Holocaust Retrospective 1934-1945 A Timeline of Tragedy Holocaust Retrospective 1934-1945

Hitler becomes Führer of Germany August 19, 1934 Hitler becomes Führer of Germany

Appearing before the Nazi Reichstag (Parliament) on the sixth anniversary of his coming to power, Adolf Hitler made a speech commemorating that event and also made a public threat against the Jews... …if the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevizing of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!

October 5, 1938 Jewish passports required by law to be stamped with a red “J” July 23, 1938 Nazis order Jews to apply for identity cards November 23, 1939 Polish Jews over the age of 10 are required to wear yellow stars on their clothing

The attack came after Herschel Grynszpan, a 17 year old Jew living in Paris, shot and killed a member of the German Embassy staff there in retaliation for the poor treatment his father and his family suffered at the hands of the Nazis in Germany. On November 9, 1938, mob violence broke out as the regular German police stood by and crowds of spectators watched. Nazi storm troopers along with members of the SS and Hitler Youth beat and murdered Jews, broke into and wrecked Jewish homes, and brutalized Jewish women and children. Kristallnacht All over Germany, Austria and other Nazi controlled areas, Jewish shops and department stores had their windows smashed and contents destroyed. Synagogues were especially targeted for vandalism, including desecration of sacred Torah scrolls. Hundreds of synagogues were systematically burned while local fire departments stood by or simply prevented the fire from spreading to surrounding buildings. 7500 businesses destroyed, 267 synagogues burned (with 177 totally destroyed) and 91 Jews killed.

"The Jewish people ought to be exterminated root and branch "The Jewish people ought to be exterminated root and branch. Then the plague of pests would have disappeared in Poland at one stroke.“ Der Stürmer, a Nazi newspaper, published by Julius Streicher September 1939

January 25, 1940 Nazis choose the town of Oswiecim (Auschwitz) near Krakow as site of a new concentration camp. September 16, 1940 Congress passes the United States military conscription act.

March 1, 1941 Himmler makes his first visit to Auschwitz, during which he orders Kommandant Höss to begin massive expansion, including a new compound to be built at nearby Birkenau that can hold 100,000 prisoners.

December 7, 1941 The United States is attacked by Japanese aircraft at Pearl Harbor. The next day, the United States and Britain declare war on Japan.

"I ask nothing of the Jews except that they should disappear.“ Hans Frank, Gauleiter of Poland 1941

December 10, 1942 The first transport of Jews from Germany arrives at Auschwitz.

“… Most of you know what it means to see a hundred corpses lying together, five hundred, or a thousand. To have gone through this and yet - apart from a few exceptions, examples of human weakness - to have remained decent fellows, this is what has made us hard. This is a glorious page in our history that has never been written and shall never be written … “ Heinrich Himmler, to SS Group Leaders in Posen October 4, 1943

April 14, 1944 Elie Wiesel and his family are deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

D-Day: Allied forces land in Normandy. June 6, 1944 D-Day: Allied forces land in Normandy.

On October 30, the gas chambers at Auschwitz are used for the last time. October through December 1944 Oskar Schindler saves 1200 Jews by moving them from Plaszow labor camp to his hometown of Brunnlitz.

April 29, 1945 United States 7th Army liberates Dachau. April 30, 1945 Hitler commits suicide in his Berlin bunker. November 20, 1945 The tribunal at Nuremberg convenes to try Nazi war criminals.

Aftermath Military Casualties 24,456,700 Civilian Casualties 32,326,100 Jewish Casualties 5,754,000 Total Casualties 62,536,800 Living Survivors 834,000 Aftermath

“I decided to devote my life to telling the story because I felt that having survived I owe something to the dead, and anyone who does not remember betrays them again.” Elie Wiesel