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Anne Frank is born in Frankfurt, Germany.
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The National Socialist German Workers' (Nazi) party begins its rise to power. The Nazis proclaim the superiority of the German "master race" and blame Jews for the German defeat in World War 1 and for the troubled economy.
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The Franks decide to leave Germany to escape Nazi persecution. While Mr. Frank looks for a new home in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the rest of the family stays with relatives in Aachen, Germany.
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The Nazi party leader, Adolf Hitler, becomes chancellor ( head of the government) of Germany.
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The first concentration camp is established by the Nazis, at Dachau, Germany.
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The Nazis pass their first anti-Jewish law, banning the public employment of Jews.
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The Nuremberg Laws are passed, denying Jews German citizenship and forbidding marriage between Jews and non-Jews.
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Germany and Italy form an alliance (the Axis).
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The Van Pels family (called the Van Daans in Anne's diary) flee Germany for the Netherlands.
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The German Army invades and annexes Austria.
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The Munich Agreement, granting Germany the right to annex part of Czechoslovakia, is draftedand signed by representatives from France, Great Britian, Italy,and Germany.
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Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass). Led by the SS, the Nazi special police, Germans beat and kill Jews, loot Jewish stores, and burn synagogues.
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Fritz Pfeffer (called Albert Dussel in Anne's diary) flees Germany for the Netherlands.
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Germany invades and occupies most of Czechoslavakia.
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Germany invades Poland. France and Great Britain declare war on Germany two days later.
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Germany ivnades Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France.
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Japan joins the Axis.
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Germany invades the Soviet Union.
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The United States enters the war on the side of the Allied nations (including Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and other countries) after Japan attacks the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor.
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The "Final solution" is secretly announced at a conference of Nazi officials: Europe's Jews are to be "exterminated," or murdered. Construction of death camps, equipped with gas chambers and huge incinerators for mass killing and cremation, begins in Poland. Millions of people (Jews and non-Jews) will die in these camps.
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Anne receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday.
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The Franks go into hiding after Morgot receives an order to appear for deportation to a labor camp in Germany. The Van Pels family joins them one week later.
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Fritz Pfeffer becomes the eighth occupant of the Secret Annex.
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D-day. Allied forces land in Normandy, in northern France, and launch an invasion of western Europe.
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Nazi police raid the Secret Annex; the occupants are sent to concentration camps.
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Mr. Van Pels dies in Auschwitz.
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Anne's mother, Edith Frank, dies in Auschwitz. Three weeks later Otto Frank is freed when Auschwitz is liverated by the Soviet Army. Anne and Margot die in Bergen Belsen a few weeks before British soldiers liberate the camp. Peter Van Pels dies in Mauthausen. Mrs. Van Pels dies in Theresienstadt.
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The war in Europe ends with Germany's unconditional surrender to the Allies.
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Japan surrenders after the United States drops atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki