Hitler named Chancellor of Germany – January 30, 1933

Germany passes the Nuremberg Laws – September 15, 1935

Kristallnacht – November 9-10, 1938

Germany invades Poland – September 1, 1939

Germans establish Jewish ghettos in occupied Poland

Einsatzgruppen actions result in murder of 1.5 million Jews – beginning with the invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941

Heydrich receives authorization via Herman Goering to implement a Final Solution to the Jewish Problem – July 31, 1941

Wannsee Conference convened by Reinhard Heydrich and Adolf Eichmann to alert other agencies to the plans for the “Final Solution” – January 20, 1942

Death camps operational and deportations occurring regularly – beginning Spring 1942 Krematoria II at Auschwitz-Birkenau Jews being deported to Treblinka

A platform and three track rail connection, which comes to be known as “the ramp,” is built at Auschwitz-Birkenau to allow trains to deliver Jews directly into the camp – May 1944

Deportation of Hungarian Jews – Mid-May – July 1944

Death marches to German concentration camps – winter

Liberation of German concentration camps – Spring 1945

General Eisenhower moves to establish Jewish Displaced Persons Camps following recommendation in Harrison Report – August 3, 1945 Generals Eisenhower and Patton tour the DP camp at Feldafing after Eisenhower received a strongly worded cable from President Truman directing him to institute reforms to improve the living conditions of displaced Jews in the American zone of occupation.

President Truman issues an executive order, the "Truman Directive," requiring that existing immigration quotas be designated for displaced persons. Many Jewish Holocaust survivors emigrate under this provision. – December 22, 1945

Kielce Pogrom – Polish citizens murder 42 Jews – July 4, 1946

Israel established as an independent Jewish state – May 14, 1948

Final displaced persons camp, Foehrenwald, closes