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July 14, 1933 - Nazi Party is declared the only legal party in Germany; Also, Nazis pass Law to strip Jewish immigrants from Poland of their German citizenship.
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September 29, 1933 - Nazis prohibit Jews from owning land.
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November 24, 1933 - Nazis pass a Law against Habitual and Dangerous Criminals, which allows beggars, the homeless, alcoholics and the unemployed to be sent to concentration camps.
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In January 1937 - Jews are banned from many professional occupations including teaching Germans, and from being accountants or dentists. They are also denied tax reductions and child allowances.
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September 1, 1939 - Nazis invade Poland (Jewish pop. 3.35 million, the largest in Europe). Beginning of SS activity in Poland.
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March 15/16 - Nazi troops seize Czechoslovakia (Jewish pop. 350,000).
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April 9, 1940 - Nazis invade Denmark (Jewish pop. 8,000) and Norway (Jewish pop. 2,000).
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October 7, 1940 - Nazis invade Romania (Jewish pop. 34,000).
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October 16, 1943 - Jews in Rome rounded up, with over 1,000 sent to Auschwitz.
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In November - Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia become Nazi Allies.
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1933
Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany and the Nazi party takes control of Germany's government. The first permanent concentration camp, Dachau, is established. -
On December 8, the first of the killing centers in Nazi-occupied Poland begins operations.
Twelve-year-old Elie Wiesel begins studying the Kabbalah -
Elie Wiesel is fifteen years old when he and his family are deported in May 1944 by the Hungarian gendarmerie and the German SS and police from Sighet to Auschwitz. His mother and younger sister perish; his two older sisters survive.
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May 16, 1944 - 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 persons - half of the Jews in Hungary - arrive at Auschwitz.
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October 30, 1944 - Last use of the gas chambers at Auschwitz.
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November 8, 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 persons, ending at Mauthausen.
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In November, the first ghetto is established in Piotrków, Poland. Jews in parts of occupied Poland are forced to wear armbands bearing the Star of David for identification.
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SS units evacuate Auschwitz in January. Elie and his father are transferred to Buchenwald concentration camp, near Weimar Germany. Elie's father dies in January; Elie is liberated with the arrival of U.S. troops in April.
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April 30, 1945 - Americans free 33,000 inmates from concentration camps.
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Elie Wiesel studies at the Sorbonne in Paris. He becomes interested in journalism.
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The State of Israel is created. On May 14, 1948, the last British forces withdraw from Palestine and the State of Israel is established in accordance with the United Nations Partition Plan that proposed the partition of Palestine into two states, an Arab state and a Jewish state.
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Elie Wiesel goes to Jerusalem for the first time.