Chronology of Events
1933
January 30: Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany. Jews feel effects of
anti-Jewish polices.
March 20: The first concentration camp at Dachau is established.
1935
September 15: Nuremberg Laws are established, which contain Reich Citizenship
Law, stating that German citizens are those with “German or related blood,”
and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor, which prohibits
marriage or sexual relations between German non-Jews and Jews.
November 15: First Ordinance to Reich Citizenship specifies that a Jew cannot be
a Reich citizen.
1938
June 15: 1,500 German Jews are sent to concentration camps.
October 5 The passports of German Jews are marked with a “J” for Jude.
November 9/10: “Night of the Broken Glass,” or Kristallnacht, destroys
Jewish synagogues and businesses; 30,000 Jews interned in camps.
November 15: Jewish children excluded from German schools.
1939
January 30: Hitler declares that world war will mean the “annihilation of the
Jewish race in Europe.”
May 15: Ravensbruck, the first women’s camp, is established.
May 18: The first women arrive at Ravensbruck.
June 29: Austrian Gypsy females are deported to Ravensbruck.
September 1: Germany invades Poland.
September 3: Great Britain and France declare war on Germany.
September 9: World War II begins.
September 17: Russian troops invade Poland and occupy half of the country.
September 28: Germany and Russia divide Poland.
1940
January: First experimental gassing of Jews and other “undesirables” occurs.
February 8: Lodz ghetto is established.
April–June: Germany invades Norway, Holland, Denmark, France and Belgium.
April 27: Himmler orders the establishment of Auschwitz in Oswiecim, Poland.
April 30: Lodz ghetto is sealed.
October: Warsaw ghetto is established.
1941
March 1: Himmler travels to Auschwitz and orders additional facilities and the
construction of Birkenau (Auschwitz II). Prisoners are available for forced
labor to construct I. G. Farben.
March 3: Adolf Eichmann is appointed head of the Gestapo’s Section for Jewish
Affairs.
June 22: Germany invades Russia. Poland comes under total control of Germany.
July 31: Hermann Göring signs orders giving Reinhard Heydrich authority to
prepare “the Final Solution of the Jewish question.”
September 3: The first experiment with Zyklon B takes place in Auschwitz.
September 29–30: The Einsatzkommando murders 33,000 Jews near Kiev.
October 15: From Czechoslovakia, Germany, Austria and Luxembourg, 20,000 Jews
are deported eastward to ghettos.
November: The Theresienstadt ghetto and concentration camp is established.
December 7: Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. United States declares war on Japan.
December 11: United States declares war on Germany.
1942
January 20: Wannsee Conference establishes doctrine for the “Final
Solution.”
February 15: First people are killed with Zyklon B in Auschwitz.
March l: First inmates moved to Birkenau (Auschwitz II).
March 20: Farmhouse renovated as gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
March 26: Separate women’s camp established in Auschwitz.
May 4: The first “selection” takes place for those who have been imprisoned
in Auschwitz for months. The unfit are sent to gas chambers.
July 4: First selection at the railroad unloading platforms in Auschwitz takes
place.
July 7: Heinrich Himmler agrees to experimentation with Jewish women in
Auschwitz.
July 15: Jews are deported from Westerbork. Anne Frank and her family are
deported to Auschwitz.
July 19: Heinrich Himmler orders complete extermination of Polish Jews by the
end of the year.
July–September: Approximately 300,000 Jews are deported en masse from the
Warsaw ghetto.
1943
January 18: First Warsaw Ghetto uprising breaks out.
March–June: Four gas chambers and crematoria are operational in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
April 19–May 16: Additional Warsaw ghetto uprising and final destruction of
ghetto.
Mid-June: Heinrich Himmler orders liquidation of all remaining ghettos.
July 11: Hitler bans public reference to the “Final Solution of the Jewish
question.”
October 1–2: Danes rescue 7,200 Danish Jews.
December: First transport of Austrian Jews to Auschwitz takes place.
1944
March 19: Germany occupies Hungary.
April: Jews are mandated to wear the Star of David.
May: First transport of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz takes place.
June 6: D-Day: Allied forces land in Normandy.
August 2: A Gypsy family camp in Auschwitz is liquidated (2,897 prisoners)
October 7: A Sonderkommando revolt takes place in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Jewish
women smuggle explosives and destroy Crematorium IV.
November: Killing with Zyklon B in gas chambers is discontinued.
November 26: Heinrich Himmler orders destruction of the crematoria in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
1945
January 6 :Four female Jewish resistance fighters who smuggled explosives to
Sonderkommando are hung.
January 17–18: Evacuation and forced march from Auschwitz-Birkenau takes
place. Of 31,894 prisoners in the last roll call, 16,577 are reported to be
female.
April 11: U.S. forces liberate Buchenwald.
April 15: British forces liberate Bergen-Belsen.
April 29–30: Russian forces liberate Ravensbruck.
April 30: Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide.
May 7–8: V-E Day: Germany surrenders.
September 17–November 17:Bergen-Belsen war-crime trials are held. Twenty
women, including Irma Grese are sentenced to death