- July 1, 1945 - U.S.,
British, and French
Troops Move into Berlin.
- July 16, 1945 –
Americans Test Atomic
Bomb!
- July 26, 1945 - Atlee
Succeeds Churchill as
British Prime Minister.
- Aug 6, 1945 – United
States Drops Atomic Bomb
on Hiroshima, Japan! After
six months of intense
firebombing of 67
Japanese cities, U.S.
bombs Hiroshima.
- Aug 8, 1945 –
Soviet Union Declares
War on Japan!
Soviets Invade
Manchuria.
Aug 9, 1945 –
Second Atomic Bomb
Dropped on
Nagasaki, Japan!
Aug 12, 1945 Japanese Agree to
Unconditional
Surrender!
POST WW II
- September 20,
1945 - Jewish Agency
for Palestine makes
first formal claim for
reparations to Jewish
victims of the Nazis.
Oct 24, 1945 - United
Nations is Officially
Born.
- Nov 20, 1945 Nuremberg
International Military
Tribunal: Nazi war
crimes trials begin.
1946----------- Jan 1946 – First
sessions of UN
General Assembly
and Security
Council held in
London.
- March 11, 1946 Auschwitz
Kommandant
Höss Arrested By
British. He testifies
at Nuremberg, is
later tried in
Warsaw, found
guilty and hanged
at Auschwitz, April
16, 1947, near
Crematory I.
- Oct 16, 1946 - Göring
Commits Suicide! Two
hours before the
scheduled execution of
the first group of major
Nazi war criminals at
Nuremberg, he swallows
poison
- Dec 9, 1946 - 23
Former SS Doctors and
Scientists Go on Trial!
16 of 23 SS Doctors and
Scientists are found
guilty before a U.S.
Military Tribunal at
Nuremberg. Seven will
be hanged.
1947 Post - War
- Feb 14, 1947 - Britain
again suggests a threeway division of Palestine,
both Arabs and Jews
reject it. The British
renounce their mandate in
Palestine and turn the
region over to the United
Nations.
1948
- May 14, 1948 Israel Declares
Independence!
Israel is
recognized by
the U.S. and
USSR. The next
day, Israel's
Arab neighbors,
Lebanon, Syria,
- Sept 15, 1947 – 21
Iraq, Jordan,
Former SS Einsatz
and Egypt,
Leaders on Trial before
attack the new
U.S. Military Tribunal in
country and
Nuremberg. 14 are
encourage
sentenced to death, only 4 Palestinian
commanders are
Arabs to
executed. The other death evacuate their
sentences are commuted. homes in order
to facilitate the
- Nov 29, 1947 - UN
Arab attack.
votes to partition
Palestine into 2 states:
Jewish and Arab.
Jerusalem is a neutral
city. Jews and Arabs build
up military, and there are
frequent attacks between
the two sides.
1949
1951 - 1952
1956 - 1960
1961-1963
- July 1949 - IsraeliArab War Ends! UN
negotiates
agreements between
Israel and neighbor
states. Israel wins
over half the
Palestinian Arab
territory and denies
Palestinians the right
to return to homes
they had evacuated.
500,000 Palestinian
refugees remain in
other countries. Many
Jews in Arab
countries immigrate,
voluntarily or forcibly,
to Israel. First
elections are held in
Israel. UN admits
Israel as a member.
- Jan. - Mar., 1951 Israel asks the
occupation powers in
Germany to facilitate
German restitution of
Jewish property in
Germany and present an
estimate of German
reparation obligations to
Jews.
- Oct., 1956 - Egypt
nationalizes the
Suez Canal and
denies Israel access
to water routes. Israel,
France, and Britain
attack Egypt, seize
the Gaza Strip and
Sinai Peninsula. The
UN implements a
cease-fire with UN
troops. France,
Britain, and Israel
withdraw from Egypt,
but Israel continues to
occupy Gaza until it
receives security
assurances.
Apr 11 - Aug 14/61
Eichmann Stands Trial
in Jerusalem for crimes
against the Jewish
people, crimes against
humanity and war
crimes. He is found
guilty and hanged on
May 31, 1962
- Sept 27, 1951:
Chancellor Konrad
Adenauer, speaking to
the West German
parliament, formally
accepts German
responsibility for Nazi
war crimes and the
obligation to make
restitution.
- Sept 10, 1952 Adenauer and Israeli
foreign minister Moshe
Sharett sign a
reparations agreement
between West Germany
and Israel.
- May 1, 1960 - Adolf
Eichmann Captured in
Argentina by Israeli
Secret Service!
- Dec., 1963- In
Frankfurt, 22 former
SS members are tried
for war crimes. 17 are
convicted.
Sources:
Anne Frank House. Anne Frank
House: A House with a Story.
(CD-ROM) Anne Frank
House, 2000.
Kramer, Anne. Anne Frank: The
Young Writer Who Told the
World the Story. Washington,
D.C., USA: National
Geographic Society, 2007.
http://www.history
place.com/worldwar
2/holocaust/timeline. html
http://www.history
place.com/worldwar
2/timeline/ww2time. htm
www.pbs.org/ausch
witz/learning/timeline/
http://www.wies enthal.com Simon
Wiesenthal Center