• 1933
  • 1934
  • 1935
  • 1936
  • 1937
  • 1938
  • 1939
  • 1940
  • 1941
  • 1942
  • 1943
  • 1944
  • 1945
Designed as a resource for students, this timeline chronicles key dates in the history of the Holocaust from 1933-1945. Click on specific events to deepen your learning with additional information and primary source materials. Teachers can click the  icon in the upper-right corner to find resources that can support classroom instruction.
Let's Get Started!
1933

Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany

JAN
30

Reichstag arson leads to state of emergency

FEB
27

Reichstag elections: the Nazis gain 44 percent of the vote

MAR
5

First concentration camp is established in Dachau, Germany

MAR
22

The Nazis sponsor the Enabling Act

MAR
24

The Nazis declare a boycott of all Jewish businesses in Germany

APR
1

Civil Service Reform – Jews are barred from working in the civil service and are stripped of their equal rights

APR
7

School quota system limits the number of Jewish high school and university students in Germany

APR
25

Persecution of Jewish homosexual advocate and researcher, Magnus Hirschfeld

MAY
6

The Nazis burn thousands of anti-Nazi, Jewish-authored, and other books

MAY
10

Forced sterilization of German citizens with congenital disabilities begins

JUL
14

Germany is proclaimed a one-party state

JUL
14

Germany quits League of Nations and disarmament talks

OCT
14

The Nazi Party gets 92 percent of the vote in one-party elections

NOV
12
1934

German-Polish non-aggression pact

JAN
26

“The Night of the Long Knives”

JUN
30

German President Hindenburg dies

AUG
2

Gestapo compiles list of homosexual men

SEP
6
1935

Germany reclaims the Saar region

JAN
13

Military conscription in Germany begins

MAR
16

Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse military draft

APR
1

Jewish people are no longer allowed to serve in the German armed forces

MAY
31

Paragraph 175 of the Criminal Code is amended to criminalize homosexuality

SEP
1

Nuremberg Laws enacted

SEP
15

Nuremberg Laws are expanded to include Roma and other groups

NOV
14
1936

The Germans enter the Rhineland

MAR
7

The Spanish Civil War begins

JUL
17

The Summer Olympic Games begin in Berlin

AUG
1

The Four Year Plan is unveiled

SEP
9

The Rome-Berlin Axis Agreement is signed between Italy and Germany based on political interests

OCT
25

Germany and Japan sign a military pact

NOV
25
1937

Pope Pius XI responds to German racist policies

MAR
21

Buchenwald concentration camp is established in Germany

JUL
19
1938

The Anschluss –The Annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany

MAR
11

Homosexual men sent to concentration camps

APR
4

Jewish businesses have to register as Jewish

JUN
14

Anti-Jewish economic policies restrict Jews’ access to many fields of activity

JUL
6

The Evian Conference

JUL
6

Compulsory middle names for Jews in Germany are required in order to identify them as Jews

AUG
17

The Munich Agreement: Great Britain and France accept German annexation of parts of Czechoslovakia

SEP
29

Passports of German Jews are marked with the letter "J"

OCT
5

17,000 Polish-born Jews are expelled from Germany to Poland; most are interned in Zbaszyn

OCT
28

Kristallnacht Pogrom

NOV
9

Italy adopts antisemitic racial laws

NOV
10

Nazi leaders enact new laws to economically remove Jews from society

NOV
12

Jewish children are banned from public schools

NOV
15

First Kindertransport arrives in Great Britain

DEC
2
1939

The Germans occupy Bohemia and Moravia

MAR
15

The civil war in Spain ends

MAR
28

The MS St. Louis, a ship with 936 Jewish refugees, is turned away by Cuba, the United States, and other countries

JUN
6

Beginning of the Euthanasia (T4) program

AUG
18

Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression pact

AUG
23

Germany invades Poland, beginning World War II

SEP
1

Great Britain, France, India, Australia, Canada, South Africa, and New Zealand declare war on Germany

SEP
3

The Soviets invade Poland

SEP
17

Establishment of Jewish councils and the concentration of Jews into the larger cities of Poland

SEP
21

Poland is divided between Germany and the Soviet Union

SEP
28

The Warsaw (Poland) Jewish Council is established

OCT
4

Jewish “resettlement” in the Lublin district of Poland begins; plans are made to establish a Jewish “reservation”

OCT
7

The first ghetto is established in Piotrkow Trybunalski, Poland

OCT
8

Civil administration (Generalgouvernement) is established in Poland

OCT
26

Jews in Poland are required to wear the Jewish Badge (Star of David)

NOV
23

The Nazis initiate use of gas vans to eliminate German patients with mental disabilities

DEC
2
1940

Jewish property in the Generalgouvernement is registered

JAN
24

Germany invades Denmark and Norway

APR
9

The Lodz ghetto is sealed

APR
30

Germany invades Belgium and the Netherlands; Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of England

MAY
10

The Allies evacuate forces to England at Dunkirk

MAY
26

Germany occupies Paris

JUN
14

The deportation of Polish political prisoners to Auschwitz concentration camp begins

JUN
14

The Vichy France government is formed

JUL
10

The Battle of Britain begins

AUG
13

The German “Blitz” on England reaches a climax with massive air raids on British cities

SEP
7

The Vichy government establishes anti-Jewish legislation, the Statut des Juifs

OCT
3

The Warsaw ghetto is sealed

NOV
15
1941

The Krakow ghetto in Poland is sealed

MAR
20

Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece

APR
6

The Lublin ghetto is sealed

APR
24

Wehrmacht issues the “Commissar Order”

JUN
6

Operation Barbarossa: The German invasion of the Soviet Union

JUN
22

The Einsatzgruppen begin mass killings in the Soviet Union

JUN
23

The Romanian “Iron Guard” kills 1,500 Jews in Iasi, Romania

JUN
28

Germany occupies Lvov, Poland; 4,000 Jews are killed

JUN
30

Einsatzgruppe D begins operating in Bessarabia (Romania); 160,000 Jews are murdered

JUL
1

The systematic murder of the Jews of Vilna (Lithuania) begins at Ponary, south of Vilna

JUL
8

The Kishinev (Moldova) ghetto is established

JUL
24

Hermann Goering orders Heydrich to plan the “Final Solution”

JUL
31

50,000 Jews are confined in the Bialystok (Poland) ghetto

AUG
1

The “Second Phase” of the Euthanasia (T4) program begins

AUG
24

The first experimental gassings are conducted at Auschwitz

SEP
3

The siege of Leningrad (Russia) begins

SEP
8

Romanian authorities deport 150,000 Jews to Transnistria; approximately 90,000 die

SEP
15

German Jews are ordered to wear the Jewish Badge

SEP
19

33,771 Jews are murdered at Babi Yar near Kiev (Ukraine) by members of Einsatzgruppe C

SEP
29

The first transport (of prisoners of war) reaches Majdanek (Poland) extermination camp

OCT
1

Deportation of German and Austrian Jews to ghettos in the East begins

OCT
15

Germans murder thousands of Kovno (Lithuania) Jews

OCT
28

Roma deported from Germany and Austria

NOV
5

A ghetto is established in Theresienstadt, near Prague (former Czechoslovakia)

NOV
24

30,000 Riga (Latvia) Jews are arrested and subsequently shot in the Rumbula Forest

NOV
30

The Japanese surprise attack the American Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, then a US territory

DEC
7

The German army issues “Night and Fog” order

DEC
7

The United States enters World War II

DEC
8

Killing operations begin at Chelmno (Poland) extermination camp

DEC
8

The Jewish underground in Vilna issues a partisan manifesto calling for resistance

DEC
31
1942

Germans begin deportation of Jews from Lodz to Chelmno

JAN
16

The Wannsee Conference takes place

JAN
20

The Jewish military underground is established in Vilna

JAN
21

Belzec extermination camp begins functioning

MAR
17

The first mass killing of Jews in Sobibor extermination camp occurs

MAY
3

The Czech underground assassinates Reinhard Heydrich

MAY
27

The BBC announces 700,000 Jews have been killed in Poland

JUN
2

Auschwitz-Birkenau receives the first deportation of Jews from Drancy transit camp

JUN
22

Himmler orders elimination of all Jews in the Generalgouvernement

JUL
19

The mass deportation from the Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka extermination camp begins

JUL
22

The Jewish Fighting Organization (Z.O.B.) is founded in Warsaw

JUL
28

The US receives information on a plan to annihilate Jews but delays publication to verify sources

AUG
8

The Battle of Stalingrad begins

SEP
12

The Allies invade North Africa

NOV
8

The Allies condemn German mass murder

DEC
17
1943

Jews launch an armed resistance to deportations from the Warsaw ghetto

JAN
18

The German army surrenders at Stalingrad

FEB
2

Sinti-Roma are deported to Auschwitz

FEB
26

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins

APR
19

The Bermuda Conference convenes

APR
19

The Allies invade Sicily

JUL
10

The uprising at Treblinka begins

AUG
2

The Vilna underground uprising fails

SEP
1

The Vilna ghetto is liquidated

SEP
23

Danish Jews are rescued

OCT
1

The uprising at Sobibor begins

OCT
14

Germans launch Operation Harvest Festival (Erntefest)

NOV
3
1944

The War Refugee Board is established

JAN
22

German troops occupy Hungary

MAR
19

President Roosevelt warns Hungary to refrain from anti-Jewish measures

MAR
24

Hungarian government registers Jews and confiscates their property

APR
16

Mass deportations of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau begin

MAY
15

D-Day (Invasion of Normandy)

JUN
6

The Red Cross visits Theresienstadt

JUN
23

An attempt to assassinate Hitler fails

JUL
20

The Soviet Army liberates Majdanek

JUL
25

The liquidation of the Lodz ghetto begins

AUG
7

Churchill announces formation of Jewish Brigade

SEP
20

The Polish uprising in Warsaw is crushed

OCT
3

The Sonderkommando uprising at Auschwitz-Birkenau occurs

OCT
7

Himmler orders gassings to stop at Auschwitz-Birkenau

NOV
25

The Battle of the Bulge

DEC
16
1945

The Soviets conquer half of Budapest

JAN
17

The Germans begin “Death March” from Auschwitz-Birkenau

JAN
17

The Soviets liberate Auschwitz-Birkenau

JAN
27

United States Army liberates Buchenwald

APR
11

President Roosevelt dies

APR
12

British forces liberate Bergen-Belsen concentration camp

APR
15

Mussolini is shot

APR
28

Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide

APR
30

The Soviets occupy Berlin

MAY
2

Germany surrenders to the Allies

MAY
7

V-E (Victory in Europe) Day

MAY
8

The Potsdam Conference

JUL
16

The United States drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

AUG
6

V-J (Victory over Japan) Day

AUG
15

Paragraph 175 – criminalizing homosexuality – remains in effect

SEP
20

The Nuremberg Trials begin

NOV
20