Timelines of the Holocaust
Late 1930s'
1940
01/09/1939 Jews in Germany are forbidden to be outdoors after 8 p.m. in winter and 9 p.m. in summer. 02/09/1939 The Germans start construction of Stutthof concentration camp in which 65,000 Polish Christians will ultimately perish. 08/09/1939 At Bedzin, 200 Jews are burned alive in a synagogue by the Germans who charge Poles with the crime, and then execute 30 of them in a public square. 21/09/1939 Heydrich issues instructions to SS Einsatzgruppen (special action squads) in Poland regarding treatment of Jews, stating they are to be gathered into ghettos near railroads for the future "final goal." He also orders a census and the establishment of Jewish administrative councils within the ghettos to implement Nazi policies and decrees. 23/09/1939 German Jews are forbidden to own wireless (radio) sets. 29/09/1939 Nazis and Soviets divide up Poland. Over two million Jews reside in Nazi controlled areas, leaving 1.3 million in the Soviet area. 30/09/1939 Reinhard Heydrich becomes the leader of new Reich Main Security Office (RSHA). 06/10/1939 Proclamation by Hitler on the isolation of Jews. 12/10/1939 Evacuation of Jews from Vienna. 18/10/1939 The first Jewish ghetto is established in Lublin. 26/10/1939 Forced labor decree issued for Polish Jews aged 14 to 60. 02/11/1939 The first transport of Polish women arrives at Ravensbruck concentration camp. 23/11/1939 Yellow stars required to be worn by Polish Jews over age 10.
25/01/1940 Nazis choose the town of Oswiecim (Auschwitz) in Poland near Krakow as site of new concentration camp. 12/02/1940 First deportation of German Jews into occupied Poland. 27/04/1940 Himmler signs the order that initiates construction of Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. 30/04/1940 The Lodz Ghetto in occupied Poland is sealed off from the outside world with 230,000 Jews locked inside. 01/05/1940 Rudolf H�ss is chosen to be kommandant of Auschwitz. 15/06/1940 The Germans open Auschwitz concentration camp, officially to provide 100,000 labour force for I.G Farben factory. 17/07/1940 The first anti-Jewish measures are taken in Vichy France. 08/08/1940 Romania introduces anti-Jewish measures restricting education and employment, then later begins "Romanianization" of Jewish businesses. 28/08/1940 Vichy French radio announces that laws protecting Jews in France have been dropped. 03/10/1940 Vichy France passes its own version of the anti-Jewish Nuremberg Laws. 09/10/1940 Dutch decree, bans Jews and �half-Jews� from public employment. 22/10/1940 Deportation of 29,000 German Jews from Baden, the Saar, and Alsace-Lorraine into Vichy France. 15/11/1940 The Warsaw Ghetto, containing over 400,000 Jews, is sealed off.
1941
1942
22/02/1941 430 Jewish hostages are deported from Amsterdam after a Dutch Nazi is killed by Jews. 01/03/1941 Himmler makes his first visit to Auschwitz, during which he orders Kommandant H�ss to begin massive expansion, including a new compound to be built at nearby Birkenau that can hold 100,000 prisoners. 07/03/1941 German Jews ordered into forced labour. 26/03/1941 The German Army High Command gives approval to RSHA and Heydrich on the tasks of SS murder squads (Einsatzgruppen) in occupied Poland. 29/03/1941 A 'Commissariat' for Jewish Affairs is set up in Vichy France. 14/05/1941 3,600 Jews arrested in Paris. 02/06/1941 Vichy publishes anti-Semitic legislation based on German laws. Jews banned from public office. 29/06/1941 Romanian troops conduct a pogrom against Jews in the town of Jassy, killing 10,000. 21/07/1941 In occupied Poland near Lublin, Majdanek concentration camp becomes operational. 26/07/1941 3,800 Jews killed during a pogrom by Lithuanians in Kovno. 31/07/1941 G�ring instructs Heydrich to prepare for Final Solution. 26/08/1941 The Hungarian Army rounds up 18,000 Jews at Kamenets-Podolsk. 01/09/1941 German Jews ordered to wear yellow stars. 03/09/1941 Gas chambers at Auschwitz in Poland are used for first time, using Zyklon B, which was basically Hydrogen Cyanide. 06/09/1941 The Vilna Ghetto is established containing 40,000 Jews. 17/09/1941 Beginning of general deportation of German Jews. 27/09/1941 23,000 Jews killed at Kamenets-Podolsk, in the Ukraine. 29/09/1941 The SS Einsatzgruppen operating in the Ukraine massacres between 50,000 and 96,000 Ukranians (of which 33,771 are Jews), at Babi Yar, a ravine about 30 miles outside of Kiev. 23/10/1941 Nazis forbid emigration of Jews from the Reich. 19/11/1941 The Times newspaper's report on Occupied Europe estimates that 82,000 Poles have been shot or hanged since Poland's occupation by the Germans. 24/11/1941 Theresienstadt Ghetto is established near Prague, Czechoslovakia. The Nazis will use it as a model ghetto for propaganda purposes. 30/11/1941 Near Riga, a mass shooting of Latvian and German Jews. 08/12/1941 In occupied Poland, near Lodz, Chelmno extermination camp becomes operational. Jews taken there are placed in mobile gas vans and driven to a burial place while carbon monoxide from the engine exhaust is fed into the sealed rear compartment, killing them. The first gassing victims include 5,000 Gypsies who had been deported from the Reich to Lodz. 12/12/1941 The ship "Struma" leaves Romania for Palestine carrying 769 Jews but is later denied permission by British authorities to allow the passengers to disembark. In Feb. 1942, it sails back into the Black Sea where it is intercepted by a Soviet submarine and sunk as an "enemy target." 16/12/1941 During a cabinet meeting, Hans Frank, Gauleiter of Poland, states - "Gentlemen, I must ask you to rid yourselves of all feeling of pity. We must annihilate the Jews wherever we find them and wherever it is possible in order to maintain the structure of the Reich as a whole..."
20/01/1942 In the Wannsee suburb of Berlin, the formal adoption of the 'Final Solution to the Jewish Problem' takes place. In practice this meant that all Jews in occupied Europe were to be transported to the east. The able bodied were worked until they died, while the remainder were put to death. 31/01/1942 SS Einsatzgruppe A reports a tally of 229,052 Jews killed. 17/03/1942 The deportation of Jews from Lublin to Belzec begins. 24/03/1942 The start of deportation of Slovak Jews to Auschwitz. 27/03/1942 The start of deportation of French Jews to Auschwitz. 28/03/1942 Fritz Sauckel named Chief of Manpower to expedite recruitment of slave labour. 30/03/1942 First trainloads of Jews from Paris arrive at Auschwitz. 20/04/1942 German Jews are banned from using public transportation. 07/05/1942 Dutch Jews are forced to wear the yellow 'Star of David' badge. 10/05/1942 The German open up a new death camp just outside Minsk, near the village of Maly Trostenets. Russian POW's and Jews have been forced to build the barracks for 600 slave labourers and their German and Ukrainian guards. Tens of thousands of Austrian, German, and Czech Jews are shipped there and driven towards the village in mobile gas chambers. When the vans reach the camp, all inside them are dead. At the camp, the slave labourers bury the bodies in deep pits. Maly Trostenets remains a tight German secret. 18/05/1942 The New York Times reports on an inside page that Nazis have machine-gunned over 100,000 Jews in the Baltic states, 100,000 in Poland and twice as many in western Russia. 01/06/1942 Jews in Belgium, Croatia, Slovakia, Romania ordered to wear yellow stars. 05/06/1942 SS report 97,000 persons have been "processed" in mobile gas vans. 07/06/1942 All Jews over six are forced to wear the 'Star of David' in Occupied France. 11/06/1942 Eichmann meets with representatives from France, Belgium and Holland to coordinate deportation plans for Jews. 27/06/1942 Dr. Heinisch, the German administrator in the Przemysl area, issues a public instruction. "Every Ukrainian or Pole who attempts by any means whatsoever to impede the campaign for the deportation of Jews, will be shot. Every Ukrainian or Pole found in a Jewish quarter looting Jewish homes will be shot. Every Ukrainian or Pole attempting to conceal a Jew will be shot." In the next month, 24,000 Jews from western Galicia, Heinisch's district, pass through Przemysl. All are taken to Belzec and killed. 30/06/1942 At Auschwitz, a second gas chamber, Bunker II (the white farmhouse), is made operational at Birkenau due to the number of Jews arriving. 02/07/1942 The New York Times reports via the London Daily Telegraph that over 1,000,000 Jews have already been killed by Nazis. Jews from Berlin sent to Theresienstadt. 07/07/1942 Himmler grants permission for sterilization experiments at Auschwitz. 14/07/1942 Beginning of deportation of Dutch Jews to Auschwitz. 16/07/1942 12,887 Jews of Paris are rounded up and sent to Drancy Internment Camp located outside the city. 17/07/1942 Himmler visits Auschwitz-Birkenau for two days, inspecting all ongoing construction and expansion, then observes the extermination process from start to finish as two trainloads of Jews arrive from Holland. Kommandant H�ss is then promoted. Construction includes four large gas chamber/crematories. 19/07/1942 Himmler orders Operation Reinhard, mass deportations of Jews in Poland to extermination camps. 22/07/1942 Treblinka concentration camp is opened, which initiates new deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto. The deportation of Belgian Jews to Auschwitz begins. 23/07/1942 Treblinka extermination camp opened in occupied Poland, east of Warsaw. The camp is fitted with two buildings containing 10 gas chambers, each holding 200 persons. Carbon monoxide gas is piped in from engines placed outside the chamber, but Zyklon-B will later be substituted. Bodies are burned in open pits. 06/08/1942 The British section of the 'World Jewish Congress', claims that 1,000,000 Jews are already dead in occupied Europe. 26/08/1942 7,000 Jews arrested in unoccupied France. 09/09/1942 Open pit burning of bodies begins at Auschwitz in place of burial. The decision is made to dig up and burn those already buried, 107,000 corpses, to prevent fouling of ground water. 18/09/1942 Reduction of food rations for Jews in Germany. 21/09/1942 The inter-allied information committee estimates that the Germans have so far, executed 207,373 people in occupied Europe. 26/09/1942 The SS begin to take profit from the possessions and valuables of Jews from Auschwitz and Majdanek. German banknotes are sent to the Reichs Bank. Foreign currency, gold, jewels and other valuables are sent to SS Headquarters of the Economic Administration. Watches, clocks and pens are distributed to troops at the front. Clothing is distributed to German families. 05/10/1942 Himmler orders all Jews in concentration camps in Germany to be sent to Auschwitz and Majdanek. 22/10/1942 SS put down a revolt at Sachsenhausen by a group of Jews about to be sent to Auschwitz. 26/10/1942 850 Jews are arrested in Norway. 28/10/1942 The first transport from Theresienstadt arrives at Auschwitz. 26/11/1942 The Germans make the first large deportation of Jews from Norway. 10/12/1942 The first transport of Jews from Germany arrives at Auschwitz. 17/12/1942 The British Parliament vows to avenge Nazi crimes against Jews, as Eden announces that the Germans �are now carrying into effect Hitler�s often repeated intention to exterminate the Jewish people in Europe�. U.S. declares those crimes will be avenged. 28/12/1942 Sterilization experiments on women at Birkenau begin.
1943
1944
18/01/1943 First resistance by Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. 29/01/1943 Nazis order all Gypsies arrested and sent to extermination camps. 30/01/1943 Ernst Kaltenbrunner succeeds Heydrich as head of RSHA. 27/02/1943 Jews working in Berlin armaments industry are sent to Auschwitz. 28/02/1943 A group of German wives of Jewish men begin to gather and protest in Berlin in order to try and stop the deportation of their husbands to concentrations camps. 01/03/1943 In New York, American Jews hold a mass rally at Madison Square Garden to pressure the U.S. government into helping the Jews of Europe. 08/03/1943 Over 1,000 Germans wife's of Jewish men deported to concentrations camps are now protesting in Berlin. To prevent this kind of protest from spreading, Joseph Goebbels orders the release of the 1,500 Jewish men. 14/03/1943 The Krakow Ghetto is liquidated. 17/03/1943 Bulgaria states opposition to deportation of its Jews. 22/03/1943 Newly built gas chamber/crematory IV opens at Auschwitz. 31/03/1943 Newly built gas chamber/crematory II opens at Auschwitz. 04/04/1943 Newly built gas chamber/crematory V opens at Auschwitz. 09/04/1943 Exterminations at Chelmno cease. The camp will be reactivated in the spring of 1944 to liquidate ghettos. In all, Chelmno will total 300,000 deaths. 19/04/1943 An armed uprising in the Jewish ghetto of Warsaw begins. 20/04/1943 The Jewish uprising in Warsaw triggers a massive German response and initiates a month long massacre of the 60,000 Jews in the ghetto. 16/05/1943 The Warsaw ghetto is finally cleared of Jews by the German police and security units. 11/06/1943 Himmler orders liquidation of all Jewish ghettos in occupied Poland. 19/06/1943 Goebbels declares Berlin to be Judenfrei (cleansed of Jews). 25/06/1943 Newly built gas chamber/crematory III opens at Auschwitz. With its completion, the four new crematories at Auschwitz have a daily capacity of 4,756 bodies. 02/08/1943 Two hundred Jews escape from Treblinka extermination camp during a revolt. 16/08/1943 The Bialystok Ghetto is liquidated. 11/09/1943 Beginning of Jewish family transports from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz. 30/09/1943 On the eve of the Jewish New Year, the Gestapo and Danish Nazis begin rounding up all Danish Jews. However, a large number of Danish Jews had been saved when an anti-nazi businessman got wind of the German plan and passed the details to the Danish resistance who, with the help of Danish fisherman ferried many Jews to neutral Sweden. 04/10/1943 Himmler talks openly about the Final Solution at Posen. 14/10/1943 Massive escape from Sobibor as Jews and Soviet POWs break out, with 300 making it safely into nearby woods. Of those 300, fifty will survive. Exterminations then cease at Sobibor, after over 250,000 deaths. All traces of the death camp are then removed and trees are planted. 16/10/1943 Jews in Rome rounded up, with over 1,000 sent to Auschwitz. 20/10/1943 An allied agreement to set up UN commission on war crimes is announced in London. 03/11/1943 Nazis carry out Operation Harvest Festival in occupied Poland, killing 42,000 Jews. 04/11/1943 Quote from Nazi newspaper, Der St�rmer, published by Julius Streicher - "It is actually true that the Jews have, so to speak, disappeared from Europe and that the Jewish 'Reservoir of the East' from which the Jewish pestilence has for centuries beset the peoples of Europe has ceased to exist. But the F�hrer of the German people at the beginning of the war prophesied what has now come to pass." 11/11/1943 Auschwitz Kommandant H�ss is promoted to chief inspector of concentration camps. The new kommandant, Liebehenschel, then divides up the vast Auschwitz complex of over 30 sub-camps into three main sections. 20/11/1943 Jews in northern Italy are to be sent to concentration camps. 02/12/1943 The first transport of Jews from Vienna arrives at Auschwitz. 16/12/1943 The chief surgeon at Auschwitz reports that 106 castration operations have been performed.
24/01/1944 In response to political pressure to help Jews under Nazi control, Roosevelt creates the War Refugee Board. 25/01/1944 Diary entry by Hans Frank, Gauleiter of Poland, concerning the fate of 2.5 million Jews originally under his jurisdiction - "At the present time we still have in the General Government perhaps 100,000 Jews." 19/03/1944 Hungary's 750,000 Jews, which have so far remained unmolested by the Germans are about to endure a nightmare of mass deportation to the concentration camps as Eichmann arrives in Hungary with his "Special Section Commandos". 05/04/1944 A Jewish inmate, Siegfried Lederer, escapes from Auschwitz-Birkenau and makes it safely to Czechoslovakia. He then warns the Elders of the Council at Theresienstadt about Auschwitz. 07/04/1944 Two Jewish inmates escape from Auschwitz-Birkenau and make it safely to Czechoslovakia. One of them, Rudolf Vrba, submits a report to the Papal Nuncio in Slovakia which is forwarded to the Vatican. 14/04/1944 First transports of Jews from Athens to Auschwitz, totalling 5,200 persons. 08/05/1944 Rudolf H�ss returns to Auschwitz, ordered by Himmler to oversee the extermination of Hungarian Jews. 15/05/1944 Beginning of deportation of Jews from Hungary to Auschwitz. 16/05/1944 The first Jews from Hungary arrive at Auschwitz. Eichmann arrives to personally oversee and speed up the extermination process. 24/05/1944 It is estimated that 100,000 have been gassed at Auschwitz. Between May 16 and May 31, the SS report collecting 88 pounds of gold and white metal from the teeth of those gassed. By the end of June, 381,661 persons, which is half of the Jews in Hungary have arrived at Auschwitz. 12/06/1944 Rosenberg orders operation 'Hay Action', the kidnapping of 40,000 Polish children aged ten to fourteen for slave labour in Germany. 24/07/1944 The Russians liberate Maidanek Concentration Camp near Lublin, where 360,000 people perished. 04/08/1944 Anne Frank and family arrested by Gestapo in Amsterdam, then sent to Auschwitz. Anne and her sister Margot are later sent to Bergen-Belsen where Anne dies of typhus on March 15, 1945. 06/08/1944 The last Jewish ghetto in Poland, Lodz, is liquidated with 60,000 Jews sent to Auschwitz. 07/10/1944 A revolt by Jewish slave laborers at Auschwitz-Birkenau results in complete destruction of Crematory IV. 15/10/1944 Deportation of Jews from Hungary resumes after a temporarily halt due to international political pressure to stop Jewish persecutions. 17/10/1944 Eichmann returns to Hungary. 28/10/1944 The last train transport of Jews to Auschwitz are gassed. These are 2,000 Jews from Theresienstad 30/10/1944 The gas chambers at Auschwitz are used for the last time. 08/11/1944 25,000 Jews are forced to walk over 100 miles in rain and snow from Budapest to the Austrian border, followed by a second forced march of 50,000 persons, ending at Mauthausen Concentration camp. 25/11/1944 Himmler orders the destruction of the crematories at Auschwitz.
1945
18/01/1945 Nazis evacuate 66,000 inmates from Auschwitz back into Germany. 27/01/1945 Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz. By this time, an estimated 2,000,000 persons, including 1,500,000 Jews, have been murdered there. 04/04/1945 Ohrdruf camp is liberated by the Americans. 10/04/1945 Buchenwald Concentration Camp is liberated by the Allies. 15/04/1945 British troops liberate Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp and free approximately 40,000 prisoners. It is reported that "both inside and outside the huts was a carpet of dead bodies, human excreta, rags and filth." 29/04/1945 The U.S. 7th Army liberates Dachau Concentration Camp. 02/05/1945 Theresienstadt taken over by the Red Cross. 05/05/1945 Mauthausen is liberated. 29/08/1945 The lists of the first war criminals to be tried at Nuremberg are drawn up by a 'Four Power' Commission of Prosecutors in London. Goring, Hess, von Ribbentrop, Dr Ley, Rosenberg, Dr Frank, Streicher, Keitel, Dr Funk, von Shirach, Dr Schacht, Sauckel, Prof Speer, Bormann, von Papen, Jodl, Krupp, Raeder, Donitz, Baron von Neurath, Seyss-Inquart and Frische are all named. 18/10/1945 The first open session of the International Military War Crimes Tribunal indicts 21 top Nazis. 20/11/1945 The Nuremberg trials begin, with Goring, Ribbentrop, Hess, Keitel, JodI, Raeder, Doenitz, Streicher and other top Nazis on trial. 21/11/1945 All the top ranking Nazis at Nuremberg plead innocent. 29/11/1945 Films of concentration camp atrocities are shown at the Nuremberg trials. 30/11/1945 Rudolph Hess causes consternation at the Nuremberg trials by announcing that he has been shamming insanity and amnesia all this time. 14/12/1945 SS personnel convicted of atrocities at Belsen and other concentration camps, are hanged.
These timelines are taken from worldwar-2.net--Check out the site it's awesome!
