1918
11 November 1918: End of First World War
1919
5 January 1919: Founding of the German Workers’ Party (DAP)
1920
24 February 1920: The National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) draws up a programme which includes a statement that Jews should not be citizens of Germany
1923
8 November 1923: Hitler attempts to overthrow the government in the Munich Beerhall Putsch
1924
1 April 1924: Hitler is sentenced to five years in prison
20 December 1924: Hitler is released from prison
1925
18 July 1925: Mein Kampf is published in Germany
1929
24 October 1929: The Wall Street stock market crashes in New York City
1932
31 July 1932: The Nazi Party wins 230 seats in Reichstag elections
1933
30 January 1933: Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany
20 March 1933: Dachau concentration camp opens
1 April 1933: Boycott of Jewish-owned shops and businesses across Germany
7 April 1933: Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service prevents Jews from holding government and public institution positions
10 May 1933: Thousands of books considered un-German are burned in Berlin
14 July 1933: The Hereditary Diseases Law permits sterilization of people with mental and physical disabilities
28 August 1933: The Haavara Agreement is confirmed, which sponsors Jewish immigration to Palestine while benefitting the German economy.
22 September 1933: Jews are banned from employment in the cultural sector
17 October 1933: Jews are banned from working in the press
1934
2 August 1934: Hitler names himself Führer of Germany
1935
16 March 1935: Jews are banned from the German armed forces
15 September 1935: The Nuremberg Laws are passed
1936
7 March 1936: The Rhineland is remilitarized
16 July 1936: Romani from Berlin are relocated to a camp at Marzahn
1 August 1936: The Olympic Games start in Berlin
1937
October 1937: Aryanization of Jewish businesses begins
1938
12 March 1938: German troops march into Austria and the two nations are unified in the Anschluss
23 July 1938: All Jews in Germany have to apply for an identity card
17 August 1938: All Jews have to adopt the names Israel or Sara
20 August 1938: Office for Jewish Emigration opens in Vienna
28 October 1938: First deportation of Polish Jews from German territory, including Herschel Grynszpan’s parents
7 November 1938: Herschel Grynszpan shoots Ernst vom Rath in Paris
9–10 November 1938: Kristallnacht pogrom
15 November 1938: Jewish children are banned from state schools
2 December 1938: First Kindertransport arrives at Harwich, England with 196 children
3 December 1938: The Aryanization of all Jewish-owned shops and businesses becomes compulsory
1939
30 January 1939: Hitler declares in a speech that war will lead to the annihilation of the Jews
15 March 1939: Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia
23 August 1939: Hitler and Stalin sign the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, agreeing to divide Poland
1 September 1939: Nazi troops invade Poland
1 September 1939: Last Kindertransport departs for Britain
1 September 1939: A curfew is initiated for German Jews, stating they cannot be outside after 8pm in winter, or 9pm in summer
3 September 1939: Britain and France declare war on Germany
27 September 1939: Capitulation of Warsaw in Poland
1 December 1939: Jews in the Generalgouvernement area of Poland are forced to wear a white armband bearing a blue Star of David
1940
30 April 1940: The Lodz ghetto is sealed
15 May 1940: Fall of the Netherlands to the Nazis
28 May 1940: Fall of Belgium to the Nazis
22 June 1940: Fall of France to the Nazis
2 July 1940: Establishment of the Vichy government in unoccupied France
3 October 1940: Vichy’s Statut des Juifs defines Jewishness and eliminates Jews from numerous professions in France
4 October 1940: Internment of foreign Jews is legalized in France
28 October 1940: Registration of Belgian Jews ordered
15 November 1940: The Warsaw ghetto is sealed
28 November 1940: Goebbels’ anti-Semitic film The Eternal Jew premieres in Berlin
1941
10 January 1941: Registration of Jews in the Netherlands begins
22 June 1941: Operation Barbarossa commences: Nazi troops invade the Soviet Union
21 July 1941: Himmler orders construction of Majdanek
31 July 1941: Göring instructs Heydrich to make preparations for a final solution to the Jewish question
23 August 1941: Aktion T-4 officially suspended
1 September 1941: All Jews in Germany are ordered to wear the yellow star
3 September 1941: Test gassings are carried out on prisoners of war at Auschwitz
29–30 September 1941: Massacre of 33,771 Jews at Babi Yar in the Ukraine
15 October 1941: Himmler orders Operation Reinhard
23 October 1941: Jews are forbidden to emigrate from the Reich
8 December 1941: First gassings of Jews at Chelmno
1942
20 January 1942: Fifteen Nazis meet at Wannsee to discuss the ‘Final Solution’
17 March 1942: Belzec becomes operational as an extermination centre
29 April 1942: First selection takes place at Auschwitz as Slovakian Jews arrive
3 May 1942: Regular deportations to Sobibor commence
1 June 1942: The yellow star is introduced in France and the Netherlands
4 June 1942: Death of Reinhard Heydrich
22 June 1942: The first transport leaves Drancy for Poland
4 July 1942: Systematic selection begins at Auschwitz
15 July 1942: First deportation train leaves Westerbork for the East
16–17 July 1942: 12,884 Jews are rounded up in Paris and held in the Vélodrome d’Hiver
22 July 1942: Deportations from the Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka commence
27 July 1942: The first Jews arrive at the Mechelen transit camp in Belgium
13 August 1942: First deportation of Jews from Croatia
26–8 August 1942: 7,000 Jews are arrested in the unoccupied zone of France
1943
18 January 1943: Initial resistance in the Warsaw ghetto
19 April 1943: Himmler orders the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto and the uprising begins
16 May 1943: The Warsaw ghetto uprising comes to an end
19 May 1943: Berlin is declared judenfrei
14 October 1943: Around 300 Jews escape from Sobibor following an uprising
18 October 1943: First deportation of Jews from Rome to Auschwitz
3 November 1943: 42,000 Jews from the Lublin area are killed at Majdanek and Trawniki in Operation Harvest Festival
1944
1 April 1944: Evacuation of Majdanek camp begins
14 April 1944: First deportation of Jews from Athens to Auschwitz
15 May 1944: Systematic deportations of Hungarian Jews begin
Summer 1944: Killings escalate as Hungarian Jews arrive at Auschwitz
23 July 1944: Liberation of Majdanek by Soviet troops
2 August 1944: Liquidation of the ‘Gypsy Camp’ at Auschwitz
7 October 1944: The Sonderkommando in Auschwitz set fire to crematoria II and IV
26 November 1944: Himmler orders the destruction of the gas chambers at Auschwitz
1945
18 January 1945: Mass evacuation of prisoners from Auschwitz
27 January 1945: Liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops
10 April 1945: Liberation of Buchenwald by US troops
15 April 1945: Liberation of 40,000 prisoners at Bergen-Belsen by British troops
29 April 1945: Liberation of Dachau by US troops
30 April 1945: Hitler commits suicide in Berlin
2 May 1945: The Red Cross takes over Theresienstadt
5 May 1945: Liberation of Mauthausen by US troops
8 May 1945: End of Second World War in Europe