Holocaust Timeline

Wall Chart SYSTEMATIC PERSECUTION

Humiliation

Identification

Segregation

Concentration

Annihilation

2 1914 –1932... Before

1914 –1918 World War I Involved a great many combatant nations and caused the deaths of 21 million people

1918 Germany defeated in World War I

1919 Versailles Treaty Drafted by Britain, France and the United States and signed on 28 June 1919. Germans resent the peace treaty imposed on them by the victorious Allies which forces them to yield territory and pay huge reparations. It also places strict limitations on the German armed forces, not only in size (100,000 men) but also in armaments: Germany not allowed to retain an airforce, tanks or submarines and could maintain only 6 capital naval ships. Many Germans blame the Jews for their country’s defeat

1919 –1933 Weimar Republic

1920 The German Workers’ Party becomes the (National Socialist German Workers’ Party – Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei )

1921 Hitler becomes leader of the Nazi Party

1929 The Great Depression begins

1930 The Nazi Party has the second-largest representation in the Reichstag

1932 Six million German workers are unemployed

In the Reichstag elections of November 1932, the Nazis lose almost two million votes from the previous elections of July. It is clear that the Nazis will not gain a majority and Hitler agrees to a coalition with conservatives. After months of negotiations, President Paul von Hindenburg agrees to appoint Hitler Chancellor of Germany

3 1933–1945... THE HOLOCAUST

Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany Discrimination and persecution of Jews become 1933 Establishment of concentration camps begins widespread 1934 Night of Long Knives Political opponents of Hitler eliminated

Nuremberg Laws Jews deprived of their German citizenship 1935 Other far-reaching statutes introduced 1938 Anschluss (annexation of Austria); Evian Conference; Munich Agreement; (November ); Kindertransports 1939 Czechoslovakia dismantled; Germany invades Poland; WORLD WAR II BEGINS 1940 controls most of Europe Thousands of ghettos established signed between Germany, Italy and Japan 1941 Operation Barbarossa Killing squads ( Einsatzgruppen ) systematically Germany invades Soviet Union murder Jews throughout eastern territories First death camp established at Chelmno: gassing of Jews begins Bombing of American fleet in Pearl Harbor America enters the war

Wannsee Conference at which decision to murder 1942 Jews by poison gas is endorsed Operation Reinhard Establishment of further death camps 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising Ghetto razed, inhabitants murdered or deported Rescue of Danish Jews

Round-up, and murder of Hungarian Between July and September 437,000 deported to 1944 Jews Auschwitz-Birkenau where most were gassed Soviets liberate Majdanek Start of Death Marches 1945 Liberation of Auschwitz and other camps Hitler commits suicide Germany surrenders Atom bombs dropped on Japan WORLD WAR II ENDS

AFTERMATH Nuremberg War trials begin United Nations established Millions of Holocaust survivors become Displaced Persons. DP camps established in former concentration camps. Many Jewish DPs have no families left nor homes to go back to. Post-war persist against Jews in more than 1,600 incidents recorded in eastern Europe

Yad Vashem inaugurates the award of Righteous Presented to non-Jewish people who risked their 1953 Among the Nations lives to save Jews during the Holocaust

CONCERNS TODAY , Racism , Holocaust Denial , Distortion of the Holocaust

4 1933 n January – Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany and leader of the government n Violence and persecution of German Jews by Stormtroopers (the SA) begins immediately

March – Book burning: Jewish religious books as German beer mat with the slogan n ‘Whoever buys from Jews is a traitor to the people’ well as books by Jewish authors and books about IWM Jews are condemned and burnt in public bonfires. Other books written by writers considered by Hitler and the Nazis to be degenerate or ‘un- German’, are also thrown into the fires and burnt n April – Boycott of Jewish shops, businesses and professions n Jews forced out of jobs in the civil service, academia and the press n Laws passed permitting the forced sterilisation of mentally and physically disabled persons, Roma and other ethnic minorities

Adolf Hitler shakes hands with the President of Germany, Paul von Hindenburg, after being appointed Chancellor of Germany

Stormtroopers fix notices in shop windows: Burning of 20,000 books in Berlin ‘Germans! Defend yourselves! Don’t buy from Jews!’ on the night of 10 May 1933 USHMM USHMM

5 1934 n – Hitler orders the Night of the Long Knives purge of SA paramilitary leaders as he fears a threat to his power; consequently, the SS 30 June–1 July 1934 becomes the prime instrument of Nazi terror As early as 1933, Hitler was ‘removing’ anyone he suspected of disloyalty or who had opposed n Death of Paul von Hindenburg, President of him in the past. The Night of the Long Knives Germany; Hitler becomes head of state was ’s great purge, ridding the Nazi Party of those he distrusted, as well as anti-Nazi n Discrimination against Jews increases figures within Germany and members of his paramilitary wing, the SA. The last Chancellor of the Weimar Republic, Kurt von Schleicher, was Jewish actors and entertainers banned from n murdered that night, as was Ernst Rohm, once performing on stage and screen Hitler’s loyal friend and devotee. The Night of the Long Knives claimed over 200 lives. Other victims

As well as Jews, the Nazis persecuted other groups of people whom they considered ‘inferior’ or who opposed Nazi ideology. These included: people with disabilities, Roma and Sinti people, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christians of all denominations, Communists, trade unionists and political opponents, Poles, Slavs, black and mixed race people, and other minorities.

Members of the SA with political prisoners at 234 Friedrichstrasse, Berlin, March 1933. BPK Berlin

‘Gypsies’

The of the Roma took place during the Holocaust.

The Romany people of Europe were formerly called ‘Gypsies’, a term which many of them nowadays regard as offensive. It is the term the Nazis used when referring to them.

Reconstructed still photograph from the US documentary The March of Time . On the blackboard is written ‘The Jew is our worst enemy’

6 1935

Nuremberg Laws n Jews deprived of their German citizenship n Jews classified as a ‘race’ n Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honour: Jews forbidden to marry Germans or have sexual relationships with Germans n Laws introduced forbidding Jews from public places: parks, cafés, cinemas, etc. n Law for the Protection of the Fatherland: Jews forbidden to farm. Jews forbidden to enter swimming pools n formally adopted as the official symbol of Nazi Germany

‘Jews are not wanted here’, USHMM Swastika, which became Germany’s new flag, is displayed at a Nazi rally in Nuremberg

Jew forced to carry sign: ‘I am a racial defiler’ USHMM

Stylised map illustrating the Nuremberg Law Park bench ‘not for Jews’ for the Protection of German Blood and Honour Hulton archive, Getty Images © USHMM

7 1936

Roll call at Sachsenhausen concentration camp,1936 Yad Vashem n Establishment of Sachsenhausen concentration camp, which became the prototype for other camps ADOLF HITLER n German heavyweight boxer Max Schmeling, a former 1889 –1945 world champion, defeats African-American heavyweight Joe Louis; Hitler turns the fight into a 1889 Born in Austria propaganda victory for Aryan superiority 1913 Hitler states that the n German authorities order the arrest and forcible ultimate aim of relocation of all Roma in Berlin to a special camp in antisemitism should be the the Berlin suburb of Marzahn total removal of the Jews n Berlin Olympic Games 1921 Becomes chairman of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) 1923 Attempts to seize control of government, fails, imprisoned for nine months 1924 In prison Hitler writes (‘My Struggle’) 1933 Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany 1934 Hindenburg dies Night of Long Knives – murder of Hitler’s political opponents 1939 Germany invades Poland Britain and France declare war on Germany, Olympic torch arrives in Berlin USHMM World War II begins n Mass arrests of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany; most 1945 30 April, Hitler commits suicide are sent to concentration camps Rome–Berlin Axis Agreement signed Today I will once more be a prophet: if the international n Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in n Spanish Civil War 1936 –1939 – Hitler defies Treaty plunging the nations once more into a world war, of Versailles Agreement and sends German pilots to then the result will be… the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe! Adolf Hitler aid of Franco

8 1937 n Intensity of German antisemitism and anti-Jewish propaganda increases n Jews forbidden to work as doctors, dentists or academics n Jews forbidden to serve in the army n Establishment of Buchenwald concentration camp n Antisemitic exhibition, Der ewige Jude (‘The eternal Jew’), opens in Munich

‘Gnawing away at the Nations of the World’ © Der Stu ̈rmer , no. 39, 28 September 1944 The Nazis often referred to the Jews as insects or vermin. This antisemitic image is supposed to show a Jew depicted as an insect. In the centre of its eyes one can see the dollar sign and the hammer and sickle, as it devours the world. Poster for Der ewige Jude

Hitler Youth, boys , girls (League of German Girls) Yad Vashem Yad Vashem

9 1938

March – Anschluss annexation of Austria as part of Passport issued to Inge n Frankel from Vienna with ‘J’ Nazi Germany. Approximately 200,000 more Jews clearly stamped on it in red come under Hitler’s control. Persecution of Austrian Jews begins immediately n Switzerland persuades Germany to mark all passports belonging to Jews with a red letter J n July – Evian Conference convened by President Roosevelt of the United States. 32 countries invited to consider the unfolding plight of Jewish refugees Kristallnacht n Septemb er – Munich Pact: Britain, France and Italy sign agreement with Nazi Germany by which they agree to cede the Sudetenland (mostly German- speaking borderlands of Czechoslovakia) n October – Jews with Polish citizenship resident in Germany declared ‘stateless’ and sent to Polish border to await ‘resettlement’ n November – pogrom known as Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass). Nationwide violence against the Jews of Germany and Austria. Synagogues and Jewish schools set ablaze, windows of Jewish shops and businesses smashed leaving the streets strewn with glass. Jewish homes wrecked and looted. Over a thousand Jews beaten to death, 35,000 Jewish men thrown into concentration camps. Jewish communities forced to pay for the damage. Jews realise they are in grave danger, large numbers flee

Burning synagogue in Euskirchen, Germany, on the afternoon of 10 November 1938, USHMM Kindertransports

Jews being forced to scrub the streets in Vienna with toothbrushes and nailbrushes The impact of USHMM Kristallnacht prompts Britain to accept Evian Conference 10,000 child refugees 6–15 July – Evian Conference convened by Franklin D. from Germany, Austria, Roosevelt to consider Jewish refugee policies. Out of all Czechoslovakia and of the delegates from 32 countries, including the United Poland. They arrive States, Britain, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, via Holland on special Brazil, Ireland and others, none was willing to take in Helga Kreiner arriving in trains known as Britain off a Kindertransport more Jewish refugees. train, 22 December 1938 Kindertransports. Yad Vashem

10 1939

n 15 March – Germany dismantles the Czechoslovakian state. German troops seize Prague. Persecution of Czech Jews begins

n 23 August – Germany and Soviet Union sign Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Each country agrees to remain neutral if the other engages in war. In a secret addendum, Germany and the Soviet Union agree upon spheres of interest, thus preparing for the division of Poland

n 1 September – Germany invades Poland n 3 September – Britain and France declare war on Germany

World War II begins

n Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland suffer persecution. In the western part, they are forced to wear yellow labels on their outer clothing, whereas in the Generalgouvernement , which is under German civil administration, they have to wear white armbands with blue Stars of David. Gradually, Jews in all territories under German rule are forced to wear labels

n Thousands of Polish Jews forced into crowded ghettos

n 17 September – Soviet Army occupies Eastern Poland

n T4 Euthanasia Programme to murder people with disabilities in Germany and Austria begins

n Thousands of other victims are also targeted by the Nazis during the Holocaust

11 1940 Map showing Jewish communities before the Holocaust n 27 September – Tripartite Pact signed by Germany, Italy and Japan, known as the , later joined by Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia n 14 May – Holland surrenders n 25 May – Belgium surrenders n 25 June – France surrenders n By mid-1940 Germany dominates most of Europe, persecuting Jews in all countries that come under its control Yad Vashem Jewish people lived in all the countries in Europe before World War II. The largest Jewish community was in Poland. A great number of communities in Poland and the Soviet territories were utterly destroyed during the Holocaust.

Ghettos – Jewish ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe The Germans established hundreds of ghettos in countries under their control where they incarcerated Jews, Roma and others, separating them from the rest of the population. Ghettos were created in cities and large towns, close to railways, from where residents could be easily deported to killing sites, concentration camps or death camps. Many ghettos were walled in or fenced off, and residents who left them without permission were usually severely punished. It is estimated that more than a million Jews died in them. The brutality, harsh living conditions, starvation rations and disease added to the death toll.

Entrance to the Lodz Ghetto; the sign reads ‘Jewish residential Wooden pedestrian bridge over Chłodna Street, Warsaw, used by Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, 1942 district, entry forbidden’ The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute USHMM

12 1941 n 6 April – Germany invades Greece and Yugoslavia n Operation Barbarossa , the invasion of Soviet and eastern territories on 22 June 1941, involves the German army followed by special killing squads called Einsatzgruppen n More than 33,000 Jews murdered in just two days in Babi Yar, near Kiev n All Jews in Germany forced to wear the yellow star n All Jewish emigration banned n Deportation of Jews from Germany, Austria and the Czech Protectorate to Polish ghettos begins n First death camp/killing centre established at Chelmno; gassing of Jews begins

Hanna Lehrer from Munich wearing the Star of n 7 December – Japan attacks American fleet in Pearl Harbor David. She was deported to Riga and murdered . USHMM Killing squads – Einsatzgruppen

With the invasion of the Soviet Union, German mobile killing squads (Einsatzgruppen) murdered Jews throughout the Eastern Front in towns, villages, fields and cemeteries. They shot mainly Jews but also Roma, Communists and others on racial and ideological grounds. Einsatzgruppen comprised German police, the SS and local collaborators, who were supported by officers and soldiers of the German army. The Einsatzgruppen continued their operations in the eastern occupied territories in parallel to the murders taking place in the death camps.

Einsatzgruppen i n action, Dubossari, 1941 IWM

America enters the war

13 1942 In March 1942, 80% of those European Jews who would eventually be murdered in the Holocaust were still alive. By February 1943, just under one year later, 80% of these European Jews were already dead. Christopher R. Browning n 20 January – The Wannsee Conference takes place at which the delegates agree to support Hitler’s intentions to murder the Jews of Europe by poison gas n Operation Reinhard – establishment of three further death camps/killing centres at Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka, specifically for murdering Poland’s Jews, soon used for killing Jews from many countries of Europe n Mass gassing of Jews begins at Auschwitz-Birkenau n Majdanek, which had been a POW and concentration camp, becomes a death camp n Transports of Jews from Western and Northern Europe begin to arrive at death camps/killing centres Yellow stars made compulsory in France, Belgium and Holland Zyklon B gas can and pellets n Courtesy of Imperial War Museum

Deportations from Western Europe In early 1942, trains began to arrive daily at the death camps. First were Jews from Polish ghettos and the German Reich. Then transports came from all over Europe – France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and Croatia. By August, hundreds and thousands of mainly Jewish people were being murdered in gas chambers in the death camps.

The Wannsee Conference The Wannsee Conference took place at a secluded lakeside villa on the shore of Lake Wannsee, south- west of Berlin. Fifteen senior Nazi and German officials had been summoned by Reich Security Main Office and head of German secret police, . He was seeking agreement and approval for the implementation of infrastructure and mechanisms required to carry out the total annihilation of the Jewish people of Europe by murdering them with poison gas in specially constructed death camps with gas chambers. presented the gathering with a list showing the number of Jews living in each European country. It took the participants at the conference less than two hours to make their decisions and to offer Heydrich their full support. List presented to th e Wannsee Conference setting out the numbe r of Jews in each country

14 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising Death camps / 19 April, 1943 killing centres In July 1942 the Nazis began to destroy the There were six death camps, all of them in Nazi- population of the Warsaw Ghetto, transporting occupied Poland. The only purpose of four of these more than 300,000 to the gas chambers at camps – Chelmno, Treblinka, Sobibor and Belzec – Treblinka. On 19 April 1943, realising their fate, a was murder. Most people died within a few hours of group of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto rebelled arrival. As a result, the names of these camps are against their Nazi oppressors, determined to die generally unfamiliar. The other two death camps, with honour. The desperate Jewish uprising of the Majdanek and Auschwitz, also functioned as POW, Warsaw Ghetto was led by Mordechai Anielewicz. slave-labour and concentration camps and were 7,000 Jews died in the uprising, which lasted until more widely known. May. In the end, the Nazis razed the Warsaw Ghetto to the ground. The vast majority of its population had been murdered. Many thousands were transported to the death camps. Few survived.

Operation Reinhard Between March 1942 and August 1943 three death camps were built, in Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka, in honour of Reinhard Heydrich, who had been assassinated. Some 1,700,000 Jews, mostly from Poland, were murdered in gas chambers in these camps, most within a few hours of their arrival. Corpses were burnt to eliminate all evidence of the murders. These camps were dismantled on completion of their ‘function’, and all traces of their existence were destroyed. The lands where they had stood were planted as forests, farms and grasslands. Map of the death camps in the Nazi-occupied territories

Belzec stood at this place. A memorial has since been erected on this site. Photographing Traces of Memory , Chris Schwartz, Galicia Jewish Museum, Krakow

n Rescue of Danish Jews n Fishermen and citizens of Denmark ferry most of the nation’s Jewish community in boats and seafaring craft to safety in neutral Sweden

15 1944

Transport of Hungarian Jews on their way to extermination Yad Vashem n 19 March – Germany occupies Hungary n Round-up and deportation of Hungarian Auschwitz-Birkenau Jews under the direction of Adolf Eichmann The largest of the camp complexes, it had 40 sub-camps n In just eight weeks, some 437,000 Hungarian incorporated into the site at Auschwitz-Birkenau, which Jews are deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. also served as a concentration camp, labour camp and Local Hungarian Nazis, called Arrow Cross, death camp. murdered thousands more by shooting many Murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau of them into the river Danube. It is estimated 1,100,000 Jews that between 500,000 and 560,000 c. 150,000 Poles Hungarian Jews are murdered by the Nazis 23,000 Roma and Sinti people and their collaborators 15,000 Soviet POWs ____2_5_,0_0_0_ others n 6 June – D-Day – Allied landing in Total number of victims: 1,313,000 Normandy Start of Death Marches and destruction of Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by the Soviet Army on 27 n January 1945. They found 7,650 prisoners alive. evidence (Data provided by Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum) n 24 July – Soviet troops liberate Majdanek Death Marches As the Allies closed in, the Nazis wanted to remove all traces of their murderous deeds in the concentration and death camps. They forced prisoners to march on foot out of the camps back towards Germany. These journeys were known as ‘Death Marches’. Thousands of prisoners, already weakened by starvation, hard labour and ill treatment, perished on the way.

Death March from Auschwitz to Gross Rosen

Yad Vashem

16 1945 n Allies liberate n 27 January – Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz-Birkenau n 15 April – British liberate Bergen-Belsen concentration camp n 30 April – Hitler commits suicide. The last lines he writes call for his followers to complete his to the Jewish Question :

Above all I charge the leaders of the nation and those under them to scrupulous observance of the laws of race and to merciless opposition to the universal poisoner of all peoples, international Jewry. Adolf Hitler n 7 May – Germany surrenders n 8 May – VE Day – Victory in Europe day n 15 August – VJ Day – Victory over Japan day World War II ends n November – begin

American troops liberate Mauthausen concentration camp USHMM

17 After the Holocaust

In the interwar years, before Hitler and the Nazi party came to power in 1933, Jewish people in Germany and elsewhere in Europe had made significant contributions to European culture, with major achievements in the areas of literature, art, music, science and commerce. On 1 September 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, and World War II began. By the end of the war, most of the European Jewish communities had been decimated by the Holocaust, and a great many of those in Eastern Europe and parts of the Balkans had been utterly destroyed.

Displaced Post-war Persons pogroms

Camps Violence against Jewish people Liberating forces persisted after converted many of the former concentration the Holocaust, and more than camps into Displaced American serviceman helps little girl put on her shoe, Persons camps, where DP camp, Germany, 1946. Yad Vashem 1,600 incidents the international agencies assisted in repatriating more were recorded. than seven million survivors. For most of the DPs, the The Kielce process was straightforward. But it was not so easy to pogrom took repatriate Jewish survivors, as most of them had lost place in Poland in their homes and families. Hostility and antisemitism 1946, when 42 were still prevalent, and many left to build new lives in Jews were new lands. The majority of the DP camps were closed murdered. Burial of Jewish victims of Kielce pogrom, Poland, 1946 down by 1951, but some lasted until as late as 1957. Yad Vashem

Holocaust survivors in Ireland Righteous Among The Nations

Suzi Diamond Jan Kaminski Doris Segal Tomi Reichental Mary Elmes, Raoul Wallenberg, Irena Sendler, Khaled Abdelwahhab, Ireland Sweden Poland Tunisia A handful of Jewish survivors settled in Ireland after … for he who saves one life is regarded as if he has the war. saved the world entire… (TB Sanhedrin 4:5) In 1953, Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Remembrance Authority Suzi Diamond , born Karcag, Hungary, survived Bergen- in Israel, inaugurated the award of Righteous Among the Belsen concentration camp. Nations. This is presented to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jewish people during the Holocaust. To date, more than Jan Kaminski , born Bilgoraj, Poland, survived massacre 26,000 Righteous have been recognised. They come from of the Jewish community of his town. diverse social, religious and ethnic backgrounds. They are individuals, families, groups, diplomats, businessmen, Doris Segal , born Chomotow, Czechoslovakia, escaped Christians, Muslims and Arabs. There are many more whose to Ireland in 1939 but her remaining family perished. stories we will never learn. The Talmudic quotation, which is included in the Yad Vashem citation of the award should be Tomi Reichental , born Piestany, Slovakia, survived Bergen- treated literally: not only those Jews who have been Belsen concentration camp with his mother, brother, personally saved by the Righteous owe them their lives, aunt and cousin. 35 members of his family perished. but all of their descendants too.

18 Reflections

Grodno, Byelorussia: a street in a shtetl Suddenly, all those places where Jews had lived for hundreds of years had vanished. And I thought that in years to come, long after the slaughter, Jews might want to hear about the places which had disappeared, about the life that once was and no longer is.

Roman Vishniac

USHMM In 1939, between nine and twelve million Jewish people lived in Europe, six million of whom perished in the Holocaust. Millions of other victims were also murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators.

Map showing Jewish communities after the Holocaust

The figures on the black panels indicate the number of Jews murdered in each country. Yad Vashem

19 © Lynn Jackson, 2017, Holocaust Education Trust Ireland Produced with support from the Teacher Education Section, Department of Education and Skills, Ireland. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means without permission in writing.

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