HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
JANUARY 30, 1933
ADOLF HITLER APPOINTED
CHANCELLOR OF GERMANY
• In the November 1932 German
elections, the Nazi Party won 33 percent
of the vote, more than any other party.
• German President Paul von Hindenburg
(left) appointed Adolf Hitler (right), the
head of the National Socialist German
Workers Party (Nazi Party), as the new
chancellor of Germany.
• Conservative politicians thought they
could control Hitler and his followers.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
MARCH 22, 1933
DACHAU CONCENTRATION
CAMP OPENS
• Dachau was the first concentration
camp established by the Nazi
government. It was originally intended
to incarcerate political opponents of
the new regime.
• By the end of 1933, Dachau held 4,800
prisoners. Almost all of them were
imprisoned for political reasons: for
being a socialist, a communist, a
Social Democrat (a political party
opposing the Nazis), or an advocate of
trade unions.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
APRIL 1, 1933
BOYCOTT OF JEWISH BUSINESSES
• The Nazi Party launched a one-day
nationwide boycott of Jewish
businesses.
• They claimed that German Jews and
Jewish communities elsewhere were
spreading “atrocity propaganda” in
newspapers worldwide to damage
Germany’s reputation.
• The boycott marked the beginning of
Nazi efforts to drive Jews from the
German economy.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
MAY 10, 1933
BURNING OF “UN-GERMAN” BOOKS
• Pro-Nazi university students
throughout Germany burned
thousands of books from school,
public, and private libraries. They
carried torches and paraded through
the streets.
• The students targeted “un-German”
books–books that included anti-Nazi
ideas or were written by Jewish
authors. These included books by
Sigmund Freud, Helen Keller, Ernest
Hemingway, Erich Maria Remarque,
and others.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
AUGUST 2, 1934
HITLER BECOMES FÜHRER
• On this day, German President Paul
von Hindenburg died, aged 86.
• With the support of the German
military, Hitler became the new
president of Germany, in addition to
being chancellor.
• On August 19, Hitler abolished the
office of the president and announced
that he was the Führer, or supreme
leader of Germany.
• There were no limits or restraints on
Hitler’s authority. Germany became a
complete dictatorship.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
MARCH 12, 1938
GERMANY ANNEXES AUSTRIA
• German troops entered Austria on
March 12, 1938. The next day,
Germany officially annexed the
country and incorporated Austria into
the Third Reich. This event is called
the Anschluss.
• Most Austrians were very supportive
of the Anschluss and cheered Hitler’s
arrival in Vienna.
• In 1938, 185,000 Jews lived in
Austria. They were immediately
subjected to the Third Reich’s
antisemitic laws.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
JULY 6-15, 1938
EVIAN CONFERENCE ON REFUGEES
• After Germany annexed Austria, a refugee crisis
began. Tens of thousands of German and Austrian
Jews applied to immigrate to countries outside
Europe.
• President Franklin Roosevelt called an international
conference to discuss the crisis. Diplomats and
representatives from 32 countries met in
Evian-les-Bans, France, in July 1938.
• Most of the representatives said that their country
was sympathetic but would not admit more
refugees. Some claimed that an increase in
immigration would hurt their economy, while others
stated that they did not want Jews.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
SEPTEMBER 29, 1938
SUDETENLAND CEDED TO GERMANY
• In September 1938, Hitler threatened war unless
Czechoslovakia allowed Germany to annex part of
the country called the Sudetenland. The
Sudetenland was home to many ethnic Germans.
• In the “Munich Agreement,” Great Britain and
France agreed to the German annexation of the
Sudetenland in order to avoid war. Czechoslovakia
was not included in the negotiations.
• Tens of thousands of Jews fled the Sudetenland
into unoccupied Czechoslovakia.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
OCTOBER 28, 1938
POLISH JEWS DEPORTED
FROM GERMANY
• Nazi Germany expelled about 17,000 Jews
from Germany in 1938. Most of them had
lived in Germany for years but were Polish
citizens.
• Poland was unwilling to accept the Jews,
so they were put in a “no-man’s land”
between the countries and eventually into
refugee camps.
• This photograph shows Jews at the
Zbaszyn refugee camp’s soup kitchen.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
NOVEMBER 9-10, 1938
KRISTALLNACHT
ATTACKS
• After learning that his family had been deported from
Germany, a Polish-Jewish teenager shot a German diplomat in
Paris. In retaliation, Nazi supporters launched a coordinated
attack on Jewish-owned stores, synagogues, and homes across
the Third Reich.
• The attacks became known as Kristallnacht, the “Night of
Broken Glass.”
• Approximately 30,000 Jewish men and boys were arrested and
sent to concentration camps. Hundreds of synagogues
(including this one in Aachen, Germany) and more than 7,000
businesses were damaged or destroyed.
• Nazi Germany fined the Jewish community one billion
Reichsmarks ($72 billion today) to pay for the damage.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
DECEMBER 2, 1938
FIRST
KINDERTRANSPORT
ARRIVES
• The Kindertransports were efforts to bring Jewish children
from Nazi-controlled territory to safety.
• Jewish parents voluntarily sent their children on organized
transports to live in children’s homes, with foster families,
or with distant relatives in Great Britain, the Netherlands,
or France.
• Kindertransport children sent to Great Britain were
generally safe during World War II, but children sent to
western Europe were in danger again when Nazi Germany
invaded those countries in 1940.
• Between 9,000 and 10,000 children left Nazi territory on
Kindertransports. This photo was taken of a Jewish girl
who arrived on the first Kindertransport to England.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
MARCH 15, 1939
GERMANY ANNEXES
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
• Six months after annexing the
Sudetenland, Nazi Germany invaded
and occupied the areas of Bohemia and
Moravia in Czechoslovakia.
• The rest of the country was split up.
Some of it was annexed to Hungary, and
the rest became the independent,
pro-Nazi country of Slovakia.
• This photo shows Nazi troops entering
Prague.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
MAY 13, 1939
ST. LOUIS
SAILS
• The German passenger ship St. Louis left Hamburg
for Havana, Cuba, carrying 937 mostly Jewish
refugees. Most of the refugees planned to wait in
Cuba until they obtained visas to immigrate to the
United States.
• The Cuban government refused to allow most of the
passengers to land, claiming they did not have the
right paperwork. The United States and Canada also
refused to admit them.
• The passengers were sent to England, France, the
Netherlands, and Belgium. Two-thirds of them
survived the Holocaust.
• The St. Louis was the only refugee ship “turned
away” from the United States.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
AUGUST 23, 1939
NAZI-SOVIET PACT
• German communists were some of the first
prisoners in Nazi concentration camps. German
antisemitic propaganda linked Jews with
communism and depicted the Soviet Union
(a communist country) as the enemy.
• Despite this, Nazi Germany and the Soviet
Union signed a secret pact, vowing not to
attack each other for 10 years.
• In a secret protocol of the pact, the two
countries agreed to divide eastern Europe.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
SEPTEMBER 1, 1939
GERMANY INVADES POLAND
• The German army invaded Poland using a
quick, decisive attack with a massive military
force. This style of war was called blitzkrieg
(lightning warfare).
• Great Britain and France (“the Allies”) had an
alliance with Poland. On September 3, they
declared war on Germany. The United States
vowed to remain neutral. World War II in
Europe began.
• On September 17, the Soviet Union invaded
eastern Poland. Nazi Germany and the Soviet
Union divided Poland between them. Poland
surrendered in October 1939.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
APRIL 9, 1940
GERMANY INVADES
NORWAY AND DENMARK
• Nazi Germany invaded Norway and
Denmark to obtain more naval bases on
the North Sea and prevent a British
blockade of Germany.
• Both countries were forced to surrender
almost immediately.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
MAY 10, 1940
GERMANY INVADES
WESTERN EUROPE
• Even though World War II had begun eight
months earlier, there had not been much
fighting following the Polish surrender until
Germany launched a surprise invasion of the
Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and
France.
• These countries surrendered within six weeks.
France was split in two. Germany occupied the
north, and a collaborationist French
government controlled the south.
• Hundreds of thousands of Jews in western
Europe were now under Nazi control.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
JUNE 10, 1940
ITALY DECLARES WAR ON BRITAIN
AND FRANCE
• Italian dictator Benito Mussolini (seen here with Hitler)
signed a treaty of friendship with Nazi Germany in
1936 and agreed to a military alliance in 1939.
• By declaring war on Great Britain and France, Italy
officially entered World War II on the “Axis” side,
fighting with Germany.
• Despite the alliance—and antisemitic legislation
limiting the rights of Italian Jews—Italian-occupied
areas were relatively safe for Jews. Italian authorities
refused to deport or murder Jews.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
JUNE 14, 1940
FIRST PRISONERS ARRIVE AT
AUSCHWITZ
• The SS opened a large concentration camp near the
town of Oswiecim, in Nazi-occupied Poland. They
called the camp “Auschwitz.”
• The first prisoners of Auschwitz were German and
Polish men (both Christian and Jewish). Most of them
were imprisoned as political opponents of the Nazis.
• This mugshot shows 18-year-old Zbigniew Matys, a
Polish prisoner. He was prisoner number 71.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
SEPTEMBER 27, 1940
AXIS ALLIANCE FORMED
• Nazi Germany, Japan, and Italy signed a
Tripartite Pact. These three countries were
known as the Axis Powers.
• The three countries agreed that Nazi
Germany would control most of Europe, Italy
would control the Mediterranean Sea, and
Japan would control East Asia and the
Pacific.
• Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and
Croatia later signed the Tripartite Pact.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
MARCH 11, 1941
ROOSEVELT SIGNS LEND-LEASE ACT
• Although the United States was officially
neutral, and many Americans did not want to
fight in World War II, the country supported
the Allies. After France was defeated, Great
Britain needed American aid to continue to
fight Nazi Germany.
• President Roosevelt had already supplied
weapons to Great Britain in exchange for
money and for military bases in British
territories.
• The Lend-Lease Act allowed the United States
to “lend” weapons, food, and oil to the Allies.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
APRIL 6, 1941
GERMANY INVADES
YUGOSLAVIA AND GREECE
• Yugoslavia was aligned with Nazi Germany. But
when Yugoslavia refused to honor an agreement
to let German troops travel through the country
to invade Greece, Nazi Germany invaded both
countries.
• Yugoslavia was split up. Some areas were
annexed to Nazi-collaborating countries, and
other areas formed new pro-Nazi countries.
• Greece was divided among Germany, Italy, and
Bulgaria.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
JUNE 22, 1941
GERMANY INVADES
THE SOVIET UNION
• Breaking the August 1939 non-aggression pact, Nazi
Germany launched a surprise invasion of the Soviet
Union and the areas occupied by the Soviet Union
(including Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia).
• Mobile killing squads, called Einsatzgruppen, followed
behind the German lines, murdering Jews and other
victims by shooting and gassing in gas vans.
Approximately two million Jews died this way.
• Although the German military captured millions of
Soviet POWs, the Soviet Union did not surrender. The
United States began supplying the Soviet Union through
the Lend-Lease Act.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
DECEMBER 7, 1941
U.S. ENTERS WORLD WAR II
• The United States imposed economic
sanctions on Japan and cut off Japan’s
supply of oil. In retaliation, the
Japanese military launched a surprise
attack on the US Pacific fleet at Pearl
Harbor, Hawaii.
• The United States declared war on
Japan.
• On December 11, Nazi Germany
declared war on the United States.
• The United States officially entered
World War II and joined the Allies.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
DECEMBER 8, 1941
MASS MURDER BEGINS
AT CHELMNO
• The SS and police authorities opened the
Chelmno killing center to kill Jews, Poles,
Soviet POWs, and Roma in Nazi-occupied
Poland.
• Chelmno was the first stationary facility
where the Nazis used poison gas for mass
murder. At least 172,000 people were
murdered at Chelmno.
• These toys were excavated from the grounds
of Chelmno.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
JANUARY 20, 1942
WANNSEE CONFERENCE
• German government officials and Nazi
Party officials held a conference at the
Wannsee Villa in a suburb of Berlin. They
discussed the logistics of the “Final
Solution.”
• The “Final Solution” was a code name for
the mass murder of European Jews.
• The mass murder of Jews had already
begun by the time the conference took
place. At the Wannsee conference, the
Nazis discussed how to coordinate the
expansion of the killing.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
MARCH 17, 1942
OPERATION REINHARD BEGINS
• Operation Reinhard was the code name for the
plan to murder approximately two million Jews in
the Generalgouvernment, or German-occupied
Poland.
• Although the Nazis began planning the operation
in 1941, it was named after Reinhard Heydrich, the
head of the office responsible for organizing the
deportations and murders, who was assassinated in
1942.
• Nazis murdered at least 1.5 million Jews at the
Operation Reinhard killing centers: Treblinka,
Belzec, and Sobibor. The Belzec killing center
began gassings on this day.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
NOVEMBER 8, 1942
ALLIED FORCES INVADE
NORTH AFRICA
• Allied forces launched several surprise landings on the
coast of North Africa.
• They wanted to defeat the military forces of Germany,
Italy, and collaborationist France in North Africa. This
would prevent the Axis powers from controlling the
Mediterranean Sea.
• In retaliation, Nazi Germany occupied southern France.
• American and British troops fought in North Africa for
six months before defeating the Axis there.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
DECEMBER 17, 1942
ALLIES CONDEMN MASS MURDER
• News of the “Final Solution” was reported in American
newspapers in late November 1942.
• The United States, Soviet Union, Great Britain, and eight
Allied governments-in-exile (the official governments
that had escaped when Nazi Germany occupied their
countries) issued a declaration.
• The declaration condemned the Nazi policy of
“cold-blooded extermination” and vowed that the
perpetrators of the atrocities would not escape punishment
after the war.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
FEBRUARY 2, 1943
GERMAN DEFEAT AT STALINGRAD
• The German military surrendered after battling
for seven months to capture the Soviet city of
Stalingrad (now Volgograd). There were many
factories producing military supplies in
Stalingrad, and the city was a gateway to Soviet
oil fields.
• Soviet victory at the battle of Stalingrad marked
a turning point in World War II. Soviet forces
began to push the German military back.
• Historians estimate that 800,000 Axis soldiers
and 1.1 million Soviet soldiers were killed in
the battle.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
FEBRUARY 26, 1943
FIRST TRANSPORT OF
SINTI/ROMA TO AUSCHWITZ
• The first transport of Sinti/Roma from Germany
arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau. They were
originally kept together and placed in a “family
camp” for “gypsies.”
• Approximately 23,000 Sinti and Roma were
sent to Auschwitz during the Holocaust and 85
percent of them were killed there.
• This photograph shows Anne Schneck, a
German Roma woman, with her children. They
were murdered at Auschwitz.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
APRIL 19, 1943
WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING
BEGINS
• In summer 1942, Nazi authorities deported
approximately 300,000 Jews from the Warsaw
Ghetto and murdered them in the Treblinka
killing center.
• When German troops entered the ghetto to
deport the remaining Jews, armed Jewish
resistance fighters attacked. The Nazis greatly
outnumbered them.
• Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto fought for nearly a
month using makeshift weapons before they
were defeated by the Nazis.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
JULY 9-10, 1943
ALLIED FORCES INVADE SICILY
• American, British, and Canadian forces
launched an aerial and amphibious
invasion of the island of Sicily, Italy.
• By mid-August, the Allies controlled the
island.
• An American officer created this map to
help plan the invasion.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
SEPTEMBER 8, 1943
ITALY SURRENDERS
• After the Allies invaded Sicily, the Fascist
Grand Council in Rome issued a vote of no
confidence in Italian dictator Benito
Mussolini’s leadership. Italy’s king used
the vote as an excuse to arrest Mussolini
and appoint a new prime minister.
• Italy’s new prime minister secretly
negotiated with the Allies, and Italy
officially surrendered.
• Nazi Germany immediately invaded and
occupied northern and central Italy. Within
a few months, they began to arrest and
deport Jews in those areas.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
SEPTEMBER 29, 1943
DANISH JEWS BEGIN ESCAPE
• In August 1943, Denmark’s government
resigned in opposition to German demands.
Germany declared martial law and prepared
to arrest and deport Danish Jews.
• On September 28, a German diplomat, Georg
Duckwitz, warned the Jewish community of
the impending roundups.
• Over the next three weeks, 7,200 Jews (more
than 90 percent of Denmark’s Jewish
population) escaped by boat to Sweden with
the help of the Danish resistance and Danish
citizens.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
OCTOBER 14, 1943
SOBIBOR UPRISING
• In the fall of 1943, the Treblinka killing center shut
down, and the few prisoners forced to work there
were murdered.
• Prisoners at Sobibor realized they would soon be
murdered too and planned an uprising.
• Sobibor prisoners killed a dozen German and
Ukrainian guards, and 300 prisoners escaped the
camp. Many were later captured or killed.
Approximately 58 Sobibor prisoners, including
these men, survived the Holocaust.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
JANUARY 22, 1944
FDR CREATES WAR REFUGEE BOARD
• In response to pressure from Congress, the public,
and inside the government, President Roosevelt
created a new government agency responsible for
trying to rescue and provide aid to European Jews.
• The War Refugee Board streamlined humanitarian
aid, helped Jews escape, and tried to protect Jews
in Nazi territory.
• By the end of the war, the WRB had saved tens of
thousands of lives and helped hundreds of
thousands of people.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
MARCH 19, 1944
GERMANY OCCUPIES HUNGARY
• Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Hungary
to prevent the country from leaving the Axis
and joining the Allies.
• Hungary had the largest Jewish population
remaining in Europe.
• Within two months of the invasion, Nazi
authorities and Hungarian police began
deporting approximately 440,000 Hungarian
Jews to Auschwitz.
• This photograph shows a transport of
Hungarian Jews arriving at Auschwitz.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
JUNE 6, 1944
D-DAY INVASION
• American, British, and Canadian naval
and air forces invaded the beaches of
Normandy, France.
• The opening of the long-awaited
“second front” put tremendous military
pressure on Nazi Germany and gave a
psychological boost to the Allies.
• Although German troops fought back,
the D-Day invasion was ultimately
successful. By late August, the Allies
had liberated Paris.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
JANUARY 27, 1945
SOVIET TROOPS LIBERATE
AUSCHWITZ
• In mid-January 1945, the SS evacuated nearly
60,000 prisoners from Auschwitz, on foot and in
open train cars. As many as 15,000 of the prisoners
died during these forced marches into Germany.
• Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz and found 6,000
sick and starving prisoners, including children,
who had been left behind.
• Auschwitz was the last operating Nazi killing
center. Belzec, Treblinka, Chelmno, and Sobibor
had already been closed by the Nazis.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
APRIL 11, 1945
AMERICAN TROOPS LIBERATE
BUCHENWALD
• The United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet
Union liberated many concentration camps,
including Buchenwald, in April and May 1945.
• On April 12, General Dwight Eisenhower, the
commander of the western Allied forces, toured
Ohrdruf, a subcamp of Buchenwald.
• Eisenhower ordered all Allied troops near newly
liberated concentration camps to tour them. He
wanted to ensure that the horror of the Holocaust
could not be called propaganda.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
MAY 7, 1945
GERMAN FORCES SURRENDER
• At the end of April, Soviet forces encircled
Berlin, Germany’s capital. Adolf Hitler
committed suicide on April 30, 1945.
• German officials unconditionally surrendered
on May 7, 1945.
• The next day, as the war in Europe formally
ended, the Allies celebrated “V-E Day”
(Victory in Europe).
• More than two million Europeans, including
250,000 Jews, were displaced persons. The
Allies opened camps for them until they could
return home or immigrate.
