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Elie Wiesel is born in Sighet, Transylvania, then and now part of Romania.
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Adolf Hitlet becomes chancellor, or prime misister, of Germany.
Nazis "temporarily" suspend gcivil liberties for all citizens. They are never restored.
The Natzis set up the first concentration camp at Dachau. The first inmates are two hundred comunitsts.
Boobs contrary to Nazi beliefs are burned in public. -
Hitler combines the positions of chancellor and president to become "Fuhrer," or leader, of Germany.
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Jews in Germany are deprived of citizenship and other fundamental rights.
The Nazis intensify persecution of political dissidents and others considered "racially inferior" including "Gypsies," Jehovah's Witnesses, and homosexuals. Many are sent to concentrarion camps. -
The Olympic games are held in Germany; signs barring Jews from public places are removed unil the event is over.
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German Troops annex Austria.
On Kristallnacht (the "Night of Broken Glass"), Nazi gangs physially attack Jews throughout Germany and Austria. -
In March, Germany takes over a neighboring nation, Czechoslovakia.
On September 1, Germany invades Poland.
World War II Begins in Europe.
Hitler orders the systematic murder of the mentally and physically disabled in Germany and Austria.
Polish Jews are ordere to register and relocate. They are also required to wear armbands or yellow stars. -
Britain and France declare war on Germany
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Nazis begin deporting German Jews to Poland.
Jews are forced into ghettos.
Germany conquers one nation after another in Western Europe including the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France.
(With Germany's backing, Hungary annexes parts of Romania, including Sighet and other towns in northern Transylvania.) -
Elie Wiesel and his family become residents of Hungary.
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Germany attacks the Soviet Union.
Jews throughout Europe are forced into ghettos and internment camps.
Mobile killing units begin the systematic slaughter of Jews. In two days, one of those units was responsible for the murder of 33,771 Ukrainian Jews at Babi Yar - the largest single massacre of the Holocaust.
Hungary deports 17,000 foreign and "stateless" Jews. Several thousand are used as slave laborers. The Nazis massacre the rest.
The first death camp at Chelmno in Poland begins operations. -
Twelve-year-old Elie Wiesel begins studying the Kabbalah.
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At the Wannsee Conference, Nazi officials turn over the "Final Solution"- their plan to kill all European Jews - to the bureaucracy.
Five more death camps begin operation in Poland: Majdanek, Sobibor, Treblinka, Belzec, and Auschwitss-Birkenau.
March: About 20 to 25 percent of the Jews who would die in the Holocaust have already perished.
The ghettos of Eastern Europe are emptied as thousands of Jews are shipped to death camps. -
February: About 80 to 85 percent of the Jews who would die in the Holocaust have already perished.
April: Jews in Poland's Warsaw Ghetto strike back as the Nazis begin new rounds of deportations. It takes nearly a month for the Nazis to put down the uprising. -
March: Hitler occupies Hungary; by June, the Germans are deporting twelve thousand Hungarian Jews a day to Auschwitz.
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Ghettos set up in Sighet
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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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Reached Auschwitz; that night they saw one of the furnaces
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(Very early) Elie & his father parted from Elie's mother and sister
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Elie was given the designation A-7713
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Father didn't pass selection; gave Elie a spoon and knife as the "inheritance"
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January: As the Russian army pushes west, the Nazis begin to evacuate death camps, including Auschwitz.
April: American forces liberate the prisoners in Buchenwald.
May: World War II ends in Europe with Hitler's defeat.
The Holocaust is over; about one-third of all Jews in the world are murdered and the survivors are homeless. -
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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All Jews ordered to go to the block to be shot; evacuation began
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Elie looks in the mirror; a corpse looked back
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An International Military Tribunal created by Britain, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union tried Nazi leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Nuremberg.
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Elie Wiesel studies at the Sorbonne in Paris. He becomes interested in journalism.
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Elie moves to the U.S.
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Elie publishes the English version of NIGHT
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Elie receives the Nobel Peace Prize
