| 1871 |
Germany becomes one nation. |
| April 20, 1889 |
Adolf
Hitler is born in Austria. |
| Aug 1, 1914 |
Germany declares war on Russia. |
| August 3, 1914 |
Germany declares war on France. |
| August 4, 1914 |
Germany
invades Belgium. |
| 1914-1920 |
Hitler
is in the German army and attains the rank of corporal. |
| Nov 11, 1918 |
Germany
agrees to armistice. World War I ends. |
| Jan 19, 1919 |
First
democratic election.
|
| June 23, 1919 |
Germany accepts Versailles Treaty. |
| April 1, 1920 |
Hitler
joins National Socialist German Workers Party.
|
| Jan 30, 1933 |
Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany. |
| Feb 27, 1933 |
Reichstag fire in Berlin. Nazis unleash
terror to ensure election results. |
| Mar, 1933 |
Fifty small
concentration camps for political prisoners are established
in the vicinity of Berlin. |
| March 23, 1933 |
First
true political concentration camp opens at Dachau,
near Munich. |
| March 27, 1933 |
Enabling
Act - suspending civil liberties - is passed by Nazi
dominated Reichstag. |
| April 1, 1933 |
Goebbels declares official boycott
of Jewish shopkeepers, doctors, and lawyers. |
| April 11, 1933 |
Jewish
civil servants and teachers are fired. |
| April 24, 1933 |
Gestapo is established. |
| May 10, 1933 |
Books
by Jews and Nazi opponents are publicly burned. |
| Spring, 1933 |
Universities and the arts are 'cleansed'
of Jewish influence. |
| Oct 19, 1933 |
Germany
leaves the League of Nations. |
| June 30, 1934 |
'Night
of the Long Knives' - Nazis purge leadership of Storm
troops and opponents of Nazism. |
| Aug 2, 1934 |
Hitler is named president and commander-in-chief
of the armed forces following the death of von Hindenburg. |
| March 16, 1935 |
Germany
renews conscription in violation of Versailles treaty. |
| Sep 15, 1935 |
Nuremberg
Laws passed declaring Jews are not German citizens. |
| Nov 15, 1935 |
Germany
defines Jews: anyone with three Jewish grandparents:
someone with two Jewish grandparents who identifies
as a Jew. |
| Feb 4, 1936 |
David Frankfurter, young Jewish student,
assassinates Wilhelm Gustloff, leader of the Nazi
party, in Switzerland. |
| Mar 7, 1936 |
Germans
march into the Rhineland which had been demilitarized
according to the Versailles Treaty. |
| June 17, 1936 |
Himmler
is appointed chief of German police. |
| Oct 25, 1936 |
Hitler
and Mussolini form Rome-Berlin Axis. |
| July 16, 1937 |
Buchenwald
Concentration camp opens. |
| March 13, 1938 |
Germany
annexes Austria. |
| Nov 9, 1938 |
Kristallnacht
(Night of Broken Glass); nationwide destruction of
synagogues and Jewish owned shops. |
| March 15, 1939 |
Germany
occupies Czechoslovakia. |
| Aug 23, 1939 |
Nonaggression pact between Germany
and the Soviet Union; Poland is divided between them. |
| Sep 1, 1939 |
World War II begins when Germany invades
Poland. |
| April 9, 1940 |
Germany invades Denmark and Norway. |
| May 10, 1940 |
Germany invades Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg,
and France. |
| May 20, 1940 |
Concentration
camp is established at Auschwitz. |
| June 22, 1940 |
France
surrenders to Nazis. |
| Aug 8, 1940 |
Battle
of Britain begins. |
| Sep 12, 1940 |
Germany
invades Romania. |
| Sep 27, 1940 |
Germany, Italy, and Japan form Axis pact. |
| Apr, 1940-41 |
Over
100,000 mentally ill and 'non-productive' elderly are
exterminated in Germany. |
| Apr 6, 1941 |
Germany
invades Yugoslavia and Greece. |
| June 22, 1941 |
Germany
invades Soviet Union. |
| July 31, 1941 |
Rhinhard
Heydrich is appointed by Goering to carry out 'Final
Solution,' the extermination of all the Jews in Europe. |
| Sep 28, 29, 1941 |
Massacre
of Jews at Babi Yar - ravine outside Kiev: 34,000 murdered. |
| Oct 23, 1941 |
Murder
of 19,000 Jews in Odessa. |
| Oct, 1941 |
Birkenau
camp is established: site of mass extermination of Jews,
Gypsies, Poles, Russians, and others. |
| Dec 8, 1941 |
Chelmno
extermination camp opens; 340,000 Jews, 20,000 Poles
and Czechs are killed there by April 1943. |
| Dec 11, 1941 |
Germany
and Italy declare war on the United States. |
| Jan 29, 1942 |
Wannsee Conference: Heydrich reveals
official plan to exterminate all the Jews in Europe. |
| March 1, 1942 |
Extermination by gas begins in Sobibor
extermination camp; by October, 1943, 250,000 killed. |
| March 17, 1942 |
Extermination begins in Belzec extermination
camp; by the end of 1942, 600,000 killed. |
| March 1942 |
Deportations to Auschwitz extermination
camp begins. |
| Jun 1, 1942 |
Treblinka
extermination camp begins operation; by August 1943,
700,000 killed. |
| Feb 2, 1943 |
German
advance in Russia is stopped at Stalingrad. |
| Mar 19, 1944 |
Germany occupies Hungary. |
| July 20, 1944 |
Group
of German officers attempts to assassinate Hitler. |
| Nov 24, 1944 |
Himmler
orders destruction of Auschwitz crematoria in attempt
to destroy evidence of death camp. |
| Jan 17, 1945 |
Evacuation of Auschwitz; beginning of
death march of camp inmates. |
| April 1945 |
Red Army enters Germany from the East;
Allies enter from the West. |
| Apr 30, 1945 |
Hitler
and Goebbels commit suicide. |
| May 7, 1945 |
Germany
surrenders. World War II is over in Europe. |
| Nov 22, 1945 |
Nuremberg
War Crimes Trials begin. |
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