Concentration/Extermination Camp Timeline – a Teacher’S Resource From

Concentration/Extermination Camp Timeline – A teacher’s resource from

Auschwitz Bergen-Belsen Mauthausen Nazi history

The notorious arrival Josef Kramer (the “Beast of Heinrich Himmler on the Nazi party congress at platform Belsen”) under arrest “Stairway of death” Nuremberg 1933

Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor, the leader of the German government.

Hitler’s government organises a boycott of Jewish shops, doctors and lawyers. The Nazis say that ‘real’ Germans must not buy from Jews.

Hitler’s government bans all other political parties. Now Hitler and his party are in total command. Germany has become a dictatorship.

The Concentration Camp at Dachau was opened 22 March 1933 to house people regarded as political or other threats to German society.

Prisoners were identified by badges of different colours, for example, homosexuals wore pink badges and Jehovah’s witnesses wore violet.

1935 1935

The Wehrmacht (German Hitler’s government armed forces) began to build introduces Race Laws. a large military complex German Jews have their close to the town of Bergen rights taken away from in Northern Germany. them. Jews and non-Jews are no longer allowed to get The construction workers are married. housed in camps which later are to become the base for Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp.

1938 1938

The Mauthausen After a prolonged period of concentration camp was economic problems and established in the intense Nazi propaganda summer of 1938 and within Austria, German became the main Nazi troops entered the country camp on Austrian on March 12, 1938. They territory. received the enthusiastic support of most of the It was erected on the population. Austria is now basis of plans by the SS to incorporated into Germany. establish a special Austrian concentration At a conference in Evian to camp for men and to discuss the plight of the Jews create greater detention nearly all the nations capacities in preparation attending are unwilling to for the impending war. take in Jewish refugees.

It was built near an In November, the Nazis abandoned stone quarry, destroy Jewish synagogues, along the Danube River, shops and homes about 12.5 miles throughout Germany. More southeast of Linz. than 30,000 Jewish men are arrested, and 200 Jews are The first prisoners murdered. Later this night (approximately 300) becomes known as arrived on 8 August 1938 Kristallnacht: the ‘Night of from the concentration Broken Glass’. camp in Dachau. They were mostly Austrians and virtually all convicted repeat offenders or persons whom the Nazi regime classified as “asocials”. Their task was to begin construction of the new camp. By the end of 1938, Mauthausen held nearly 1,000 prisoners.

1939 1939

By December 1939, the Hitler publicly forecasts the number had increased to annihilation of the Jewish over 2,600 prisoners, race in Europe should war primarily convicted come. criminals, "asocials," political opponents, and Germany occupies Prague. religious conscientious objectors, such as Germany invades Poland. Jehovah's Witnesses. Britain and France declare war on Germany. The war in Europe has begun. Mass killings of anyone in Poland thought to be influential and a possible threat to the Nazis.

Hitler authorises secret programme (T4) for the killing of people with disabilities.

1940 1940 1940 1940

The concentration camp German military authorities After the fall of France in The German army attacks was established by the establish Bergen-Belsen as a June 1940, Vichy French Denmark and Norway and Germans, in the suburbs prisoner-of-war camp in the authorities turned over to invades the Low Countries of Oswiecim, a Polish city former construction workers’ the German SS and police and France. that was annexed by the camp. thousands of Spanish Nazis. Its name was refugees, virtually all of France surrenders to the changed to Auschwitz. In June 1940, Belgian and whom had fought against German forces. French POWs start to arrive. General Franco's rebel The first and oldest troops during the Spanish Italy enters the war on the camp, the so-called Civil War, and who had side of the Nazis. "main camp" (later also fled to France after known as "Auschwitz I") Franco overthrew the Germany, Japan and Italy was established on the Spanish Republic in 1939. make a treaty. They promise site (and in the 22 brick to help each other in buildings) of pre-war The SS and police attacking the United States. Polish barracks. incarcerated the overwhelming majority of The Vichy Government in Mass arrests of Poles the Spanish Republicans, France issue anti-Jewish were increasing beyond more than 7,000, in laws. the capacity of existing Mauthausen in 1940 (and "local" prisons to cope. 1941). The Warsaw ghetto is isolated.

1941 1941 1941 1941

The second development This first installation was In January 1941, SS Germany invades Greece was the Birkenau camp significantly expanded from General Reinhard and Yugoslavia. also known as June 1941 becoming an Heydrich, the chief of the "Auschwitz II" This was independent camp. It was Reich Main Office for Germany attacks Russia the largest part of the intended to hold up to Security supported by the armies of Auschwitz complex. The 20,000 Soviet POWs. (Reichssicherheitshaupta Hungary, Italy and Romania. Nazis began building it mt;RSHA), designated on the site of the village Mauthausen as a Mobile killing units of the of Brzezinka, 3 category III concentration Einsatzgruppen murder kilometers from camp, in which the SS thousands of communists Oswiecim. The Polish would incarcerate only and Jews (including women civilian population had those prisoners whom and children). been evicted and their the RSHA deemed to be houses confiscated and "severely incriminated, Over 3 million Soviet demolished. especially previously prisoners of war are forced convicted criminals and into temporary camps and The idea of founding a asocials—that means the majority die over the camp in Brzezinka is protective detainees who next year. connected with Heinrich have only remote Himmler’s first potential for reform." In Germany, all Jews aged six inspection of Auschwitz or older must wear a yellow on March 1, 1941. Inmates in the Star of David. Original plans called for punishment group were the POWs who would be forced to carry heavy Japan bombs the American imprisoned there to build stone blocks up 186 steps fleet in Pearl Harbour. The the camp themselves. from the camp quarry. next day America declares 10,000 Soviet POWs The steps became known war on Japan, as does were brought from other as the "Stairway of Britain. Germany supports camps for this purpose in Death." Japan with a declaration of October 1941 and they war against the United were to build a facility to States. house 125,000 POWs. Over 30,000 Jews are shot in Soviet POWs were the a massacre at Babi Yar close first prisoners in to Kiev. Auschwitz to be tattooed with numbers. Over 44,000 Jews many of whom who had been The greater part of the deported by the Hungarian apparatus of mass government as “aliens” were extermination was built killed at Kamenets-Podolsk in Birkenau and the in the Ukraine. majority of the victims were murdered here. Several thousand Jews are murdered in Iasi in Romania The decision was now and the government begins made to locate mass deportations of Jews from extermination facilities Bessarabia (now Moldova) adjacent to the camp and Bukovina (now in that was under Ukraine) to Transnistria construction in (Romanian-occupied Birkenau—gas chambers Ukraine). Many thousands for the mass killing of die in mass executions and Jews brought to Birkenau from starvation/disease. as part of the Third Reich leadership’s plans for the complete extermination of the Jews of Europe.

The first victims of Zyklon B gas in Auschwitz are 600 Soviet POWs and 250 Polish and other prisoners in the cellars of block 11.

1942 1942 1942 1942

Birkenau opened as a By the end of March 1942, Other than four Yugoslav High-ranking Nazis come branch of Auschwitz in some 41,000 Soviet POWs women whom the SS together in a secret meeting March 1942, and served had died in these camps of brought to Mauthausen (Wannsee Conference). They at the same time as a starvation, exhaustion, and with 46 men to be shot in discuss how to carry out a center for the disease. April 1942, the first decision which Hitler had extermination of the female prisoners in already taken in 1941: to kill Jews. Mauthausen were two all 11 million Jews in Europe. dozen women from Adolph Eichmann discusses Two provisional gas Ravensbrück, whom the plans to deport the Jews chambers, known as SS transferred to provide from France, Belgium and bunkers 1 and 2, went sex for favoured male the Netherlands. into operation next to prisoners. The women the Birkenau arrived in June 1942 and Deportations from ghettos construction site in 1942, lived in the first bordello to camps are accelerated. when Auschwitz established in the Nazi commandant Rudolf concentration camp The Warsaw ghetto is almost Höss was entrusted with system. emptied by deportations. carrying out part of the Over 700,000 Jews are campaign to exterminate murdered by gassing in the Jews. Treblinka in 5 months.

They were adapted The German army retreats farmhouses that from North Africa after it is previously belonged to defeated in Egypt by British expelled Poles. The first troops led by Montgomery. began operating in early 1942, probably in March, and the second in mid- year.

The construction of a complex of four gigantic gas chambers and crematoria began in mid- 1942. The Germans estimated that 1.6 million people a year could be killed and cremated there.

Heinrich Himmler gives the order to transport all Jews in concentration camps in Germany to Auschwitz extermination camp.

From mid-1942 the camp was occupied mainly by Jews, Poles, and Gypsies

More than 40 sub-camps, exploiting the prisoners as slave labourers, were founded, mainly at various sorts of German industrial plants and farms, between 1942 and 1944. The largest of them was called Monowitz/Buna (with ten thousand prisoners) and was opened by the camp administration in 1942 on the grounds of the Buna-Werke synthetic rubber and fuel plant 6 kilometers from the Auschwitz camp.

1943 1943 1943 1943

On November 1943, the SS persuade the army to The concentration camp The German army Buna sub-camp became hand over to them part of fulfilled two functions for surrenders at Stalingrad the seat of the the prisoner of war camp. the SS: to restrain after a battle lasting 5 commandant of the third political and ideological months. part of the camp, In July 1943 the first inmates opponents of Nazism by Auschwitz III, to which of the Bergen-Belsen interning, torturing and Warsaw ghetto uprising in some other Auschwitz detention camp were killing them and to act as May/June. sub-camps were received. a deterrent; and also to subordinated. exploit their labour to the 75,000 American Jews This camp was designed to utmost. demonstrate in New York. The deportation to the be different. It was created They want their government camp of the Sinti and to house Jews and others Until 1943 the to help the Jews in Europe. Roma began in February who were valuable alive and extermination of 1943 and continued until who might be exchanged for "opponents" was the The Allies begin night July 1944. The Sinti and money or captured German most important priority. bombing of Berlin. Roma imprisoned in the nationals. camp came primarily Italy surrenders. German from Germany, Austria, On 7 July the first transport occupation of Rome the Protectorate of of Jewish prisoners arrives in following Mussolini’s fall Bavaria and Moravia, and the “special camp” from power. Poland, with smaller (Sonderlager) from Poland. groups arriving from Danish Jews are largely France, the Netherlands, This was followed in August saved by escaping to Yugoslavia/Croatia, by a transfer from Greece of Sweden with the help of the Belgium, the USSR, Jewish prisoners from Danish people. Lithuania, and Hungary. neutral countries—Spain, There is also mention of Portugal, Argentina, and Roosevelt, Stalin and Sinti and Roma citizens Turkey arriving in the Churchill, the leaders of the of Norway and Spain. “neutrals camp” 3 largest Allied countries, (Neutralenlager). meet in Tehran (Iran) to The women’s discuss how they can defeat camp (opened in August The SS establishes the “star Germany and Japan. They 1942) expanded in July camp” (Sternlager) when the also make plans for a peace 1943. Over 10,000 first transport of Jewish organisation to be set up women of various ethnic prisoners arrives from the after the war. origins (the majority of Netherlands. them Jews, but also Start of daylight raids by including Poles, In October the SS and allied bombers on German Germans, and others) German police deport cities. were transferred to around 1,800 prisoners from Birkenau from Auschwitz the “special camp” I, where they had been to Auschwitz. held temporarily. 1944 1944 1944 1944

Auschwitz I was the main The SS closes the first section During the war, forced The Allies bomb Germany, camp in Oświęcim. In of the “prisoners' camp,” labour using using 7,000 aircraft. August 1944, it held which housed non-Jewish concentration camp about 16,000 prisoners prisoners whom the SS prisoners became Hungarian support for (mainly Jews and Poles). authorities had brought to increasingly important to Germany weakens so This was the location of Bergen-Belsen to construct German armaments German troops take control the SS garrison the “residence camp.” production. In the of Hungary in March. administration (SS summer and autumn of Standortverwaltung) The SS authorities release 1944, sub-camps under In May and June Hungarian around 365 Jewish prisoners the administration of Jews (outside of Budapest) The vast majority of the from the “neutrals camp,” Mauthausen were are put in ghettos and victims of Auschwitz dispatching them to the established near deported to Auschwitz. Camp died in Birkenau - border of Spain. armaments factories approximately a million throughout northern In July an assassination people. More than nine The “prisoners' camp” begins Austria. The staff at attempt on Hitler led by out of every ten, were serving as a collection camp Mauthausen Colonel Claus von Jews. A large proportion for sick and injured prisoners administered more than Stauffenberg fails. of the more than 70,000 from other concentration 60 subcamps, including Poles who died or were camps. This section becomes Gusen, Gunskirchen, Romania declares war on killed in the Auschwitz known as the “recuperation Melk, Ebensee, and Germany in August and joins complex perished in camp” (Erholungslager). Amstetten. Thousands of with Soviet forces. Birkenau as were prisoners were worked to approximately 20,000 222 Jewish prisoners from death Soviet and Romanian forces Gypsies, in addition to the “star camp” are encircle Budapest. Soviet POWs and other permitted to leave for With the arrival of more prisoners. Palestine in exchange for women in 1944, the German citizens held on Inspectorate of In the Czech or Terezín British territory. Concentration Camps “family camp” (within classified Mauthausen as Auschwitz) the in-mates The SS establishes the a women's concentration were kept together. “Hungarian camp” camp (Frauen- Then, on March 8 and 9, (Ungarnlager) when the first Konzentrationslager) on 1944, the family camp transport of over 1,600 September 15, 1944. By was “liquidated” through Hungarian Jews arrives in the end of September the murder of its Bergen-Belsen. 1944, 459 women were in inhabitants. the main camp: 392 Within the “prisoners' camp” political prisoners (non- In October 1944, a camp the SS erects the “tent Jewish), 38 Jehovah's for several thousand camp” (Zeltlager), to which Witnesses, and 29 so- women prisoners they move sick female called “asocials”. employed producing prisoners, after the artillery-shell fuses in the “recuperation camp” In March 1944, the Union-Werke factory becomes overcrowded. German Armed Forces opened in the new blocks High Command (OKW) in the so-called camp The SS permits the first issued a decree (so-called extension transport of Hungarian “Bullet Decree” or (Schutzhaftlagererweiter Jewish prisoners (around “Operation K”) mandating ung). 300) from the “Hungarian the transport of escaped camp” to leave for and recaptured prisoners In the last two months of Switzerland in return for of war, other than British its existence, after the cash payment. and US prisoners, to closing of the gas Mauthausen to be shot. chambers in October After a storm destroys the The decree applied to all 1944 in connection with “tent camp,” camp officials recaptured officers and the critical military establish the “small women's those recaptured non- situation of the Third camp” (Kleines Frauenlager) commissioned officers Reich and the expected within the “prisoners' camp” deemed no longer Soviet offensive, the and transfers the surviving capable of work. The SS camp entered the phase prisoners of the “tent camp” imprisoned the of final liquidation, which to the “small women's recaptured soldiers in ended with the camp.” barrack 20 in evacuation of the Mauthausen and shot prisoners. The WVHA officially some of them, while designates the Bergen- beating or starving others In the second half of Belsen camp complex a to death. The SS 1944 (and the first 2 concentration camp. incarcerated and killed weeks of January 1945) approximately 5,000 about 65,000 prisoners, SS Captain Josef Kramer recaptured prisoners of including almost all the replaces Adolf Haas as the war in Mauthausen Poles, Russians, and commandant of Bergen- within the framework of Czechs remaining in the Belsen. “Operation K.” camp were evacuated to various industrial plants The SS permits the second Approximately 85 percent in the depths of the transport of Hungarian of the recaptured Reich. Jewish prisoners (around prisoners were Soviet . 1,300) to leave for soldiers; the remainder Switzerland in return for included Polish, Yugoslav, cash payment. An additional Dutch, French, and 4,200 Hungarian Jews arrive Belgian soldiers. in the “Hungarian camp” from Hungary shortly thereafter.

1945 1945 1945 1945

With the continuing In January 1945, the German On March 31, 1945, the Finally in February, Budapest approach of Soviet authorities dissolve the POW SS reported 2,252 female falls. troops, from January 17 camp in Bergen-Belsen and prisoners in the to 21, the Germans establish the “large women's Mauthausen system. The Churchill, Roosevelt and marched approximately camp” (Grosses Frauenlager) majority were non-Jewish Stalin meet at Yalta 56,000 prisoners out of for female prisoners political prisoners with (Ukraine) to discuss how to Auschwitz and its sub- evacuated from other Jewish women being the deal with Germany after the camps in evacuation concentration camps. second largest. Others war. columns mostly heading included Jehovah's west, through Upper and A German-American Witnesses, Gypsies, so- Turkey declares war on Lower Silesia. exchange allows 136 Jewish called “asocials”, Spanish Germany and Japan. “star camp” prisoners with Republicans and The main evacuation Central- and South- convicted criminals. The Soviet and American routes led to Wodzisław American papers to leave for armies meet up at the river Sląski and Gliwice, where Switzerland. Prisoners evacuated by Elbe in Germany. the many evacuation train, by truck, and by columns were merged In January 1945, the SS took forced march from Resistance fighters kill into rail transports. over the POW hospital and Auschwitz, Benito Mussolini, the Italian increased the size of Bergen- Sachsenhausen, and dictator who supported Many prisoners found Belsen. As eastern Gross-Rosen began Hitler. themselves at Bergen- concentration camps were arriving at Mauthausen in Belsen or Mauthausen. evacuated before the early 1945 creating Adolf Hitler commits suicide. advance of the Red Army, at extreme overcrowding. The SS set about their least 85,000 people were Dreadful conditions Europe is liberated from Nazi final steps to remove the transported in cattle cars or deteriorating still further. Germany. This day is known evidence of the crimes marched to Bergen-Belsen Thousands of prisoners as VE Day, the day of victory they had committed in (“death marches”). died from starvation or in Europe. the camp. They made disease (in particular, bonfires of documents By early 1945, prisoners typhus). The United Nations Charter on the camp streets. would sometimes go without is signed in San Francisco. They blew up crematoria food for days; fresh water Mauthausen's gas II and III, which had was also in short supply. chamber remained The American air force drops already been partially operative and the SS an atomic bomb on the dismantled, on January Shortly before British forces murdered nearly 3,000 Japanese cities of Hiroshima 20, and crematorium V, liberate Bergen-Belsen the prisoners from the and Nagasaki and Japan still in operational SS and police authorities infirmary on April 20, surrenders. condition, on January 26. “evacuate” the remaining 1945 and eight days later prisoners from all four the victims were 33 Leading Nazis are brought to On January 23, they had subcamps of the “residence Upper Austrian Social trial in Nuremburg. set fire to “Kanada II,” camp” (the “special camp,” Democratic and the complex of storage “neutrals camp,” “Hungarian Communist opponents of barracks holding camp,” and the “star camp”) the regime. property plundered from in the direction of the victims of Theresienstadt. On May 3, 1945, the SS extermination. abandoned the camp to British forces liberate the custody of a guard About 7,000 prisoners Bergen-Belsen on 15 April unit of 50 Viennese awaited liberation in the 1945 with little resistance. firefighters. Members of Main Camp, Birkenau, an “International and Monowitz. Committee” formed by The trial of Josef Kramer the the prisoners in the last Soldiers of the 60th Army Camp commandant and 44 days of April ran the of the First Ukrainian others began in a gymnasium camp from within until US Front opened the gates in Luneburg on September troops liberated of Auschwitz 17 1945 and 11 were Mauthausen on May 5, Concentration Camp on sentenced to death, 1945. January 27, 1945. including Kramer. An estimated 197,464 But in the relief of prisoners passed through Auschwitz and the city of the Mauthausen camp Oświęcim over 230 system between August Soviet soldiers died in 1938 and May 1945. At combat. least 95,000 died there. More than 14,000 were Jewish.

Acknowledgments

We thank Yad Vashem for the use of images. We also acknowledge the use of materials from the various camp websites.

We are grateful to Professor Dan Stone of Royal Holloway, University of London for giving freely of his advice. Any errors that remain are entirely our own.

We are also grateful to our funders:

International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance

Bernard Charitable Trust

British Embassy Bucharest