November 12 Jews are held responsible for the destruction resulting from
Kristallnacht and are ordered to pay reparations of one
billion Reichsmarks.
November 15 Jews forbidden to attend plays, movies, concerts; Jewish
children prohibited from attending German schools.
November 28 Curfews are placed on Jews.
December 8 Jews may no longer attend German universities.
1939
February 22 22,000 American Nazis hold a rally in New York City's
Madison Square Garden, denouncing America's Jews.
Synagogues in the city were defaced with Nazi swastikas.
March 15 Germany conquers Czechoslovakia.
May 3 Hungary adopts anti-Jewish legislation calling for the
deportation of 300,000 Jews.
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At this time approximately 215,000 Jews still live in Germany.
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May 22 Germany and Italy sight the "Pact of Steel" treaty in which
the two countries are bound together economically,
politically and militarily.
June 6 Cuba denies entry to 907 Jewish immigrants from Germany,
including over 400 women and children.
September 1 Germany invades Poland. World War II begins. On this day,
both Britain and France declare war on Germany.
October 12 Deportation of Austrian Jews to Poland begins
October 30 A British report reveals atrocities against Jews and non-
Jews at the Buchenwald concentration camp.
November 23 Reich law requires Jews in Poland to wear the yellow Star of
David.
1940
February 12 Germany begins deportation of German Jews to concentration
camps.
February 21 Construction begins on concentration camp at Auschwitz in
Poland.
May 28 Holland and Belgium fall to the Nazis.
July 16 The Vichy government in France denies citizenship to
naturalized Jews.
V
November 26 German troops begin herding Warsaw's Jewish population into
an enclosed ghetto surrounded by an 8-foot high wall.
Germans deny that antisemitism is the motivation for this
action.
1941
May 15 France -- the Vichy government sends 5,000 Paris Jews
between the ages of 18 and 40 to labor camps.
June 13 Vichy reports the deportation of 12,000 French Jews to
concentration camps for interfering with Franco-German
cooperation.
June 30 Hitler invades Russia
September 6 The German SS announce a policy to take effect on September
19: "Jews who have completed their sixth year are forbidden
to show themselves in public without the Jewish star. This
consists of a six-pointed star, outlined with black
superscription, 'Jew." It must be worn visibly and sewn
securely to the left breast of clothing." The same
announced policy prohibits Jews from leaving their
residential areas without police permission.
October 11 Washington -- It is announced that 2,000 Japanese will be
evacuated from the U.S. west coast.
October 14 Massive deportations of German Jews to concentration camps
begins.
December 8 Following the "surprise" attack on Pearl Harbor by the
Japanese (December 7), the U.S. declares war on Japan.
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Approximately 130,000 Jews now live in Germany.
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1942
January 15 Liquidation of the Lodz ghetto. Jews are transported to
Chelmo death camp in central Poland.
January 20 The Wannsee Conference is held in Berlin. Under the
leadership of Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazis announce what
they call THE FINAL SOLUTION to the "Jewish problem.
The final solution is the extermination of all European
Jews. Thus begins massive deportations of Jews from all
over the Reich to concentration camps in Poland. These
deportation were merely the prelude to extermination.
March 3 Under the War Relocation Authority, directed by Dillon S.
Meyer, the U.S. "interns" 110,000 Japanese-Americans in
"detention centers" for the duration of the war.
March 17 Deportation of Polish Jews to Belsen extermination camp
begins.
May 20 American Negroes are allowed into a segregated U.S. army to
fight world-wide fascism!
June 1 Treblinka death camp opens northeast of Warsaw.
July 21 Liquidation of ghettoes begins at Nieswiez, in Poland, and
soon spreads to other ghettoes.
October 4 All Jews held in German concentration camps are ordered
transported to Auschwitz.
1943
March 13 The Auschwitz death camp is greatly enlarged. It is now
called Auschwitz-Birkenau.
April 19 The uprising in the Warsaw ghetto begins. SS troops under
the command of General Jurgen Stroop attacked the 60,000
Jews living in the area. Despite valiant resistance, the
uprising is crushed and the ghetto liquidated. Most are
taken to Maidanek death camp.
April 21 Jews convicted of crimes are transported to extermination
camps, principally Auchwitz. It is not difficult for a Jew
to be convicted of a crime. Beginning in the middle of
1941, it is a criminal offense to use public transportation,
keep pets, visit a barber shop, possess a typewriter,
possess electrical appliances, possess any woolen or fur
clothing,
May 16 The Warsaw Uprising ends. General Stroop's own records
claim that 56,065 Jews died.
October 14 Over 300 Jewish prisoners escape from Sobibor death camp in
eastern Poland. Himmler orders Sobibor closed and
completely destroyed. The revolt closed a death camp that
had murdered 600,000.
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There are now approximately 15,000 Jews living in the Third Reich.
***************************************************************************
1944
January 29 The Germans announce a plan to breed an Aryan elite by
encouraging unmarried women to bear children of German SS
officers.
March 19 Hungary's Jews are moved to Auschwitz as the Russian army
approaches. The Nazis seem obsessed with the idea that no
evidence of exterminations be left behind.
July 24 Russian troops liberate the Maidanek camp. On the same day,
the Nazis recorded their largest single total of executions-
46,000 Jews were gassed and burned in one day at Auschwitz.
August 23 The last gassings at Auschwitz.
August 27 Reporters visit the liberated camp at Maidanek. Officials
estimate that 1.6 million people were put to death there.
October 26 Himmler orders the destruction of Auschwitz. The Nazis
attempt to hide evidence of the exterminations.
1945
January 17 Soviet troops liberate Warsaw.
January 27 Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz. 5,000 starving inmates
are found still alive.
April 11 U.S. troops liberate Buchenwald.
April 12 Franklin Delano Roosevelt dies of a cerebral hemorrhage.
April 28 Benito Mussolini is shot by a firing squad in Milan.
April 30 Adolph Hitler commits suicide in Berlin.
May 7 Germany surrenders.
August 15 Japan surrenders. World War II is over.
November 22 The Nuremberg War Crimes Trials begin.
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