Carla Mooney - The Holocaust: Racism and Genocide in World War II

1918

After Germanys defeat in World War I, Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates and flees the country. The Weimar Republic leads Germany.

1919

The Treaty of Versailles forces Germany to accept responsibility and pay reparations for World War I.

1920

A rising Nazi Party star named Adolf Hitler presents a 25-point plan at a Nazi Party meeting.

1923

Hitler and the Nazi Party unsuccessfully attempt to overthrow the Weimar Republic, an event that would become known as the Beer Hall Putsch.

1925

After his release from prison, Adolf Hitler becomes the leader of the Nazi Party.

January 1933

President Paul von Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler chancellor of Germany.

March 1933

The Schutzstaffel, or SS, paramilitary organization opens Dachau concentration camp outside of Munich, Germany.

April 1933

The Nazi Party calls for the boycott of Jewish-owned shops and businesses in Germany.

1933

Beginning in 1933, the Germans pass more than 400 decrees and regulations that restrict the public and private lives of the Jewish people.

1935

Germany passes the Nuremberg Race Laws, which exclude Jews from being German citizens and prohibit them from marrying a person with German blood.

March 1938

Germany annexes Austria.

November 1938

Kristallnacht is a violent two nights of attacks on Jewish people and businesses throughout Germany and its territories.

September 1939

Germany invades Poland, triggering the start of World War II.

October 1939

The Germans establish a ghetto in Piotrkw Trybunalski, Poland.

May 1940

Germany attacks France.

July 1940

The Battle of Britain begins as the British and German air forces battle for air superiority.

October 1940

The Nazis open the Warsaw Ghetto.

September 1941

Mobile killing units shoot about 34,000 Jews at Babi Yar, outside Kiev, Ukraine.

December 1941

Japan bombs Pearl Harbor and the United States enters the war.

December 1941

The first killing operations begin at Chelmno in occupied Poland.

January 1942

Germans begin the mass deportation of more than 65,000 Jews from Lodz to the Chelmno killing center.

January 1942

The Wannsee Conference is held near Berlin, Germany, to discuss the Final Solution.

1942

The Germans start mass deportations of Jews from Europes ghettos to concentration camps and killing centers.

April 1943

Jewish resistance fights back against the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

October 1943

The Danish people evacuate their Jewish citizens before the Nazis are able to deport them.

June 1944

Allied forces invade Normandy, France, on D-Day.

June 1944

The Soviets launch an offensive in the east against Nazi forces.

August 1944

The Allies liberate Paris, France.

January 1945

Thousands of concentration camp prisoners are forced on death marches to empty the camps before Allied forces arrive.

January 1945

Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.

April 1945

Allied forces surround Berlin.

April 1945

American troops liberate Dachau concentration camp.

April 1945

Adolf Hitler commits suicide.

May 1945

Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia is the last death camp to be liberated.

May 1945

Germany surrenders.

November 1945

The Nuremberg trials of leading German officials for war crimes opens before the International Military Tribunal.