| A Basic Timeline of the Holocaust |
| 1933 January 30 - Hitler is appointed chancellor of Germany February 27 - Reichstag is set on fire February 28 - Emergency decree "For the Protection of People and State" abolishes many constitutional guarantees of freedom March 22 - Dachau, the first concentration camp, is opened March 23 - Enabling Act is passed, giving Hitler absolute power April 1 - Jewish businesses are boycotted throughout Germany |
| 1935 September 15 - First of the Nuremberg Laws is published, taking rights away from Jews |
| 1938 March 13 - Germany annexes Austria July 6-15 - Evian conference brings no solution to the problem of Jewish refugees October 28 - First deportation order is issued, returning Polish Jews to Poland November 9-10 - Kristallnacht: Nazi-instigated rampage against Jewish shops, known as Crystal Night or Night of Broken Glass |
| 1939 March 15 - Hitler occupies all of Czechoslovakia September 1 - German invasion of Poland begins World War II November 23 - All Jews in Poland's General Government are required to wear Star of David |
| 1940 April 30 - First closed ghetto, in Lodz, Poland, is sealed November 15 - Warsaw ghetto is sealed |
| 1941 May - Einsatzgruppen are readied for action in the Soviet Union June 22 - Germany invades the Soviet Union September 28-29 - Almost thirty-four thousand Jews from Kiev are massacred at Babi Yar December 8 - First extermination camp is opened at Chelmno, Poland |
| 1942 January 20 - Wannsee Conference discusses final solution March 16 - Extermination camp Belzec is opened in Poland May - Extermination camp Sobibor is opened in Poland July - Gas chambers are installed at Auschwitz July 23 - Extermination camp Treblinka is opened in Poland Late 1942 - Gas chambers are installed at Majdanek |
| 1943 April 19--May 16 - Warsaw ghetto is liquidated September-November - Ghettos in occupied Soviet Union are liquidated |
| 1944 July 24 - Soviets liberate Majdanek |
| 1945 April 30 - Hitler commits suicide May 8 - Allies accept Germany's unconditional surrender November 20 - War criminals trials begin at Nuremberg before an international tribunal |