Jewish History Events

1905 Adolf Hitler Moves to Vienna, where He Acquires His Anti-Semitic Beliefs
From 1905 on, Hitler lived a bohemian life in Vienna on an orphan's pension and support from his mother. He was rejected twice by the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (1907–1908), citing "unfi...
1917 Nov 2 Balfour Declaration
The Balfour Declaration of 1917 (dated 2 November 1917) was a formal statement of policy by the British government stating that "His Majesty's government view with favour the establishmen...
1929 Jun 12 Anne Frank is Born in Frankfurt
Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank was born on 12 June 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany, the second daughter of Otto Frank (1889–1980) and Edith Frank-Holländer (1900–45). Margot Frank (1926–45) was h...
1933 Founding of the Wiener Library
The Wiener Library is the world's oldest institution devoted to the study of the Holocaust, its causes and legacies. Founded in 1933 as an information bureau that informed Jewish communit...
1933
to 1945
The Jewish Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as Shoah is the term generally used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, a program of systematic state-sponso...
1933 Mar Nazi Concentration Camp at Dachau is Opened
Dachau concentration camp (German: Konzentrationslager Dachau or KZ-Dachau) was the first Nazi concentration camp opened in Germany, located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions facto...
1933 Apr 26 Hermann Göring Forms the Gestapo
As part of the deal in which Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, Hermann Göring was named as Interior Minister of Prussia. This gave him command of the largest police force in Germ...
1934 Jun 30
to 1934 Jul 2
 Night of the Long Knives
The Night of the Long Knives or "Operation Hummingbird", was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany between June 30 and July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of politic...
1935 Sep 15 Hitler Announces Nuremberg Laws
The following month two measures were announced at the annual Party Rally in Nuremberg, becoming known as the Nuremberg Laws. Both measures were hastily improvised (there was even a short...
1936 Nazi Germany Establishes Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
Sachsenhausen (German pronunciation: [zaksənˈhaʊzən]) or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 ...
1936 Sep Hermann Göring Becomes Plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan for German Rearmament
In September 1936, Goering took over most of Schacht's duties in preparing the war economy and instituted the Four-Year Plan, which was intended to make Germany self-sufficient in four ye...
1938 Nov 7 Jewish Youth Herschel Grynszpan Shoots German Diplomat, Ernst vom Rath, Triggering Kristallnacht
Among the expelled was the family of Sendel and Rivka Grynszpan, Polish Jews who had emigrated to Germany in 1911 and settled in Hanover. Their seventeen-year-old son, Herschel was living...
1938 Nov 9
to 1938 Nov 10
 Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht (German pronunciation: [kʁɪsˈtalˌnaxt]; literally "Crystal night") or the Night of Broken Glass was an anti-Jewish pogrom in Nazi Germany and Austria on 9 to 10 November 193...
1938 Dec SS Establishes Neuengamme Concentration Camp
The SS established Neuengamme in December 1938 as a subcamp of Sachsenhausen concentration camp. It was located on the grounds of an abandoned brickworks on the banks of the Dove-Elbe, a ...
1939 May Ravensbrück, the Largest Concentration Camp for Women, Opens
Ravensbrück or Ravensbrueck (German pronunciation: [ʁaːfənsˈbʁʏk]) was a notorious women's concentration camp during World War II, located in northern Germany, 90 km north of Berlin at a ...
1939 Sep 2 Construction on Stutthof Concentration Camp is Completed
In September 1939, the Germans established the Stutthof camp in a wooded area west of Stutthof (Sztutowo), a town about 22 miles east of Danzig (Gdansk). The area was secluded: to the nor...
1940 Apr 27 Heinrich Himmler Establishes a Concentration Camp at Auchwitz
Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest of Nazi Germany's concentration camps and extermination camps, operational during World War II. The camp took its German name from the hosting town o...
1940 May 25 First Transport of Prisoners to the Mauthausen-Gusen Nazi Concentration Camp Complex
Mauthausen Concentration Camp and its sub Labor camp Gusen, combined to form the Mauthausen-Gusen Nazi concentration camp, were located near the villages of Mauthausen and Gusen in Upper ...
1940 Jun 10 The Gestapo Takes Control of Theresienstadt Fortress, Converting it to a Concentration Camp
Theresienstadt concentration camp (often referred to as Terezín) was a Nazi German concentration camp during World War II. It was established by the Gestapo in the fortress and garrison c...
1941 May 1 Gross-Rosen Becomes Independent Concentration Camp
KL Gross-Rosen (Groß-Rosen) was a German concentration camp, located in Gross-Rosen, Lower Silesia (now Rogoźnica, Poland). It was located directly on the rail line between Jauer (now Jaw...
1941 Aug Jasenovac, the Largest Extermination Camp in the Independent State of Croatia, is Established by the Ustasha Regime, with Direction from Nazi Germany
Jasenovac concentration camp (Croatian, Serbian: Logor Jasenovac; Cyrillic script: Логор Јасеновац. Yiddish: יאסענאוואץ, Hebrew: יסנובץ) was the largest extermination camp in the Independ...
1941 Sep 18 Krupki Massacre
On September 18, 1941 the entire Jewish Ghetto, a community of 1,000 people were killed by the Nazis. The massacre was described in the diary of one of the German perpetrators. The first ...
1941 Sep 29
to 1941 Sep 30
 Babi Yar Massacre
Nazi forces, mainly German, occupied Kiev on 19 September 1941. The decision to exterminate the Jews of Kiev was made on September 26, in retaliation for guerrilla attacks against German ...
1941 Oct Soviet Prisoners of War Prepare Salaspils Nazi Concentration Camp
Salaspils concentration camp was established at the end of 1941 at a point 18 km southeast of Riga,in the country of Latvia. The Nazi bureaucracy drew distinctions between different types...
1941 Oct The Nazis Set Up Janowska Concentration Camp Next Door to a Factory Housing Forced Laborers
Janowska was a German Nazi labor, transit and concentration camp established in occupied Poland September 1941 on the outskirts of Lvov, (Poland, today Ukraine).
1941 Oct 1 Majdanek Concentration Camp Begins Operation
Majdanek was a German Nazi concentration camp on the outskirts of Lublin, Poland, established during German Nazi occupation of Poland. The camp operated from October 1, 1941 until July 22...
1941 Dec Sajmište Nazi Concentration Camp is Established in the Independent State of Croatia
Sajmište concentration camp (Serbian Cyrillic: Концентрациони логор Сајмиште) was a Nazi concentration camp, located in the Independent State of Croatia, on the outskirts of Belgrade. It ...
1941 Dec 7 Chełmno Extermination Camp Begins Operation
Chełmno extermination camp (German name Kulmhof) was an extermination camp of Nazi Germany that was situated 70 kilometres (43 mi) from Łódź, near a small village called Chełmno nad Nerem...
1942 Jan 20 Adolf Hitler Lays Out His Vision of the 'Final Solution to the Jewish Question' to Nazi Officials at the Wannsee Conference
The Wannsee Conference was a meeting of senior officials of the Nazi German regime, held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee on 20 January 1942. The purpose of the conference was to inform ad...
1942 Mar Belzec Extermination Camp Begins Operation
Belzec, Polish spelling Bełżec [ˈbɛu̯ʐɛt​͡s], was the first of the Nazi German extermination camps created for implementing Operation Reinhard during the Holocaust. Operating in 1942, the...
1942 May Mass Gassing Operations Begin at Sobibor Nazi Extermination Camp
Sobibor was a Nazi German extermination camp set up in the Lublin region of occupied Poland as part of Operation Reinhard; the official German name was SS-Sonderkommando Sobibor. Jews, in...
1942 Jul SS Assumes Control of Westerbork Refugee Camp, Converting it to a Concentration Camp
Westerbork concentration camp (Dutch: Kamp Westerbork, German: Durchgangslager Westerbork) was a World War II concentration camp in Hooghalen, ten kilometers north of Westerbork, in the n...
1942 Jul 6 Anne Frank and her Family Move into their Amsterdam Hiding Place to Evade the Nazis
On the morning of Monday, 6 July 1942, the family moved into the hiding place. Their apartment was left in a state of disarray to create the impression that they had left suddenly, and Ot...
1942 Jul 13 Anne Frank and her Family are Joined by the Pels Family at the Achterhuis
On 13 July, the Franks were joined by the van Pels family: Hermann, Auguste, and 16-year-old Peter, and then in November by Fritz Pfeffer, a dentist and friend of the family. Anne wrote o...
1942 Jul 24 Construction of Treblinka Nazi Extermination Camp is Completed
Treblinka II was a Nazi German extermination camp in occupied Poland during World War II. Around 850,000 people - more than 99.5 percent of whom were Jews, but also other victims (among t...
1942 Nov Anne Frank and her Family and the Pels Family are Joined by Fritz Pfeffer at the Achterhuis
On 13 July, the Franks were joined by the van Pels family: Hermann, Auguste, and 16-year-old Peter, and then in November by Fritz Pfeffer, a dentist and friend of the family. Anne wrote o...
1943 Jan Herzogenbusch Concentration Camp Begins Operation
Herzogenbusch concentration camp (Dutch: Kamp Vught, German: Konzentrationslager Herzogenbusch) was a Nazi concentration camp located in Vught near the city of 's-Hertogenbosch, in the Ne...
1943 Mar Construction is Completed on Kaiserwald Concentration Camp
Kaiserwald was a Nazi German concentration camp near the Riga suburb of Mežaparks in Latvia. Kaiserwald was built in March, 1943, during the period that the German army occupied Latvia...
1943 Mar 15 Germans Begin Deportations of Thessaloniki Jews
On March 15, 1943, the Germans began deporting the Jews from Thessaloniki. Every three days, freightcars crammed with an average of 2,000 Thessaloniki Jews headed toward Auschwitz-Birken...
1943 Jun Belzec Extermination Camp is Dismantled by Jewish Forced Laborers
By late spring 1943, Jewish forced laborers, guarded by the SS and police and their auxiliaries, had completed the task of exhuming the bodies and burning them and had dismantled the camp...
1943 Aug Prisoners at Treblinka Nazi Concentration Camp Stage a Revolt, Allowing Several Hundred to Escape
Jewish inmates organized a resistance group in Treblinka in early 1943. When camp operations neared completion, the prisoners feared they would be killed and the camp dismantled. During t...
1943 Oct 14 Jewish Prisoners Stage Successful Uprising at Sobibor Extermination Camp
Sobibor was the site of one of two successful uprisings by Jewish prisoners in a Nazi extermination camp — there was a similar revolt at Treblinka on August 2, 1943. A revolt at Auschwitz...
1943 Nov Dismantling and Liquidation of Prisoners at Sobibor Extermination Camp Following Partially-Successful Jewish Uprising
After the revolt, the Germans and the Trawniki-trained guards dismantled the killing center and shot the Jewish prisoners who had not escaped during the uprising. Pursuant to discussions ...
1943 Nov SS Evacuates and Liquidates Janowska Concentration Camp
The evacuation of the Janowska camp began in November 1943. As the Germans attempted to destroy the traces of mass murder (Aktion 1005), they forced the prisoners to open the mass graves ...
1944 Sajmište Nazi Concentration Camp is Destroyed by U.S. Bombers
In November 1943 SS-Standartenführer Paul Blobel, the officer in charge of Aktion 1005 (later executed for his numerous crimes against humanity) came to Belgrade to organize the destructi...
1944 Mar Anne Frank Hears of a Plan to Create Public Record of German Occupation on Radio Broadcast and Begins Reworking Diary in Hopes of Publication
Anne's diary began as a private expression of her thoughts and she wrote several times that she would never allow anyone to read it. She candidly described her life, her family and compan...
1944 Mar 25 Deportation of the Jews of Ioannina
While detained, [Dr. Moses Koffinas] learned of German plans to deport Jews, and smuggled a note out to Sabetai Kabelis, a prominent member of the Jewish Community Board, advising the Jew...
1944 Jul Soviet Troops Overrun Treblinka Concentration Camp
The Germans had ordered that Treblinka II be dismantled in the fall of 1943. From July 1942 through November 1943, the Germans killed between 870,000 and 925,000 Jews at the killing cente...
1944 Jul 24 Majdanek Concentration Camp is Liberated by Soviet Troops
In late July 1944, as Soviet forces approached Lublin, the Germans hastily evacuated Majdanek. The SS had evacuated most of the prisoners to concentration camps further west during the sp...
1944 Aug 4 Anne Frank and her Family are Arrested by the Gestapo
On the morning of 4 August 1944, the Achterhuis was stormed by the German Security Police (Grüne Polizei) following a tip-off from an informer who was never identified. Led by Schutzstaff...