• It all started in January 30, 1933 when a man named Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor, or leader of Germany. He then became the National Socialist Group, or Nazi, leader. Nazis believed that a true German, an Aryan, was a full-blooded German with blonde hair and blue eyes, which fit Hitler perfectly.
    At the time, Germany was going through a monetary crisis. It was so bad that German money was useless. So useless that it was cheaper to burn the money to start a fire rather than using it to buy wood. Germans tried to find someone to blame. They thought about it, and they decided that the Jewish people were to blame.
    Now, Germans hated Jews. They thought they were interfering with the country and “disturbing the peace”. They also thought that they were the source of economic issues. This is what started the Holocaust.
    Hitler needed dictatorial powers to do this, so on February 28, 1933; Nazis burned the “Reichstag” building to create a crisis atmosphere. The next day, Hitler was granted emergency powers.
    A month later when German Parliament gave Hitler dictatorial powers was when the real Holocaust was starting to unfold.
    Now that Hitler finally had authority, he decided to pass laws to crumple the Jews, so on April 1, 1933, the Nazis boycotted on Jewish shops and businesses. Then, on May 10, they burned the Jewish books, including bibles, in Berlin and all throughout Germany. In September, they prohibited Jews from owning any kind of land. A little later, Jews are prevented from being newspaper editors.
    On June 30, 1934, the “Night of the Long Knives” occurred. The Night of the Long Knives was a brown-shirted SA rebellion against Hitler. See, the SA believed in this “National Socialism” and wanted to be a Revolutionary army instead of the standard German army. So they ran a rebellion and put Hitler’s plans in jeopardy. But, Hitler, Goring, and Himmler conducted a purge against the SA and conquered this rebellion.

    On August 2, 1934, the president of Germany, Hindenburg, dies and Hitler becomes Fuehrer, which is the absolute leader of Germany and its entire nation of people, and to make sure of it, Hitler receives a 90% “yes” from Germany’s citizens.
    Now that Hitler had basically absolute power over Germany, he decided to tack even more laws on Jews’ list of rights.
    First, he prevented Jews from serving in the military.
    Next, Hitler put forced abortions on women to prevent from spreading hereditary diseases.
    Last, Hitler prohibited Jews from many professional occupations, such as becoming a teacher, doctor, or dentist and preventing tax seductions and children’s allowances.

    By 1938, the Jews had barely any rights, if any
    This is where the Holocaust begins. On November 9/10, 1938, two days after a person of the German Embassy is murdered by a Jew, Kristallnacht, which means “Night of Broken Glass” in German, begins. Nazis broke into Jews’ homes, brutalized women and children, reported 7500 businesses destroyed, 267 synagogues burned (with 177 totally destroyed), 91 died, about 25,000 were sent to concentration camps, and randomly got picked to be murdered.
    After Kristallnacht, Jews were charged 1 billion marks for the damage that was done.
    "I shall close the meeting with these words, German Jewry shall, as
    Punishment for their abominable crimes, et cetera, have to make a
    Contribution for one billion marks. That will work. The swine won't
    Commit another murder. Incidentally, I would like to say that I would
    Not like to be a Jew in Germany."
    -Goring, after Kristallnacht

    Almost a year after Kristallnacht, England and France declare war
    Germany. A day later, Warsaw is cut off by the German army.
    About 2 weeks later, Soviet troops invade Poland. Germany and Soviet
    Union divide up Poland with over 2,000,000 Jews resided in Nazi-
    controlled areas.

    "The Jewish people ought to be exterminated root and branch. Then the plague of pests would have disappeared in Poland at one stroke."
    - Julius Streicher, Quote from Nazi newspaper

    On October 6, 1939, Hitler signs a Proclamation on the isolation of Jews and Jews evacuate to Vienna, Austria three days later. On April 9, 1940, Nazis invade Denmark and Norway with a Jewish population of about 10,000. A month later; Nazis invade France, Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg with a population of, altogether, about 560,000. Later, Paris is occupied by Germany, France signs armistice with Hitler, the first anti-Jewish measures are taken in Vichy France, Nazis invade Romania with a Jewish population of about 34,000, Nazis deport about 29,000 German Jews from Baden, the Saar, and Alsace-Lorraine into Vichy France, and Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia become Nazi Allies.
    On Nov. 15, 1940, The Warsaw Ghetto, containing over 400,000 Jews, is sealed off.

    "I ask nothing of the Jews except that they should disappear."
    -Hans Frank, Gauleiter of Poland

    In the beginning of a new year, January of 1941, a pogrom in Romania results in over 2,000 Jews killed. A month later, 430 Jewish hostages are deported from Amsterdam after a Dutch Nazi is killed by Jews. Another month later, Hitler's Commissar Order authorizes execution of anyone suspected of being a Communist official in territories about to be seized from the Soviets and the Nazis occupy Bulgaria with a Jewish population of about 50,000. Yet another month later, the Nazis invade Yugoslavia and Greece with a Jewish population of, altogether, about 152,000. Yet ANOTHER month later, 3,600 Jews are arrested in Paris, France.
    In June of 1941, Nazis invade the Soviet Union with a Jewish population of 3 million and Romanian troops conduct a pogrom against Jews in the town of Jassy, killing 10,000. In July, As the German Army advances, the SS Einsatzgruppen follow along and conduct mass murder of Jews in controlled lands and Jews in Romania are forced into Transnistria.
    In late August, The Hungarian Army rounds up 18,000 Jews at Kamenets-Podolsk. A month later, 23,000 Jews are killed at Kamenets-Podolsk in the Ukraine. In October, the German army began the drive on Moscow, Russia. In November, SS Einsatzgruppe B reports a tally of 45,476 Jews killed. In December, right after the Japanese attacked the U.S. at Pearl Harbor; Hitler declares war on the United States. Roosevelt then declares war on Germany saying, "Never before has there been a greater challenge to life, liberty and civilization." The U.S.A. then enters the war in Europe and concentrates nearly 90% of its military resources to defeat Hitler.

    "Gentlemen, I must ask you to rid yourselves of all feeling of pity. We must annihilate the Jews wherever we find them and wherever it is possible in order to maintain there the structure of the Reich as a whole..."
    - Hans Frank, Gauleiter of Poland

    In the beginning of 1942, SS Einsatzgruppe A reports a tally of 229,052 Jews killed. In the summer, Swiss representatives of the World Jewish Congress receive information from a German industrialist regarding the Nazi plan to exterminate the Jews. They then pass the information on to London and Washington.
    In late July of 1942, Treblinka extermination camp opened in occupied Poland, east of Warsaw. The camp was fitted with two buildings containing 10 gas chambers, each holding 200 people. Carbon monoxide gas was piped in from engines placed outside the chamber, but Zyklon-B was later substituted.
    In November, The mass killing of 170,000 Jews happened in the area of Bialystok.
    In December, exterminations at Belzec stop after an estimated 600,000 Jews have been murdered. The camp is then dismantled, plowed over and planted.
    In 1943, the number of Jews killed by SS Einsatzgruppen passes one million. But in February, Germans surrender at Stalingrad in the first big defeat of Hitler's armies. In the first of March, In New York, American Jews hold a mass rally at Madison Square Garden to pressure the U.S. government into helping the Jews of Europe.
    From March 17 to April 4, 3 new gas chambers/crematories open at Auschwitz for Germany. A couple weeks later, The Bermuda Conference occurs as representatives from the U.S. and Britain discuss the problem of refugees from Nazi-occupied countries, but results in inaction concerning the plight of the Jews. On May 13, 1943, German and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allies. On June 25, another gas chamber/crematory opens at Auschwitz.
    In August, 200 Jews escape from the Treblinka camp and the Nazis hunt them down one by one and exterminations cease at Treblinka, after an estimated 870,000 deaths.
    On October 14, 1943, Jews and Soviet POWS pull off a massive escape from Sobibor, with 300 making it safely into nearby woods. Of those 300, fifty survive. Exterminations then cease at Sobibor, after over 250,000 deaths. All traces of the death camp are then removed and trees are planted.
    On November 3, 1943, Nazis carry out Operation “Harvest Festival” in occupied Poland, killing 42,000 Jews.
    "It is actually true that the Jews have, so to speak, disappeared from Europe and that the Jewish 'Reservoir of the East' from which the Jewish pestilence has for centuries beset the peoples of Europe has ceased to exist. But the Führer of the German people at the beginning of the war prophesied what has now come to pass." - Der Stürmer, Nazi newspaper

    "At the present time we still have in the General Government perhaps 100,000 Jews."
    -Hans Frank, Gauleiter of Poland, Diary entry

    On March 19, 1944, Nazis occupy Hungary with a Jewish population of about 725,000. A couple days later, President Roosevelt issues a statement condemning German and Japanese ongoing "crimes against humanity."
    On May 16, Jews from Hungary arrive at Auschwitz. Eichmann arrives to personally oversee and speed up the extermination process. By May 24, an estimated 100,000 have been gassed. Between May 16 and May 31, the SS report collecting 88 pounds of gold and white metal from the teeth of those gassed. By the end of June, 381,661 people - half of the Jews in Hungary - arrive at Auschwitz.
    In the summer of 1944: Auschwitz-Birkenau records its highest-ever daily number of persons gassed and burned at just over 9,000. Six huge pits are used to burn bodies, as the number exceeds the capacity of the crematories; Soviet troops liberate first concentration camp at Majdanek where over 360,000 had been murdered.
    In October: a revolt by Sonderkommando (Jewish slave laborers) at
    Auschwitz-Birkenau results in complete destruction of Crematory IV,
    The last transport of Jews to be gassed, 2,000 from Theresienstadt,
    Arrives at Auschwitz, Last use of gas chambers at Auschwitz.
    In November of 1944: Nazis force 25,000 Jews to walk over 100 miles in rain
    And snow from, Budapest to the Austrian border, followed by a second
    Forced march of 50,000 people, ending at Mauthausen; Since they are not needed anymore, Himmler orders the destruction of the crematories at Auschwitz.
    In 1945: As the Allies advance, the Nazis conduct death marches of concentration camp inmates away from outlying areas; Soviets liberate Budapest, freeing over 80,000 Jews; Soviet troops invade eastern Germany ; Soviets Liberate Warsaw; Nazis evacuate 66,000 from Auschwitz; Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz. By this time, an estimated 2,000,000 persons, including 1,500,000 Jews, have been murdered there; Allies liberate Buchenwald; Approximately 40,000 prisoners freed at Bergen-Belsen by the British, who report "both inside and outside the huts was a carpet of dead bodies, human excreta, rags and filth", Berlin is reached by Soviet troops.
    Surprisingly, in 1945, Hitler commits suicide in his Berlin bunker.
    After Hitler’s death: Americans free 33,000 inmates from concentration camps; Theresienstadt taken over by the Red Cross; Mauthausen liberated; Unconditional German surrender signed by Gen. Jodl at Reims; Hermann Goring captured by members of U.S. 7th Army; SS Reichsführer Himmler commits suicide.
    After 1945: Former Auschwitz Kommandant Höss, posing as a farm worker, is arrested by the British. He testifies at Nuremberg, and then is later tried in Warsaw, found guilty and hanged at Auschwitz, April 16, 1947, near Crematory I. "History will mark me as the greatest mass murderer of all time," Höss writes while in prison, along with his memoirs about Auschwitz; Göring commits suicide two hours before the scheduled execution of the first group of major Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg. During his imprisonment, a (now repentant) Hans Frank states, "A thousand years will pass and the guilt of Germany will not be erased." Frank and the others are hanged and the bodies are brought to Dachau and burned (the final use of the crematories there) with the ashes then scattered into a river; 23 former SS doctors and scientists go on trial before a U.S. Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. Sixteen are found guilty, with 7 being hanged; Twenty one former SS Einsatz leaders go on trial before a U.S. Military Tribunal in Nuremberg. Fourteen are sentenced to death, with only 4 (the group commanders) actually being executed. The other death sentences are commuted; Adolf Eichmann is captured in Argentina by Israeli secret service; Eichmann on trial in Jerusalem for crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Found guilty and hanged at Ramleh on May 31, 1962. A fellow Nazi reported Eichmann once said "he would leap laughing into the grave because the feeling that he had five million people on his conscience would be for him a source of extraordinary satisfaction."