WWII and Holocaust Timeline A Brief History

January 30 th, 1933 Hitler is Appointed Chancellor of Germany.

March 24, 1933 German Parliament passes the Enabling Act. –The Enabling Act Gave Hitler dictatorial powers.

September 15, 1935 Nuremberg Race Laws Against Jews enacted. –The laws deprived German Jews of their rights of citizenship, giving them the status of "subjects" in Hitler's Reich. The laws also forbid Jews to marry or have sexual relations with Aryans or to employ young Aryan women as household help

Nuremberg Laws, 1935 Define who is, and who is not, Jewish

August 1 st, 1936 Olympic games in Berlin –Due to international attention, Nazi discrimination against the Jews lessened during the Olympics. –Hitler viewed the Olympics as a time to showcase the new Germany.

Jesse Owens wins the gold medal for the long jump.

November 9 th and 10 th 1938 Kristallnacht

September 1 st, 1939 Nazis invade Poland –The Jewish population was 3.35 million, the largest in Europe –Two days later, September 3 rd, England and France declare war on Germany

December 7 th, 1941 Japanese, Germany’s allies, attack the United States at Pearl Harbor. The Next day, U.S. and Britain declare war on Japan. December 11 th, 1941, Germany declares war on the United States.

Operation Barbarossa June, 1941 Nazis attack USSR, violating the two countries’ non-aggression pact. 4.5 million Nazi troops invade—a major commitment of Nazi resources. After initial success, Soviets hold the line. July 1942, Battle of Stalingrad is bloodiest battle in the history of warfare. –Lasts over five months and costs approximately 1.5 Million lives

Wannsee Conference Berlin, January 1942 Nazi top brass (both military and civilian) meet in secret. Led by General Richard Heydrich (at right) Centralizes power with the SS for the “final solution to the Jewish Question.”

June 6 th, 1944 D-Day: The Allied Troops Invade the beaches of Normandy.

January 27, 1945 Soviet Troops liberate Auschwitz This photo was staged in February after the liberation because they did not have cameras during the actual liberation.

April 20 th, 1945 Hitler commits suicide in his Berlin Bunker. May 7 th - Germany surrenders unconditionally.

November 20 th, 1945 Opening of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal. –After the Allies agreed to bring major Nazi leaders to trial, they had trouble deciding whom to indict. Top Nazi leaders Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Joseph Goebbels had committed suicide, leaving their less powerful colleagues to be held accountable. On October 18, 1945, the United States, Great Britain, France, and Russia issued an indictment against 24 men and six Nazi organizations. Twenty-one of the indicted men eventually sat in the dock in the Nuremberg courtroom. Three of the defendants escaped trial: industrialist Gustav Krupp, who was too frail; Hitler's private secretary Martin Bormann, whose remains were finally located in Berlin in 1972; and labor leader Robert Ley, who hanged himself before the trial.trialAdolf Hitler –

Hermann Göring and Rudolf Hess as the verdicts were being read at Nuremberg.