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Adolph Hitler comes to power.
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Establishment of Dachau.
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Boycotts against Jews begin.
Hitler's Nazi soldiers stand outside Jewish shops and persuade Germans to boycott them.
The Boycott of Jewish Businesses -
Nuremberg Laws
Jews lose citizenship and civil rights. Jews were forbidden to vote, to go out at night, and to marry Germans.
Video/Audio clip
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Buchenwald concentration camp opens.
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Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass") when Jewish businesses, synagogues, and homes were violently destroyed throughout Germany, Austria, & Czechoslovakia. Many Jewish men were killed or put in concentration camps.
Kristallnacht Background & Overview -
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Jewish 'ghettos'
Jewish people were forced to leave their homes and live in 'ghettos' They were forbidden to earn a wage and many starved to death.
Life in the Ghettos -
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Star of David
All Jewish people were forced to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothes immediately identifying them as Jews. -
Einsatzgruppen
As WWII continues, Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing squads) follow the German army into conquered lands, rounding up and killing Jews and other “undesirables.” -
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Death Camps created
During the year, Jewish people were regularly transported by freight trains to specially built death camps (like Auschwitz) where, if they survived the journey, they were killed in gas chambers. -
The Wannsee Conference
The Wannsee Conference is held near Berlin, Germany where the decision is made by the Nazis for a 'Final Solution to the Jewish Problem' – to exterminate all the Jewish people in Europe. -
Warsaw ghetto uprising begins
Jewish underground organizations created an armed unit known as the Jewish Combat Organization (ZOB) and members of the ghetto began to construct underground bunkers and shelters.
Link to photos, personal histories... -
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Death Camps overtake ghettos
Germans abandoned the system of cramming people into ghettoes in favor of herding men, women and children on to cattle cars to transport them to the concentration and extermination camps. -
Winter Death March
Nazis force concentration camp inmates on death marches. -
Death Camps liberated
American forces liberate Buchenwald and British forces liberate Bergen-Belsen camps
Camp Liberation -
WWII ends
WWII ends with the unconditional surrender of all the Axis powers. -
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Nuremberg War Times Trails
These trials took place in the German city of Nuremberg and looked to punish 23 of the most powerful Nazi leaders for the crimes they committed during the war.
Trail Timeline w/ video clips
