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TIMELINE
Click the date:
1933
| 1934 | 1935
| 1936 | 1937
| 1938 | 1939
| 1940 | 1941
| 1942 | 1943
| 1944 | 1945
1933
January 30 Adolph Hitler is appointed
chancellor of Germany.
March 22 Nazis establish the concentration
camp at Dachau.
April 7 Germany passes its first
anti-Jewish law.
September 29 German Jews are prohibited
from owning land.
1934
August 2 German President von Hindenberg
dies, and Hitler declares himself Fuhrer und Reichskanzler (Leader and
Reich Chancellor).
1935
September 15Germany creates the Nuremberg
Laws, which deprives German Jews of their rights of citizenship.
1936
Berlin hosts the summer Olympics. In an attempt to impress foreign
visitors, Hitler temporarily limits actions against Jews.
1937
July 15 The concentration camp at
Buchenwald opens.
1938
March 13 German troops enter Austria.
July 23 Nazis declare that all Jews over
the age of fifteen must carry identification cards at all times and
present them upon request or inquiry from any police officer.
October 5 All Jewish passports must be
stamped with a large red J.
November 9-10 Hitler and German Propaganda
Minister Goebbels invite Germans to "rise in bloody vengeance against
the Jews." Nazis all over Germany and Austria burglarize and
vandalize Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues during Kristallnacht ("the
Night of Broken Glass"). Twenty-five thousand men are sent to
concentration camps, 7500 businesses are destroyed, 267 synagogues are
burned, and 91 people are killed.
November 15 All Jewish students are
expelled from the German education system.
1939
Denmark amends a civil law regarding anti-Semitism: anyone found guilty
of anti-Semitism will face a fine or imprisonment. The law remains in
effect until Germany's 1940 invasion.
March 15 Nazi troops enter Czechoslovakia.
September 1 World War II begins, as
Germany invades Poland, the country with the largest Jewish population in
Europe.
September 3 Great Britain and France
declare war on Germany.
September 17 The Soviet Union invades
Poland.
October 28 The first Polish ghetto is
established in Piotrkow.
November 30 Germany invades Finland.
1940
February 12 Nazis send the first German
Jews to concentration camps.
April 9 Germany invades Norway and
Denmark.
May 10 Germany invades the Netherlands,
Belgium, Luxembourg, and France.
May 14 The Netherlands surrender to
Germany.
May 20 The concentration camp at Auschwitz
is established.
May 28 Belgium surrenders to Germany.
June 10 Italy declares war on France and
Great Britain.
June 14 German troops enter Paris.
June 22 France surrenders to Germany.
July Following Nazi orders, Denmark's free
press ceases operation.
September 13 Italy invades Egypt.
September 27 Japan joins Germany and Italy
in the Axis by signing the Tripartite (Axis) Pact.
October 2 The Warsaw ghetto is
established.
October 7 Germany invades Romania.
October 28 Italy invades Greece.
November The Krakow ghetto is sealed with
70,000 Jews inside.
November 16 The Warsaw ghetto is sealed
with 400,000 Jews inside
November 20 Hungary joins Axis.
November 22 Romania joins Axis.
October 2 Slovakia joins the Axis.
1941
Under Nazi pressure, Denmark passes a law making it illegal to question
Denmark's relationship with Germany either in writing or in speech.
January As a sign of cooperation, Denmark
manufactures six "torpedo boats" for Germany.
March 1 The Nazis order the expansion of
the concentration camp at Auschwitz.
March 2 Germany occupies Bulgaria
March 25 Yugoslavia joins Axis.
June Denmark ceases communication with the
USSR under pressure from Germany. The anti-Nazi "V" campaign
begins in Denmark.
June 22 Germany invades the USSR; Italy
and Romania declare war on the USSR as well. Germany outlaws communism in
Denmark; the Danish resistance movement begins to surface.
June 26 Finland declares war on the USSR.
June 27 Hungary declares war on the USSR.
July 31 Germany prepares for the "Final
Solution to the Jewish problem" through "emigration and
evacuation of Jews in all territories of Europe under German occupation."
September 1 Germany forces its Jewish
citizens to wear the yellow star.
September 6 The Vilna ghetto is
established.
October 14 The mass deportation of Jews to
concentration camps begins. The concentration camp at Birkenau opens.
October 23 After an explosion occurs in
the Romanian troop headquarters, 19,000 Jews are massacred in retaliation
in Odessa--200 for every Romanian officer killed and 100 for each soldier
killed.
December 7 Japan bombs the American bases
at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
December 8 Japan declares war on
the United States and Great Britain; the United States and Great Britain
declare war on Japan.
December 9 China declares war on Japan,
Germany, and Italy.
December 11 Germany and Italy declare war
on the United States; the United States declares war on Germany and Italy.
1942
March Germany begins to deport Slovak and
French Jews to the concentration camp at Auschwitz.
May Poison gas is first used on Jewish
prisoners at Sobibor, a Nazi concentration camp.
June 1 Germany orders Jews in France, the
Netherlands, Belgium, Croatia, Slovakia, and Romania to wear the yellow
star.
July 22 The concentration camp at
Treblinka is established.
Summer Dutch, Polish, French, Belgian, and
Croatian Jews sent to extermination camps.
September 26 Hitler sends a birthday
telegram to King Christian X of Denmark, who responds curtly. The King's
reply, as well as previous incidents of Danish resistance, are used as
excuses for Germany to strengthen its grasp on Denmark. Hitler soon
assigns Nazi official Werner Best to control Denmark with "an iron
hand."
Autumn Britain calls for Danes to bomb
major Nazi holdings in Denmark.
October 4 Naxis prepare German Jews for
transfer from concentration camps to extermination camps.
1943
The number of Jews killed by SS Einsatzgruppen passes 1,000,000.
January 8 The first signs of resistance
surface in the ghetto at Warsaw.
February 2 Germany surrenders at
Stalingrad in the first major defeat of Hitler's armies.
February 19 Jews living in the Warsaw
ghetto revolt, and German forces kill an estimated 40,000 of the Jews who
survived.
March 14 The Krakow ghetto is liquidated.
May 19 The Nazis declare Berlin to be Judenfrei--cleansed
of all Jews.
June The Polish and Russian ghettos are
destroyed. All captives are scheduled for shipment to extermination camps.
Widespread resistance.
August 2 Seven hundred and fifty prisoners
in the concentration camp at Treblinka in Poland revolt and try to escape;
of that 750, only 70 survive.
August 28 Germany orders Denmark to accept
many ultimatums, including the following: complete surrender, mandatory
7:30 pm restaurant closings, capitulation of all arms, and the
establishment of expeditious courts for the swift prosecution of Danish
criminal acts committed against Germany. Denmark refuses.
August 29 A State of Emergency is declared
in Denmark. King Christian is placed under house arrest. There are
widespread arrests and phone lines and mail service are cut. The Danish
government and army are dissolved. Denmark's naval fleet sinks itself to
avoid a German takeover.
September 8 Werner Best sends a telegram
to Germany suggesting the removal of all Jews from Denmark.
September 28 Werner Best receives the
order to begin the removal of the Danish Jews and plans to start on
Friday, October 1. Best's assistant, Georg Duckwitz, informs influential
Danish friends of the Nazi plan.
October 1-2 Denmark sends its Jews into
hiding. The plans for their escape are in process. The Danish Underground
organizes and helps over 7000 Jews escape. The Danish Jews use small
crafts, fishing boats, and even kayaks to escape to safety in neutral
Sweden.
October The 200 Danish Jews who do not
escape are captured and shipped to the concentration camp Theresienstadt.
October 13 Italy declares war on Germany.
October 14 An armed revolt occurs at
Sobibor concentration camp. Three hundred Jews and Soviet POWs break out
and go into hiding in the surrounding woods.
December 30 Due to the continuous uprising
of the Danish people, Germany tightens control on the country, threatening
that newspaper offices, places of amusement, and all Danish business
refusing to supply wartime goods would be blown up.
1944
March 19 Germany occupies Hungary.
May 15 Hungarian Jews are sent to
concentration camps.
June 6 D Day: Allied troops land on the
beaches of Normandy in France.
June 23 The Danish Commission is granted
permission to inspect the concentration camp at Theresienstadt to observe
the treatment of its Danish prisoners. The Nazis engage in a quick
restoration process, beautifying Theresienstadt and producing a "model
ghetto." During this process, 17,000 Jews are sent to Auschwitz so
that Theresienstadt would not appear overcrowded and unpresentable.
Summer Auschwitz records gassing over 9000
prisoners in one day.
August 4 Anne Frank and her family are
arrested in Amsterdam.
August 6 The last Jewish ghetto in Poland
is liquidated.
November 2 With the Allies fast
approaching, Danish authorities begin efforts to get their prisoners out
of Germany before the country falls into mass chaos. Werner Best and other
Germans occupying Denmark try to cover up the mass killings; they strike a
bargain with Denmark. While almost all Jews remaining in Theresienstadt
are sent to Auschwitz, no Danish Jews are deported. Instead the Danish
Jews are rescued by Swedish Red Cross vans and driven back to safety in
Denmark.
1945
January 6 USSR troops liberate Budapest.
January 17 USSR troops liberate Auschwitz.
Spring Under increasing pressure as the
Allies approach, the Nazis orchestrate death marches of prisoners from
Auschwitz and Buchenwald to unknown destinations.
April The USSR enters Germany from the
east, and Allied troops enter from the west.
April 12 U. S. President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt dies; Harry S. Truman becomes president.
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