Holocaust 1931-1939

By TaJaia Miles

  • Summer 1931

    Himmler creates the Security Service of the Nazi Party.

  • January 1933

    The Nazis obtain control of the German state with the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor, marking the beginning of the Third Reich.

  • Summer 1934

    Hitler announces that the SS is an independent organization as a reward for its role in murdering Ernst Röhm and the top leadership of the SA.

  • December 1935

    The SS establishes the Lebensborn (Fount of Life) Society, which is to care for children born out of wedlock to women whom the SS deems racially suitable.

  • Summer 1936

    Adolf Hitler appoints Himmler as Reichsführer SS and Chief of German Police. Himmler is now commander of all German police. Himmler completes the centralization of the various criminal police departments in Germany into the Reich Criminal Police Office .

  • 1937

    The SS takes control of the Ethnic German Liaison Office.

  • 1938

    The SD creates a station in Vienna to facilitate the forced emigration of Jews from Austria.

  • November 9–10, 1938

    The SS and police steer the violence of Kristallnacht toward the Jews of Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland. During the pogrom, the German police round up around 30,000 Jews and incarcerate them in concentration camps.

  • Late 1939

    Himmler establishes the Waffen SS, an armed SS force.