Events
Resources
1933
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30 January 1933
Hitler appointed German Chancellor
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27 February 1933
Reichstag fire
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February/March 1933
Mass arrests of left-wing opponents begin
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5 March 1933
NSDAP gains 43.9 per cent in last multiparty elections
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22 March 1933
Dachau starts operating
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April 1933
Gestapo office set up in Berlin
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Spring/summer 1933
Early camps spread across Germany
1934
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Spring/summer 1934
SS takeover of remaining camps
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Summer 1934
Eicke appointed SS Camp Inspector
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October 1934
2,400 prisoners in concentration camps
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December 1934
Camp Inspectorate established
1935
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March 1935
Germany reintroduces military service
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Summer 1935
c. 3,800 prisoners in concentration camps
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During 1935
Hitler cements permanent camp system
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September 1935
Nuremberg Laws make German Jews second-class citizens
1936
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17 June 1936
Himmler becomes chief of German police
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July 1936
Sachsenhausen starts operating
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August 1936
Olympic Games in Berlin
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1 November 1936
4,761 prisoners in concentration camps
1937
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March 1937
2,000 ex-convicts sent to concentration camps
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July 1937
Buchenwald starts operating
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14 December 1937
Reich decree for preventive custody of “criminals” and “asocials”
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31 December 1937
7,746 prisoners in concentration camps
1938
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March 1938
German annexation of Austria
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June 1938
First official execution in a concentration camp
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Mid-June 1938
Mass deportations of “asocial” men to concentration camps
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30 June 1938
c. 24,000 prisoners in concentration camps
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9-10 November 1938
State-sponsored pogrom against Jews
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November 1938
Over 26,000 Jewish men forced into concentration camps
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Mid-November 1938
c. 50,000 prisoners in concentration camps
1939
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March 1939
German invasion of Czech territory
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May 1939
Women's camp Ravensbrück starts operating
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31 August 1939
c. 21,000 prisoners in concentration camps
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1 September 1939
German invasion of Poland, leading to the Second World War
- START OF WAR
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Autumn 1939
Mass detention of Poles in concentration camps begins
1940
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10 May 1940
Start of German offensive in western Europe
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June 1940
Auschwitz (in occupied Poland) starts operating
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31 December 1940
c. 53,000 prisoners in concentration camps
1941
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June 1941
First “euthanasia” murders of weak and ill prisoners
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22 June 1941
Germany invades the Soviet Union
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September 1941
First mass gassing of Soviet POWs in a concentration camp
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11 December 1941
Germany declares war against the USA
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31 December 1941
c. 80,000 prisoners in concentration camps
1942
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20 January 1942
Wannsee conference to coordinate the “Final Solution”
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Spring 1942
SS Business Administration Main Office takes over camp system
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Spring 1942
Mass deportations of Jews to Auschwitz begin
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Spring/summer 1942
SS establishes first gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau
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Summer 1942
Start of regular “selections” of Jews on arrival in Auschwitz
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September 1942
c. 110,000 prisoners in concentration camps
1943
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Early 1943
6th German Army defeated at Stalingrad
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February 1943
Mass deportations of Gypsies to Auschwitz begin
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April/May 1943
Warsaw ghetto uprising
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July 1943
Allied landing in Sicily
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August 1943
Dora underground camp starts operating
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August 1943
c. 224,000 prisoners in concentration camps
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3 November 1943
18,000 Jews murdered in Majdanek
1944
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March 1944
German occupation of Hungary
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Spring/autumn 1944
Early evacuations and death marches from concentration camps
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June 1944
Allied landing in France
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Summer/autumn 1944
Mass deportations of Jews to concentration camps deep inside Germany
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20 July 1944
Failed attempt to assassinate Hitler
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August 1944
524,286 prisoners in concentration camps
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7 October 1944
Prisoner uprising in Auschwitz
1945
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Early 1945
Prisoner numbers reach over 700,000
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January 1945
Soviet troops reach German territory
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27 January 1945
Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz
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March 1945
Over 18,000 prisoners die in Bergen-Belsen
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1 April 1945
c. 550,000 prisoners in concentration camps
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April 1945
Himmler insists on further camp evacuations
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29 April 1945
Liberation of Dachau
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30 April 1945
Hitler commits suicide
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7 May 1945
German surrender
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