THE NAZI TERROR BEGINS
After Hitler became chancellor of Germany, he persuaded his cabinet to declare a state of emergency and end many
individual freedoms. Here, police search a vehicle for arms. Berlin, Germany, February 27, 1933.
— National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Md.
After Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany in January 1933, he moved quickly to turn Germany into a
one-party dictatorship and to organize the police power necessary to enforce Nazi policies. He persuaded his
Cabinet to declare a state of emergency and end individual freedoms, including freedom of press, speech, and
assembly. Individuals lost the right to privacy, which meant that officials could read people's mail, listen in on
telephone conversations, and search private homes without a warrant.
Hitler also relied on terror to achieve his goals. Lured by the wages, a feeling of comradeship, and the striking
uniforms, tens of thousands of young jobless men put on the brown shirts and high leather boots of the Nazi
Storm Troopers (Sturmabteilungen).Called the SA, these auxiliary policemen took to the streets to beat up and
kill some opponents of the Nazi regime. Mere fear of the SA pressured into silence other Germans who did not
support the Nazis.
Key Dates
MARCH 31, 1933
NAZI GOVERNORS APPOINTED TO GOVERN GERMAN STATES
Adolf Hitler replaces elected officials in state governments with Nazi appointees. One of the first steps in
establishing centralized Nazi control in Germany is the elimination of state governments. Hermann Goering, a
leading Nazi, becomes minister-president of Prussia, the largest German state. By 1935, state administrations
are transferred to the central government in Berlin.
MAY 2, 1933
NAZIS SEIZE CONTROL OF TRADE UNIONS
Storm Troopers (SA) and police occupy the offices of trade unions. Trade union officials and activists are
terrorized. The trade unions' records are impounded and their assets seized. The unions are forcibly merged
with the Nazi organization, the German Labor Front. Independent labor representation is thus abolished.
JULY 14, 1933
NAZI PARTY BECOMES THE STATE PARTY
All political parties except the Nazi party are dissolved. The Nazi party is the only political party permitted in
Germany, a situation that will last until the military defeat of Germany in 1945. Germany thus becomes a oneparty dictatorship. Membership in the party increases to 2.5 million in 1935, and ultimately to 8.5 million by
1945.
JULY 20, 1933
ADOLF HITLER SIGNS CONCORDAT (AGREEMENT) WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
A treaty between the German government and the Vatican (the highest authority in the Roman Catholic
church) guarantees Catholics the freedom of private religious practice, but dissolves Catholic political and
trade union organizations. The Vatican (which had the status of a sovereign state) was the first state to
recognize formally the legitimacy of Adolf Hitler's government. Despite the treaty, the Nazis continue to
persecute Catholic religious and cultural organizations, priests, and schools.
THE MURDER OF THE HANDICAPPED
Hartheim castle, a euthanasia killing center where people with physical and mental disabilities were killed by gassing and
lethal injection. Hartheim, Austria, date uncertain.
— US Holocaust Memorial Museum
Wartime, Adolf Hitler suggested, "was the best time for the elimination of the incurably ill." Many Germans did
not want to be reminded of individuals who did not measure up to their concept of a "master race." The
physically and mentally handicapped were viewed as "useless" to society, a threat to Aryan genetic purity, and,
ultimately, unworthy of life. At the beginning of World War II, individuals who were mentally retarded, physically
handicapped, or mentally ill were targeted for murder in what the Nazis called the "T-4," or "euthanasia,"
program.
The "euthanasia" program required the cooperation of many German doctors, who reviewed the medical files
of patients in institutions to determine which handicapped or mentally ill individuals should be killed. The
doctors also supervised the actual killings. Doomed patients were transferred to six institutions in Germany and
Austria, where they were killed in specially constructed gas chambers. Handicapped infants and small children
were also killed by injection with a deadly dose of drugs or by starvation. The bodies of the victims were
burned in large ovens calledcrematoria.
Despite public protests in 1941, the Nazi leadership continued this program in secret throughout the war. About
200,000 handicapped people were murdered between 1940 and 1945.
The T-4 program became the model for the mass murder of Jews, Roma (Gypsies), and others in camps
equipped with gas chambers that the Nazis would open in 1941 and 1942. The program also served as a
training ground for SS members who manned these camps.
Key Dates
OCTOBER 1939
HITLER AUTHORIZES KILLING OF THE IMPAIRED
Adolf Hitler authorizes the beginning of the "euthanasia" program -- the systematic killing of those Germans
whom the Nazis deem "unworthy of life." The order is backdated to the beginning of the war (September 1,
1939). At first, doctors and staff in hospitals are encouraged to neglect patients. Thus, patients die of starvation
and diseases. Later, groups of "consultants" visit hospitals and decide who will die. Those patients are sent to
various "euthanasia" killing centers in Greater Germany and killed by lethal injection or in gas chambers.
AUGUST 3, 1941
CATHOLIC BISHOP DENOUNCES EUTHANASIA
By 1941, the supposedly secret "euthanasia" program is generally known about in Germany. Bishop Clemens
August Graf von Galen of Muenster denounces the killings in a public sermon on August 3, 1941. Other public
figures and clergy will also raise objections to the killings.
AUGUST 24, 1941
HITLER OFFICIALLY ORDERS END TO "EUTHANASIA" KILLINGS
Mounting public criticism of the "euthanasia" killings prompts Adolf Hitler to order the end of the program. Gas
chambers in the various "euthanasia" killing centers are dismantled. By this time, about 70,000 German and
Austrian physically or mentally impaired patients have been killed. Although the "euthanasia" program is
officially ended, the killing of physically or mentally impaired people continues in secret in individual cases.
THE "NIGHT OF BROKEN GLASS"
As the synagogue in Oberramstadt burns during Kristallnacht (the "Night of Broken Glass"), firefighters instead save a
nearby house. Local residents watch as the synagogue is destroyed. Oberramstadt, Germany, November 9-10, 1938.
— US Holocaust Memorial Museum
On the night of November 9, 1938, violence against Jews broke out across the Reich. It appeared to be
unplanned, set off by Germans' anger over the assassination of a German official in Paris at the hands of a
Jewish teenager. In fact, German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and other Nazis carefully organized
the pogroms. In two days, over 250 synagogues were burned, over 7,000 Jewish businesses were trashed and
looted, dozens of Jewish people were killed, and Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, schools, and homes were
looted while police and fire brigades stood by. The pogroms became known as Kristallnacht, the "Night of
Broken Glass," for the shattered glass from the store windows that littered the streets.
The morning after the pogroms 30,000 German Jewish men were arrested for the "crime" of being Jewish and
sent to concentration camps, where hundreds of them perished. Some Jewish women were also arrested and
sent to local jails. Businesses owned by Jews were not allowed to reopen unless they were managed by nonJews. Curfews were placed on Jews, limiting the hours of the day they could leave their homes.
After the "Night of Broken Glass,"life was even more difficult for German and Austrian Jewish children and
teenagers. Already barred from entering museums, public playgrounds, and swimming pools, now they were
expelled from the public schools. Jewish youngsters, like their parents, were totally segregated in Germany. In
despair, many Jewish adults committed suicide. Most families tried desperately to leave.
Key Dates
OCTOBER 28, 1938
GERMANY EXPELS POLISH JEWS
About 17,000 Polish Jews are expelled by Germany and forced across the border with Poland. Poland refuses
to allow the Jews to enter. Most of the deportees are stranded in the no-man's-land between Germany and
Poland near the town of Zbaszyn. Among the deportees are the parents of Herschel Grynszpan, a 17-year-old
Polish Jew living in Paris, France.
NOVEMBER 7, 1938
GERMAN DIPLOMAT SHOT IN PARIS
Herschel Grynszpan, a 17-year-old Polish Jew living in Paris, shoots Ernst vom Rath, a diplomat attached to
the German embassy in Paris. Grynszpan apparently acts out of despair over the fate of his parents, who are
trapped along with other Polish Jewish deportees in a no-man’s-land between Germany and Poland. The
Nazis use the shooting to fan antisemitic fervor, claiming that Grynszpan did not act alone, but was part of a
wider Jewish conspiracy against Germany. Vom Rath dies two days later.
NOVEMBER 9, 1938
JOSEPH GOEBBELS DEMANDS RADICAL ACTION
German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels delivers a passionate antisemitic speech to the Nazi party
faithful in Munich. The party members are gathered in commemoration of the abortive Nazi Putsch of 1923
(Adolf Hitler’s first attempt to seize power). After the speech, Nazi officials order the Storm Troopers (SA) and
other party formations to attack Jews and to destroy their homes, businesses, and houses of worship. The
violence against Jews lasts into the morning hours of November 10th, and becomes known as Kristallnacht-the "Night of Broken Glass." Several dozen Jews lose their lives and tens of thousands are arrested and sent
to concentration camps.
NOVEMBER 12, 1938
NAZIS FINE JEWISH COMMUNITY
The Nazi state imposes a fine of one billion Reichsmarks($400,000,000) on the Jewish community in
Germany. Jews are ordered to clean up and make repairs after the pogrom. They are barred from collecting
insurance for the damages. Instead, the state confiscates payments owed by insurers to Jewish property
holders. In the aftermath of the pogrom, Jews are systematically excluded from all areas of public life in
Germany.
LOCATING THE VICTIMS
In 1939, the German government conducted a census of all persons living in Germany. Census takers
recorded each person's age, sex, residence, profession, religion, and marital status, and for the first time, they
also listed the person's race as traced through his or her grandparents. This information was later punched into
coded cards by thousands of clerks.
The cards were sorted and counted by the Hollerith machine, an early version of the modern computer. The
Hollerith was invented in 1884 by a German-American engineer, Herman Hollerith. The machine was used in
the United States and by most European governments for processing census data in the late 1800s and early
1900s. The Holleriths used by the Germans were developed by a German branch of the American company
later known as International Business Machines (IBM).
The information from the 1939 census helped Nazi official Adolf Eichmann to create the Jewish Registry,
containing detailed information on all Jews living in Germany. The Registry also recorded the names of Jews in
Austria and the Sudetenland of western Czechoslovakia, which were occupied by German troops in 1938 and
1939 and made part of the Reich (German empire). Nazi racial ideology and policies did not stop at Germany's
borders.
Technology and information that were under other circumstances helpful tools became, under the Nazi regime,
a means of locating victims.
Key Dates
APRIL 7, 1933
JEWS ARE IDENTIFIED AND REMOVED FROM GOVERNMENT POSTS
Two months after Adolf Hitler's appointment as chancellor, the purge of the administration begins with
legislation passed on April, 1933. The legislation includes an "Aryan Paragraph" providing for the removal of
Jews from various spheres of society. All government employees must show documentation of their "Aryan"
descent. For the first time, legislation defines who is considered Jewish. Those employees with Jewish parents
or grandparents are removed from their posts. Jews who served at the front in World War I or whose
immediate family members had fallen in the conflict are exempted until 1935, when they too are removed. The
"Aryan Paragraph," identifying and removing Jews, is soon applied to all spheres of public life in Germany.
AUGUST 17, 1938
JEWS REQUIRED TO ASSUME "JEWISH" NAME
The German government requires all Jews in Germany whose first name is not immediately recognizable as
Jewish to add a "Jewish" name following their first name. Men are required to add "Israel" and women "Sara."
In October, the German government confiscates all passports held by Jews. New passports issued to Jews
have a "J" stamped on them, indicating that the holder is Jewish.
SEPTEMBER 19, 1941
BADGE IDENTIFYING JEWS INTRODUCED IN GERMANY
Jews over the age of six in Germany are required to wear a yellow, six-pointed star with the word "Jude"
(German for "Jew") across the front in black, sewn to their outer clothing at all times. Jews are now identifiable
on sight in Germany. Systematic deportations of Jews from Germany begin in October. In March 1942, Jews
are also required to display the star symbol on their residences.
LIFE IN THE GHETTOS
In the Warsaw ghetto, Jewish children with bowls of soup. Warsaw, Poland, ca. 1940.
— Instytut Pamieci Narodowej
Life in the ghettos was usually unbearable. Overcrowding was common. One apartment might have several
families living in it. Plumbing broke down, and human waste was thrown in the streets along with the garbage.
Contagious diseases spread rapidly in such cramped, unsanitary housing. People were always hungry.
Germans deliberately tried to starve residents by allowing them to purchase only a small amount of bread,
potatoes, and fat. Some residents had some money or valuables they could trade for food smuggled into the
ghetto; others were forced to beg or steal to survive. During the long winters, heating fuel was scarce, and
many people lacked adequate clothing. People weakened by hunger and exposure to the cold became easy
victims of disease; tens of thousands died in the ghettos from illness, starvation, or cold. Some individuals
killed themselves to escape their hopeless lives.
Every day children became orphaned, and many had to take care of even younger children. Orphans often
lived on the streets, begging for bits of bread from others who had little or nothing to share. Many froze to
death in the winter.
In order to survive, children had to be resourceful and make themselves useful. Small children in the Warsaw
ghetto sometimes helped smuggle food to their families and friends by crawling through narrow openings in the
ghetto wall. They did so at great risk, as smugglers who were caught were severely punished.
Many young people tried to continue their education by attending school classes organized by adults in many
ghettos. Since such classes were usually held secretly, in defiance of the Nazis, pupils learned to hide books
under their clothes when necessary, to avoid being caught.
Although suffering and death were all around them, children did not stop playing with toys. Some had beloved
dolls or trucks they brought into the ghetto with them. Children also made toys, using whatever bits of cloth and
wood they could find. In the Lodz ghetto, children turned the tops of empty cigarette boxes into playing cards.
Key Dates
FEBRUARY 8, 1940
LODZ JEWS ORDERED INTO GHETTO
The Germans order the establishment of a ghetto in the northeastern section of Lodz. Over 160,000 Jews,
more than a third of the entire population of Lodz, are forced into a small area of the city. The Jews of Lodz
formed, after Warsaw, the second largest Jewish community in prewar Poland. The Lodz ghetto is separated
from the rest of the city by barbed-wire fencing. The ghetto area is divided into three parts by the intersection of
two major roads, which are excluded from the ghetto. Footbridges are constructed to connect the three
segments of the ghetto. Streetcars for the non-Jewish population of Lodz traverse the ghetto but are not
permitted to stop within it. Living conditions in the ghetto are horrible. Most of the area does not have running
water or a sewer system. Hard labor, overcrowding, and starvation are the dominant features of life.
JANUARY 16, 1942
LODZ JEWS DEPORTED TO CHELMNO KILLING CENTER
Deportations from the Lodz ghetto to the Chelmno killing center begin. German police will carry out roundups
in the ghetto. Hundreds of Jews, mainly children, the elderly, and the sick, are killed on the spot during the
deportations. By September 1942, over 70,000 Jews and about 5,000 Roma (Gypsies) will have been
deported to Chelmno, where they are killed in mobile gas vans (trucks with hermetically sealed compartments
that serve as gas chambers).
JUNE 23, 1944
GERMANS RESUME DEPORTATIONS FROM LODZ GHETTO
Between September 1942 and May 1944, there are no major deportations from Lodz. The ghetto resembles a
forced-labor camp. In the spring of 1944, the Nazis decide to destroy the Lodz ghetto. By then, Lodz is the last
remaining ghetto in Poland, with a population of about 75,000 Jews. On June 23, 1944, the Germans resume
deportations from Lodz. About 7,000 Jews are deported to Chelmno and killed. The deportations continue in
July and August; most of the remaining ghetto population is deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination
camp. The Lodz ghetto is eliminated.
AT THE KILLING CENTERS
A column of prisoners arrives at the Belzec extermination camp. Belzec, Poland, ca. 1942.
— Instytut Pamieci Narodowej
After deportation trains arrived at the killing centers, guards ordered the deportees to get out and form a line.
The victims then went through a selection process. Men were separated from women and children. A Nazi,
usually an SS physician, looked quickly at each person to decide if he or she was healthy and strong enough
for forced labor. This SS officer then pointed to the left or the right; victims did not know that individuals were
being selected to live or die. Babies and young children, pregnant women, the elderly, the handicapped, and
the sick had little chance of surviving this first selection.
Those who had been selected to die were led to gas chambers. In order to prevent panic, camp guards told the
victims that they were going to take showers to rid themselves of lice. The guards instructed them to turn over
all their valuables and to undress. Then they were driven naked into the "showers." A guard closed and locked
the steel door. In some killing centers, carbon monoxide was piped into the chamber. In others, camp guards
threw "Zyklon B" pellets down an air shaft. Zyklon B was a highly poisonous insecticide also used to kill rats
and insects.
Usually within minutes after entering the gas chambers, everyone inside was dead from lack of oxygen. Under
guard, prisoners were forced to haul the corpses to a nearby room, where they removed hair, gold teeth, and
fillings. The bodies were burned in ovens in the crematoria or buried in mass graves.
Many people profited from the pillage of corpses. Camp guards stole some of the gold. The rest was melted
down and deposited in an SS bank account. Private business firms bought and used the hair to make many
products, including ship rope and mattresses.
Key Dates
OCTOBER 1939
GERMANS BEGIN KILLING OF THE IMPAIRED
The systematic killing begins of those Germans whom the Nazis deem "unworthy of life." Groups of
"consultants" visit hospitals and nursing homes and decide who is to die. Selected patients are sent to one of
six gassing installations established as part of the "Euthanasia" Program: Bernburg, Brandenburg, Grafeneck,
Hadamar, Hartheim, and Sonnenstein. These patients are killed in gas chambers using carbon monoxide gas.
The experts who participated in the "Euthanasia" Program are later instrumental in establishing and operating
the extermination camps.
DECEMBER 8, 1941
FIRST KILLING CENTER BEGINS OPERATION
The Chelmno extermination camp begins operation. The Nazis later establish five other such camps: Belzec,
Sobibor, Treblinka, Auschwitz-Birkenau (part of the Auschwitz complex), and Majdanek. Victims at Chelmno
are killed in gas vans (hermetically sealed trucks with engine exhaust diverted to the interior compartment).
The Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka camps use carbon monoxide gas generated by stationary engines
attached to gas chambers. Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest of the killing centers, has four large gas chambers
using Zyklon B (crystalline hydrogen cyanide) as the killing agent. The gas chambers at Majdanek use both
carbon monoxide and Zyklon B. Millions of Jews are killed in the gas chambers in the extermination camps as
part of the "Final Solution."
JUNE 22, 1944
FIRST GASSING AT RAVENSBRUECK CONCENTRATION CAMP
The first documented gassing at the women's camp at Ravensbrueck occurs. The gas chambers at
Ravensbrueck and at other camps that were not designed specifically as killing centers -- including Stutthof,
Mauthausen, and Sachsenhausen -- are relatively small. These gas chambers were constructed to kill those
prisoners the Nazis deemed "unfit" for work. Most of these camps used Zyklon B in their gas chambers.
AUSCHWITZ
Barracks in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. This photograph was taken after the liberation of the camp. AuschwitzBirkenau, Poland, after January 29, 1945.
— National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Md.
Auschwitz was the largest camp established by the Germans. It was a complex of camps, including a
concentration, extermination, and forced-labor camp. It was located near Cracow (Krakow), Poland. Three
large camps constituted the Auschwitz camp complex: Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II (Birkenau), and Auschwitz III
(Monowitz). More than one million people lost their lives at Auschwitz, nine out of ten of them Jewish. The four
largest gas chambers could each hold 2,000 people at one time.
A sign over the entrance to the camp read ARBEIT MACHT FREI, which means "work makes one free." In
actuality, the opposite was true. Labor became another form of genocide that the Nazis called "extermination
through work."
Victims who were spared immediate death by being selected for labor were systematically stripped of their
individual identities. They had their hair shaved off and a registration number tattooed on their left forearm.
Men were forced to wear ragged, striped pants and jackets, and women wore work dresses. Both were issued
ill-fitting work shoes, sometimes clogs. They had no change of clothing and slept in the same clothes they
worked in.
Each day was a struggle for survival under unbearable conditions. Prisoners were housed in primitive barracks
that had no windows and were not insulated from the heat or cold. There was no bathroom, only a bucket.
Each barrack held about 36 wooden bunkbeds, and inmates were squeezed in five or six across on the
wooden plank. As many as 500 inmates lodged in a single barrack.
Inmates were always hungry. Food consisted of watery soup made with rotten vegetables and meat, a few
ounces of bread, a bit of margarine, tea, or a bitter drink resembling coffee. Diarrhea was common. People
weakened by dehydration and hunger fell easy victim to the contagious diseases that spread through the
camp.
Some inmates worked as forced laborers inside the camp, in the kitchen or as barbers, for example. Women
often sorted the piles of shoes, clothes, and other prisoner belongings, which would be shipped back to
Germany for use there. The storage warehouses at Auschwitz-Birkenau, located near two of the crematoria,
were called "Canada," because the Poles regarded that country as a place of great riches. At Auschwitz, as at
hundreds of other camps in the Reich and occupied Europe where the Germans used forced laborers,
prisoners were also employed outside the camps, in coal mines and rock quarries, and on construction
projects, digging tunnels and canals. Under armed guard, they shoveled snow off roads and cleared rubble
from roads and towns hit during air raids. A large number of forced laborers eventually were used in factories
that produced weapons and other goods that supported the German war effort. Many private companies, such
as I. G. Farben and Bavarian Motor Works (BMW), which produced automobile and airplane engines, eagerly
sought the use of prisoners as a source of cheap labor.
Escape from Auschwitz was almost impossible. Electrically charged barbed-wire fences surrounded both the
concentration camp and the killing center. Guards, equipped with machine guns and automatic rifles, stood in
the many watchtowers. The lives of the prisoners were completely controlled by their guards, who on a whim
could inflict cruel punishment on them. Prisoners were also mistreated by fellow inmates who were chosen to
supervise the others in return for special favors by the guards.
Cruel "medical experiments" were conducted at Auschwitz. Men, women, and children were used as subjects.
SS physician Dr. Josef Mengele carried out painful and traumatic experiments on dwarfs and twins, including
young children. The aim of some experiments was to find better medical treatments for German soldiers and
airmen. Other experiments were aimed at improving methods of sterilizing people the Nazis considered
inferior.Many people died during the experiments. Others were killed after the "research" was completed and
their organs removed for further study.
Most prisoners at Auschwitz survived only a few weeks or months. Those who were too ill or too weak to work
were condemned to death in the gas chambers. Some committed suicide by throwing themselves against the
electric wires. Others resembled walking corpses, broken in body and spirit. Yet other inmates were
determined to stay alive.
Key Dates
MAY 20, 1940
AUSCHWITZ I CAMP OPENS
Auschwitz I, the main camp in the Auschwitz camp complex, is the first camp established near Oswiecim.
Construction began in May 1940 in the Zasole suburb of Oswiecim, in artillery barracks formerly used by the
Polish army. The camp is continuously expanded through the use of forced labor. Although Auschwitz I is
primarily a concentration camp, serving a penal function, it also has a gas chamber and crematorium. An
improvised gas chamber is located in the basement of the prison (Block 11). Later, a gas chamber is
constructed in the crematorium.
OCTOBER 8, 1941
CONSTRUCTION OF AUSCHWITZ II (BIRKENAU) BEGINS
Construction of Auschwitz II, or Auschwitz-Birkenau, begins in Brzezinka. Of the three camps established near
Oswiecim as part of the Auschwitz camp complex, Auschwitz-Birkenau has the largest prisoner population. It is
divided into nine sections separated by electrified barbed-wire fences and patrolled by SS guards and dogs.
The camp includes sections for women, men, Roma (Gypsies), and families deported from the Theresienstadt
ghetto. Auschwitz-Birkenau plays a central role in the German plan to exterminate the Jews of Europe. Four
large crematoria buildings are constructed between March and June 1943. Each has three components: a
disrobing area, a large gas chamber, and crematorium ovens. Gassing operations continue until November
1944.
OCTOBER 1942
AUSCHWITZ III CAMP OPENS
The Germans establish Auschwitz III, also called Buna or Monowitz, in Monowice to provide forced laborers for
the Buna synthetic rubber works (part of the German conglomerate I.G. Farben). I.G. Farben invested more
than 700 million Reichsmarks (about 1.4 million U.S. dollars in 1942) in Auschwitz III. Prisoners selected for
forced labor are registered and tattooed with identification numbers on their left arms in Auschwitz I. They are
then assigned to forced labor in Auschwitz or in one of the many subcamps attached to Auschwitz III.
JANUARY 27, 1945
SOVIET ARMY LIBERATES AUSCHWITZ CAMP COMPLEX
The Soviet army enters Auschwitz and liberates the remaining prisoners. Only a few thousand prisoners
remain in the camp. Almost 60,000 prisoners, mostly Jews, were forced on a death march from the camp
shortly before its liberation. During the forced evacuation of Auschwitz, prisoners were brutally mistreated and
many were killed. SS guards shot anyone who fell behind. During its brief existence, nearly 1 million Jews were
killed in Auschwitz. Other victims included between 70,000 and 74,000 Poles, 21,000 Roma (Gypsies), and
about 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war.
PRISONERS OF THE CAMPS
A chart of prisoner markings used in German concentration camps. Dachau, Germany, ca. 1938-1942.
— KZ Gedenkstaette Dachau
As the Jews were the main targets of Nazi genocide, the victims of the killing centers were overwhelmingly
Jewish. In the hundreds of forced-labor and concentration camps not equipped with gassing facilities, however,
other individuals from a broad range of backgrounds could also be found. Prisoners were required to wear
color-coded triangles on their jackets so that the guards and officers of the camps could easily identify each
person's background and pit the different groups against each other. Political prisoners, such as Communists,
Socialists, and trade unionists wore red triangles. Common criminals wore green. Roma (Gypsies) and others
the Germans considered "asocial" or "shiftless" wore black triangles. Jehovah's Witnesses wore purple and
homosexuals pink. Letters indicated nationality: for example, P stood for Polish, SU for Soviet Union, F for
French.
Captured Soviet soldiers worked as forced laborers, and many of these prisoners of war died because they
were executed or badly mistreated by the Germans. In all, over three million died at the hands of the Germans.
Twenty-three thousand German and Austrian Roma (Gypsies) were inmates of Auschwitz, and about 20,000 of
these were killed there. Romani (Gypsy) men, women, and children were confined together in a separate
camp. On the night of August 2, 1944, a large group of Roma was gassed in the destruction of the "Gypsy
family camp." Nearly 3,000 Roma were murdered, including most of the women and children. Some of the men
were sent to forced-labor camps in Germany where many died. Altogether, hundreds of thousands of Roma
from all over German-occupied Europe were murdered in camps and by mobile killing squads.
Political prisoners, Jehovah's Witnesses, and homosexuals were sent to concentration camps as punishment.
Members of these three groups were not targeted, as were Jews and Roma, for systematic murder.
Nevertheless, many died in the camps from starvation, disease, exhaustion, and brutal treatment.
Key Dates
JULY 1, 1937
MARTIN NIEMOELLER, CHURCH DISSIDENT LEADER, ARRESTED
Martin Niemoeller, one of main opponents of Nazi racial ideology in the Lutheran church and one of the
founders of the oppositional "Confessional Church," is arrested. He is sent to the Sachsenhausen
concentration camp in 1938 and spends the next seven years in concentration camps. After the war,
Niemoeller's condemnation of bystanders to Nazi policies will become a call to early action. His words: "First
they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the
trade unionists, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews,
and I did not speak out -- because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to
speak for me."
JUNE 6, 1941
GERMAN HIGH COMMAND ORDERS KILLING OF SOVIET COMMISSARS
Two weeks before the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the high command of the German armed forces
issues orders to screen Soviet prisoners of war (POWs) for Soviet commissars. The commissars are to be
handed over to the mobile killing squads (Einsatzgruppen) for immediate execution. Between June 22, 1941
and May 9, 1945, more than three million Soviet prisoners of war die in German custody. Most die from
starvation, disease, and exposure, although tens of thousands are shot as Communists, Jews, or "Asiatics."
AUGUST 2-3, 1944
"GYPSY CAMP" AT AUSCHWITZ CLOSED
Twenty-three thousand Roma (Gypsies) were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and placed in a separate
section of the camp. Conditions there were exceptionally bad. Almost all the Roma in Auschwitz were gassed,
worked to death, or victims of disease. The Nazis define Roma as racially inferior, and their fate closely
parallels that of Jews. On August 2-3, 1944, the "Gypsy camp" at Auschwitz-Birkenau is closed. The remaining
Romani (Gypsy) men, women, and children are killed in the gas chambers. Up to 220,000 Roma are killed in
the Holocaust.
DEATH MARCHES
Prisoners head south on a death march from the Dachau concentration camp. Gruenwald, Germany, April 29, 1945.
— KZ Gedenkstaette Dachau
Near the end of the war, when Germany's military force was collapsing, the Allied armies closed in on the Nazi
concentration camps. The Soviets approached from the east, and the British, French, and Americans from the
west. The Germans began frantically to move the prisoners out of the camps near the front and take them to
be used as forced laborers in camps inside Germany. Prisoners were first taken by train and then by foot on
"death marches," as they became known.
Prisoners were forced to march long distances in bitter cold, with little or no food, water, or rest. Those who
could not keep up were shot. The largest death marches took place in the winter of 1944-1945, when the
Soviet army began its liberation of Poland. Nine days before the Soviets arrived at Auschwitz, the Germans
marched tens of thousands of prisoners out of the camp toward Wodzislaw, a town thirty-five miles away,
where they were put on freight trains to other camps. About one in four died on the way.
The Nazis often killed large groups of prisoners before, during, or after marches. During one march, 7,000
Jewish prisoners, 6,000 of them women, were moved from camps in the Danzig region bordered on the north
by the Baltic Sea. On the ten-day march, 700 were murdered. Those still alive when the marchers reached the
shores of the sea were driven into the water and shot.
Key Dates
JANUARY 18, 1945
DEATH MARCHES FROM THE AUSCHWITZ CAMP SYSTEM BEGIN
The SS begins evacuating Auschwitz and its satellite camps. Nearly 60,000 prisoners are forced on death
marches from the Auschwitz camp system. Thousands are killed in the days before the death march. Tens of
thousands of prisoners, mostly Jews, are forced to march to the city of Wodzislaw in the western part of Upper
Silesia. SS guards shoot anyone who falls behind or cannot continue. More than 15,000 die during the death
marches from Auschwitz. In Wodzislaw, the prisoners are put on unheated freight trains and deported to
concentration camps in Germany, particularly to Flossenbuerg, Sachsenhausen, Gross-Rosen, Buchenwald,
Dachau, and Mauthausen. On January 27, 1945, the Soviet army enters Auschwitz and liberates the few
remaining prisoners.
JANUARY 25, 1945
THE EVACUATION AND DEATH MARCH FROM STUTTHOF CONCENTRATION CAMP
The evacuation of nearly 50,000 prisoners, the overwhelming majority of them Jews, begins from the Stutthof
camp system in northern Poland. About 5,000 prisoners from Stutthof subcamps are marched to the Baltic Sea
coast, forced into the water, and machine gunned. Other prisoners are put on a death march to Lauenburg in
eastern Germany, where they are cut off by advancing Soviet forces. The Germans force the prisoners back to
Stutthof. Marching in severe winter conditions and treated brutally by SS guards, thousands die during the
death march. In late April 1945, the remaining prisoners are removed from Stutthof by sea, since Stutthof is
completely encircled by Soviet forces. Again, hundreds of prisoners are forced into the sea and shot. Over
25,000 prisoners, one out of two, die during the evacuation from Stutthof. Soviet forces enter Stutthof on May
9, 1945.
APRIL 7, 1945
DEATH MARCH FROM BUCHENWALD CONCENTRATION CAMP
As American forces approach, the Nazis begin a mass evacuation of prisoners from the Buchenwald
concentration camp and its subcamps. Almost 30,000 prisoners are forced on death marches away from the
advancing American forces. About a third of these prisoners die during the marches. On April 11, 1945, the
surviving prisoners take control of the camp, shortly before American forces enter on the same day.
APRIL 26, 1945
DEATH MARCH FROM DACHAU CONCENTRATION CAMP
Just three days before the liberation of the Dachau camp, the SS forces about 7,000 prisoners on a death
march from Dachau south to Tegernsee. During the six-day death march, anyone who cannot keep up or
continue is shot. Many others die of exposure, hunger, or exhaustion. American forces liberate the Dachau
concentration camp on April 29, 1945. In early May 1945, American troops liberate the surviving prisoners from
the death march to Tegernsee.
THE SURVIVORS
View of the Zeilsheim displaced persons camp. Zeilsheim, Germany, 1945.
— National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Md.
For the survivors, returning to life as it had been before the Holocaust was impossible. Jewish communities no
longer existed in much of Europe. When people tried to return to their homes from camps or hiding places,
they found that, in many cases, their homes had been looted or taken over by others.
Returning home was also dangerous. After the war, anti-Jewish riots broke out in several Polish cities. The
largest anti-Jewish pogrom took place in July 1946 in Kielce, a city in southeastern Poland. When 150 Jews
returned to the city, people living there feared that hundreds more would come back to reclaim their houses
and belongings. Age-old antisemitic myths, such as Jews' ritual murders of Christians, arose once again. After
a rumor spread that Jews had killed a Polish boy to use his blood in religious rituals, a mob attacked the group
of survivors. The rioters killed 41 people and wounded 50 more. News of the Kielce pogrom spread rapidly,
and Jews realized that there was no future for them in Poland.
Many survivors ended up in displaced persons' (DP) camps set up in western Europe under Allied military
occupation at the sites of former concentration camps . There they waited to be admitted to places like the
United States, South Africa, or Palestine. At first, many countries continued their old immigration policies,
which greatly limited the number of refugees they would accept. The British government, which controlled
Palestine, refused to let large numbers of Jews in. Many Jews tried to enter Palestine without legal papers, and
when caught some were held in camps on the island of Cyprus, while others were deported back to Germany.
Great Britain's scandalous treatment of Jewish refugees added to international pressures for a homeland for
the Jewish people. Finally, the United Nations voted to divide Palestine into a Jewish and Arab state. Early in
1948, the British began withdrawing from Palestine. On May 14, 1948, one of the leading voices for a Jewish
homeland, David Ben-Gurion, announced the formation of the State of Israel. After this, Jewish refugee ships
freely landed in the seaports of the new nation. The United States also changed its immigration policy to allow
more Jewish refugees to enter.
Although many Jewish survivors were able to build new lives in their adopted countries, many non-Jewish
victims of Nazi policies continued to be persecuted in Germany. Laws which discriminated against Roma
(Gypsies) continued to be in effect until 1970 in some parts of the country. The law used in Nazi Germany to
imprison homosexuals remained in effect until 1969.
Key Dates
AUGUST 3, 1945
HARRISON ISSUES REPORT ON JEWS IN GERMANY
U.S. special envoy Earl Harrison heads a delegation to the displaced persons' camps in Germany. Following
World War II, several hundred thousand Jewish survivors are unable to return to their home countries and
remain in Germany, Austria, or Italy. The Allies establish camps for displaced persons (DPs) for the refugees.
Most Jewish DPs prefer to emigrate to Palestine but many also seek entry into the United States. They remain
in the DP camps until they can leave Europe. Harrison's report underscores the plight of Jewish DPs and leads
to improved conditions in the camps. At the end of 1946 the number of Jewish DPs is estimated at 250,000.
JULY 11, 1947
REFUGEE SHIP SAILS FOR PALESTINE DESPITE BRITISH RESTRICTIONS
Many Jewish DPs seek to emigrate to Palestine, despite existing British emigration restrictions. (In 1920, Great
Britain received a mandate from the League of Nations to administer Palestine, and administered the territory
until 1948.) Despite the restrictions, the refugee ship Exodus leaves southern France for Palestine, carrying
4,500 Jewish refugees from DP camps in Germany. The British intercept the ship even before it enters
territorial waters off the coast of Palestine. The passengers are forcibly transferred to British ships and
deported back to their port of origin in France. For almost a month the British hold the refugees aboard ship, at
anchor off the French coast. The French reject the British demand to land the passengers. Ultimately, the
British take the refugees to Hamburg, Germany, and forcibly return them to DP camps. The fate of the refugee
ship Exodus dramatizes the plight of Holocaust survivors in the DP camps and increases international pressure
on Great Britain to allow free Jewish immigration to Palestine.
NOVEMBER 29, 1947
UNITED NATIONS VOTES FOR PARTITION OF PALESTINE
In a special session, the United Nations General Assembly votes to partition Palestine into two new states, one
Jewish and the other Arab. Less than six months later, on May 14, 1948, prominent Zionist leader David BenGurion announces the establishment of the State of Israel and declares that Jewish immigration into the new
state will be unrestricted. Between 1948 and 1951, almost 700,000 Jews emigrate to Israel, including more
than two-thirds of the Jewish displaced persons in Europe. Holocaust survivors, the passengers from
the Exodus, DPs from central Europe, and Jewish detainees from British detention camps on Cyprus are
welcomed to the Jewish homeland.
THE WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING
Jews from the Warsaw ghetto are marched through the ghetto during deportation. Warsaw, Poland, 1942-1943.
— Instytut Pamieci Narodowej
Many Jews in ghettos across eastern Europe tried to organize resistance against the Germans and to arm
themselves with smuggled and homemade weapons. Between 1941 and 1943, underground resistance
movements formed in about 100 Jewish groups. The most famous attempt by Jews to resist the Germans in
armed fighting occurred in the Warsaw ghetto.
In the summer of 1942, about 300,000 Jews were deported from Warsaw to Treblinka. When reports of mass
murder in the killing center leaked back to the Warsaw ghetto, a surviving group of mostly young people
formed an organization called the Z.O.B. (for the Polish name, Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa, which means
Jewish Fighting Organization). The Z.O.B., led by 23-year-old Mordecai Anielewicz, issued a proclamation
calling for the Jewish people to resist going to the railroad cars. In January 1943, Warsaw ghetto fighters fired
upon German troops as they tried to round up another group of ghetto inhabitants for deportation. Fighters
used a small supply of weapons that had been smuggled into the ghetto. After a few days, the troops retreated.
This small victory inspired the ghetto fighters to prepare for future resistance.
On April 19, 1943, the Warsaw ghetto uprising began after German troops and police entered the ghetto to
deport its surviving inhabitants. Seven hundred and fifty fighters fought the heavily armed and well-trained
Germans. The ghetto fighters were able to hold out for nearly a month, but on May 16, 1943, the revolt ended.
The Germans had slowly crushed the resistance. Of the more than 56,000 Jews captured, about 7,000 were
shot, and the remainder were deported to camps.
Key Dates
JULY 28, 1942
JEWISH FIGHTING ORGANIZATION ESTABLISHED
In the midst of the first wave of deportations from Warsaw ghetto to the Treblinka extermination camp, the
Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB, Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa) is established. On July 22, 1942, the
Germans begin massive deportations which last virtually without stop until September 12, 1942. During this
time more than 250,000 Jews from the ghetto are deported or killed. The ZOB, formed by members of Jewish
youth organizations, calls for the Jews of the ghetto to resist deportation. Reports of the massacres of Jews by
mobile killing units and in extermination camps have already filtered into the ghetto. However, the ZOB is not
yet ready to stage a revolt. After deportations end in September, the ZOB expands to incorporate members of
underground political organizations and establishes contact with the Polish resistance forces who provide
training, armaments and explosives. Mordecai Anielewicz is appointed commander.
JANUARY 18-21, 1943
GERMANS ENCOUNTER RESISTANCE
The Germans renew deportations from the Warsaw ghetto. This time however, they encounter resistance from
the ZOB (Jewish Fighting Organization; Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa). The early morning roundups take the
ZOB organization by surprise, and individuals take to the streets to resist the Germans. Other Jews in the
ghetto retreat into prepared hiding places. The Germans, expecting the expulsions to run smoothly, are
surprised by the resistance. In act of retaliation they massacre 1,000 Jews in the main square on January 21,
but suspend further deportations. The Germans were able to deport or kill 5,000-6,500 Jews. Encouraged by
the results of resistance actions, the Jews in the ghetto plan and prepare a full-scale revolt. The fighting
organization is unified, strategies are planned, underground bunkers and tunnels are built, and roof-top
passages are constructed. The Jews of the Warsaw ghetto prepare to fight to the end.
MAY 16, 1943
GHETTO DESTROYED, UPRISING ENDS
After a month of fighting, the Germans blow up the Great Synagogue in Warsaw, signaling the end of the
uprising and the destruction of the ghetto. On April 19, 1943, the Germans under the command of SS General
Juergen Stroop, began the final destruction of the ghetto and the deportation of the remaining Jews. The
ghetto population, however, does not report for deportations. Instead, the ghetto fighting organizations have
barricaded themselves inside buildings and bunkers, ready to resist the Germans. After three days, German
forces begin burning the ghetto, building by building, to force Jews out of the hiding places. Resistance
continues for weeks as the Germans reduce the ghetto to rubble. Although there are only about 50,000 Jews
left in the ghetto after the January 1943 deportations, General Stroop reports after the destruction of the ghetto
that 56,065 Jews have been captured; of those 7,000 deported to the Treblinka extermination camp, and the
remainder sent to forced-labor camps and the Majdanek extermination camp. Some of the resistance fighters
succeed in escaping from the ghetto and join partisan groups in the forests around Warsaw.
KILLING CENTER REVOLTS
A group portrait of some of the participants in the uprising at the Sobibor extermination camp. Poland, August 1944.
— US Holocaust Memorial Museum
The Warsaw ghetto uprising inspired revolts in other ghettos and in killing centers. Although many resisters
knew they were bound to lose against overwhelmingly superior German forces, they chose to die fighting.
After the last Jews deported to Treblinka were gassed in May 1943, about 1,000 Jewish prisoners remained in
the camp. Aware that they were soon to be killed, the prisoners decided to revolt. On August 2, armed with
shovels, picks, and a few weapons stolen from the arms warehouse, they set fire to part of the camp and broke
through its barbed-wire fence. About 300 prisoners managed to escape, and about a third of them survived
German efforts to recapture them.
Two inmates of Sobibor, Aleksander Pechersky and Leon Feldhendler, planned a similar revolt in 1943. On
October 14, prisoners killed eleven camp guards and set the camp on fire. About 300 prisoners escaped, but
many were killed during the manhunt that followed. Fifty were alive at the war's end.
At Auschwitz-Birkenau, prisoners of the Sonderkommando -- the special squad whose job it was to burn the
corpses of the murdered victims -- learned of the plans to kill them. On October 7, 1944, a group of them
rebelled, killing three guards and blowing up the crematorium. Several hundred prisoners escaped, but most
were later recaptured and killed. Four young women accused of supplying the dynamite were hanged in front
of the remaining inmates. One of them, 23-year-old Roza Robota, shouted "Be strong, have courage," as the
trap door opened.
Key Dates
AUGUST 2, 1943
TREBLINKA UPRISING
Early in 1943, deportations to the Treblinka killing center come to an end. In March the Germans commence
Aktion 1005 in Treblinka. Aktion 1005 is the code name for the German plan to erase all evidence of mass
murder. Prisoners are forced to open mass graves and burn the corpses. As this Aktion nears completion,
prisoners fear that they will be killed and the camp dismantled. Resistance leaders in the camp decide to
revolt. On August 2, 1943, prisoners quietly seize weapons from the camp armory, but are discovered before
they can take over the camp. Hundreds of prisoners storm the main gate in an attempt to escape. Many are
killed by machine-gun fire. More than 300 do escape; most are recaptured and killed by German police and
troops. Most of the camp is burned by prisoners during the uprising. The surviving prisoners are forced to
remove all remaining traces of the camp's existence. They too are then shot. Treblinka is finally dismantled in
the fall of 1943. Between 870,000 and 925,000 people had been killed there.
OCTOBER 14, 1943
SOBIBOR UPRISING
Aktion 1005 is implemented in the Sobibor killing center in the autumn of 1942, at the height of killing
operations in the camp. In early 1943, deportations to Sobibor slowed and prisoners suspected that they would
soon be killed and the camp dismantled. Prisoners form a resistance network in early 1943. They plan a revolt
and mass escape from the camp. On October 14, 1943, the prisoners revolt, quietly killing German and
Ukrainian guards. The guards open fire and prevent prisoners from reaching the main exit, forcing them to
attempt escape through the minefield. About 300 escape; about 100 are recaptured and later shot. After the
revolt, Sobibor is closed and dismantled. In all, at least 167,000 people were killed in Sobibor.
OCTOBER 7, 1944
AUSCHWITZ SONDERKOMMANDO UPRISING
During the summer of 1944, gassing operations in Auschwitz increase with the arrival of over 440,000
Hungarian Jews. The special prisoner detachments working in the killing area (the Sonderkommando) are
increased to cope with the large number of gassings. By the fall of 1944, however, the detachments are again
reduced in number. Members of the Sonderkommando, fearing that they will be killed, plan a revolt and
escape. The plan for revolt is supported by women prisoners who smuggle gunpowder out of nearby factories
to members of the Sonderkommando. On October 7, 1944, Sonderkommando prisoners revolt, blowing up
crematoria IV and killing several SS guards. The revolt is quickly suppressed by the camp guards. All members
of the Sonderkommando are killed. Four of the women who smuggled gunpowder out of the factories are
hanged on January 6, 1945, weeks before the camp is liberated.
JANURY 17, 1945
CHELMNO
Chelmno originally closed in March 1943, but reopened in June 1944 to facilitate the liquidation of the Lodz
ghetto. Killing operations take place until mid-July 1944. Beginning in September 1944, a group of Jewish
prisoners is forced to exhume and burn bodies from the mass graves at Chelmno as part of Aktion 1005, the
German plan to erase all evidence of mass murder. On the night of The Soviet army approaches the Chelmno
killing center. The Germans decide to abandon the camp. Before they leave, the Germans begin killing the
remaining Jewish prisoners. Some of the prisoners resist and escape. Three prisoners survive. At least
152,000 people were killed in Chelmno.