1. Holocaust
The Elie Wiesel Story

2. A Timeline Nov. 1918 German government overthrown; republic formed.
11/11/1918 Germany signed armistice with allies, ending WWI.
Sept Adolph Hitler joins the German Workers Party
June 1919 Treat of Versailles is signed
Feb Hitler presents 25 point plan to Nazi Party

3. Hitler: Shaky Beginnings
1920 Nazi Party adopts Swastika as its flag
1923 Hitler attempts to overthrow the government and is imprisoned for treason. He is banned from public speaking until 1927.

4. Nazis Rises to Power 1927 The Nazis start producing propaganda films
1928 Nazi Party wins 12 seats in German Parliament
1930 Nazi Party wins 107 seats in German Parliament
1932 Nazi Party wins 230 seats in German Parliament
Aug The Nazi Party has over 1 million members

5. Nazi Party Propaganda

6. Germany Changes Jan. 1933 Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany
March 1933 Establishment of Dachau Concentration Camp
April 1933 Anti-Jewish
boycott
Nazi films produced due to
tax credit
Books deemed “Un-German” are banned
July 1933 Germany declared a one-party state under Nazi rule

7. Germany Becomes Anti-Semitic
Oct Editor’s rule forbids Jews and those married to Jews from working in journalism
Aug Hitler becomes president
Sept Nuremburg Laws make Jews second-class citizens
July 1937 Buchenwald concentration camp is opened

8. Tensions Build
March 1938 Germany invades and annexes Austria (Hitler’s home country)
Nov Germany issues decree eliminating Jews from economic life
Aug Military censorship of German press
Sept Germany invades
Poland
Sept Jews must give up
radio sets

9. Jews sent to Ghettos April 1940 First Jewish ghetto locked down
May 1940 Auschwitz established
June 1940 Italy enters the war an ally of Germany
Sept Golden Star of David
issued to every Jew
Nov Warsaw ghetto locked down
June 1941 Germany invades Soviet Union

10. Auschwitz
The signs reads:
Arbeit Macht Frei
(Labor leads to
Freedom.)

11. US Enters the War Sept. 1941 First gassing experiments in Auschwitz
Oct Germans forbid Jews from leaving Third Reich
Dec Japan attacks US
at Pearl Harbor
July 1941 Germans begin
mass exterminations at
Auschwitz

12. Attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941
The attack sank four US. Navy battleships (two of which were raised and returned to service later in the war) and damaged four more. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, and one minelayer, destroyed 188 aircraft, and caused personnel losses of 2,402 killed and 1,282 wounded.

13. Genocide
July –Sept Deportation of 265,000 Jews from Warsaw ghetto to killing center
1944 Raphel Lemkin coins term “genocide”
May-July 1944 Deportation of 440,000 Jews from Hungary
June 1944 Red Cross visits Theresienstandt concentration camp

14. Genocide –noun the deliberate and systematic extermination of
a national, racial,
political, or cultural
group.

15. Beginning of the End for Germany
1945 Allied Control Council orders destruction of all Nazi emblems
Allied Control Council dissolves Nazi Party
May 1, 1945 Hitler’s death is announced
Concentration camps liberation begins
Sept Japan surrenders
WWII is over

16. War Crimes
Nov International Military Tribunal begins trial of 21 major Nazi leaders
Ten defendants are executed by hanging
1949 US Tribunal convicts Otto Dietrich of crimes against humanity
1960 Adolf Eichmann is brought to Israel to stand trial and is found guilty in 1961

17. The U.S. Army Liberates Buchenwald Concentration Camp
On April 11,1945, the American Third Army liberates the Buchenwald concentration camp, near Weimar, Germany, a camp that will be judged second only to Auschwitz in the horrors it imposed on its prisoners.
As American forces closed in on the Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald, Gestapo headquarters at Weimar telephoned the camp administration to announce that it was sending explosives to blow up any evidence of the camp--including its inmates. What the Gestapo did not know was that the camp administrators had already fled in fear of the Allies. A prisoner answered the phone and informed headquarters that explosives would not be needed, as the camp had already been blown up, which, of course, was not true.

18. Buchenwald Liberation
The camp held thousands of prisoners, mostly slave laborers. There were no gas chambers, but hundreds, sometimes thousands, died monthly from disease, malnutrition, beatings, and executions. Doctors performed medical experiments on inmates, testing the effects of viral infections and vaccines.
Among the camp's most gruesome characters was Ilse Koch, wife of the camp commandant, who was infamous for her sadism. She often beat prisoners with a riding crop, and collected lampshades, book covers, and gloves made from the skin of camp victims.
Among those saved by the Americans was Elie Wiesel, who would go on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.

19. “A God Who Remembers”
E. Wiesel
At Age 15