The Holocaust

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The Holocaust

• A Timeline

By Meghan Newhook
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Before the war 1889 - 1933

• April 20, 1889 Adolf Hitler is born in Braunau
  Am Inn, Austria

January 30, 1933 Hitler, head of the Nazi
(National Socialist) party, is appointed
Chancellor of Germany
September 28, 1928 Eliezer Wiesel is born in
Sighet, Transyllvania
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1938

• November 9, 1938 Synagogues are burned and
  Jewish shop windows are broken in Germany, after
  a German diplomat is assassinated by a Jewish
  man. This night becomes known as Kristallnacht,
  or Night of the Broken Glass.

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1939

• January 20, 1939 On the 6th anniversary of his
  appointment as Chancellor, Hitler delivers a
  speech in which he prophesizes the
  annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.

• September 21, 1939 SS leader Reinhard Heydrich
  instructs the SS that Jews in Poland will be
  moved into ghettoes near railroads to facilitate
  the final goal.

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1939

• Many measures were taken against Jews in 1939
• In February, they were forced to give all of
  their gold and silver to the Nazis.
• In April, Jews were no longer allowed to be
  tenants and had to move to Jewish homes.
• In September, a curfew for German Jews was put
  into place.
• Then, in November, all Polish Jews were forced to
  wear the yellow star on their clothes.

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1940

• January 25, 1940 - Oswiecim, or Auschwitz,
  Poland, is chosen as the site of a new
  concentration camp.

February 12, 1940 - Beginning of deportation of
German Jews into Poland.
April 27, 1940 - Heinrich Himmler, the second
most powerful man in Germany, orders the
construction of Auschwitz.
June 15, 1940 - Auschwitz opens.
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Concentration/Death Camps
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1941
March 1, 1941 - Himmler visits Auschwitz and
orders an expansion, which includes the
construction of Birkenau.
September 27, 1941 - 23,000 Jews are killed at
Kemenets-Podolsk, Ukraine
July 21, 1941 - Majdanek concentration camp in
Poland opens
September 3, 1941 - The gas chambers at Auschwitz
are used for the first time.
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1941
December 7, 1941 - Japan attacks the U.S. naval
base at Pearl Harbor. Roughly 3,000 naval and
military personnel are killed or wounded. The
next day, the U.S. enters the war on the Allied
side.
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1942
July 7, 1942 - Himmler gives permission for
sterilization experiments, led by Dr. Mengele at
Auschwitz.
July 23, 1942 - Treblinka extermination camp
opens in Poland.
December 17, 1942 - The British Parliament and
the U.S. vow to avenge Nazi crimes against Jews.
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1943
April 19, 1943 - Jews living in the ghetto in
Warsaw, Poland, begin an armed uprising. The
Germans respond by burning the ghetto and killing
its 60,000 residents. April 19 is now the day of
commemoration of the Holocaust, called Yom
Hashoah.
June 11, 1943 - Himmler issues the order to
liquidate all Polish ghettoes.
June 19, 1943 - Berlin is declared to be
Judenfrei, or free of Jews.
November 3, 1943 - Operation Harvest Festival in
Poland claims the lives of 42,000 Jews.
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1944
May 15, 1944 - Beginning of the mass deportation
of Hungarian Jews, including Elie Wiesel and his
family.
June 6, 1944 - D-Day. More than 150,000 Allied
men invade the shores of Normandy, in France.
October 30, 1944 - The gas chambers at Auschwitz
are used for the last time.
November 25, 1944 - Himmler orders the
destruction of the crematoria at Auschwitz.
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1945
January 27, 1945 - Auschwitz is liberated by
Soviet troops. At this point, an estimated 1.5
million Jews have died there.
January 28, 1945 - Elie Wiesels father dies at
Buchenwald concentration camp.
April 10, 1945 - Allied forces liberate
Buchenwald, where 16 year old Elie Wiesel is
imprisoned.
April 15, 1945 - British troops free Bergen
Belsen.
April 29, 1945 - U.S. Army liberates Dachau
concentration camp.
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1945
April 30, 1945 - Adolf Hitler commits suicide.
May 5, 1945 - Mauthausen concentration camp is
liberated.
May 7, 1945 - Germany surrenders, finally ending
the war in Europe.
May 23, 1945 - Heinrich Himmler commits suicide.
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Thank you for your attention...
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