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Nazis issue a Decree defining a non-Aryan as "anyone descended from non-Aryan, especially Jewish, parents or grandparents. One parent or grandparent classifies the descendant as non-Aryan...especially if one parent or grandparent was of the Jewish faith."
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took German citizenship away from Jews and outlawed both marriage and sex between Jews and non-Jews. Unlike historical antisemitism, the Nuremberg Laws defined Jewishness by heredity (race) rather than by practice (religion).
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Hitler and top Nazis seek to gain legitimacy through favorable public opinion from foreign visitors and thus temporarily refrain from actions against Jews.
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During the German Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass), 7500 Jewish businesses are looted, 191 synagogues are set afire, nearly 100 Jews are killed, and tens of thousands are sent to concentration camps.
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Nazis fine Jews one billion marks for damages related to Kristallnacht.
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Passenger ship St. Louis, containing 907 Jewish refugees, begins its journey back to Europe after the United States refuses to grant it permission to dock.
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Britain and France declare war on Germany honoring their commitment to Poland.President Franklin D. Roosevelt invokes the Neutrality Act but notes, "Even a neutral cannot be asked to close his mind or his conscience."
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Yellow stars required to be worn by Polish Jews over age 10.
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Nazis choose the town of Oswiecim (Auschwitz) in Poland near Krakow as the site of a new concentration camp.
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The Warsaw Ghetto, containing over 400,000 Jews, is sealed off.
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The Japanese government decides to attack Pearl Harbor if negotiations with the United States fail.
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U.S. Naval cryptographers learn from secret code that Japan plans aggressive action if an agreement with the United States is not met.
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Japanese fighter planes attack the American base at Pearl Harbor destroying U.S. aircraft and naval vessels, and killing 2,355 U.S. servicemen and 68 civilians.
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Germany and Italy, Japan's axis partners, declare war on the United States. The United States declares war on Germany, Italy, and Japan.
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At Auschwitz, a second gas chamber, Bunker II (the white farmhouse), is made operational at Birkenau due to the number of Jews arriving.
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Newly built gas chamber/crematory III opens at Auschwitz. With its completion, the four new crematories at Auschwitz have a daily capacity of 4,756 bodies.
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The first transport of Jews from Vienna arrives at Auschwitz.
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The chief surgeon at Auschwitz reports that 106 castration operations have been performed.
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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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D-Day: The first of nearly 3 million Allied soldiers arrive in Normandy, on the northern shores of France.
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Late 1944 (no specific date) Oskar Schindler saves 1200 Jews by moving them from Plaszow labor camp to his hometown of Brunnlitz.
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Last use of the gas chambers at Auschwitz. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPlnwZOjJJs
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Adolf Hitler commits suicide in Berlin.
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The United States drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima
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A second atomic bomb is dropped in Nagasaki.
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Surrender in tokoyo bay