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Operation Barbarossa
The start of Operation Bararossa. -
Bielski Brothers
Became a permenant community of 1,200 partisans. It provided refuge for Jews escaping from the ghettos and completed acts of sabotage. -
Majdanek Established
In 1940 it was set up as a concentration camp but in late 1941 became a death camp. About 200,000 died here, 60% were Jews, the rest Soviet POWs or Polish political prisoners -
The Decision
The decision for the 'Final Solution' takes place by the highest Nazi members -
Chelmno Established
Death Camp: killings here were first carried out by mobile gas vans using carbon monoxide - Zyklon B was developed later. 145,000 died there. It was built in the part of Poland designated for 'Germanisation'. -
Operation Bernhard Began
The operation led by the Nazi's to forge £5 notes and destabilise British economy began, using forced labour ffrom Jewish prisoners to do so. -
The Wannsee Conference
The Wannsee Conference consisted of 15 high ranking Nazi officers. It implemented the 'Final Solution' decision made two months earlier. -
Period: to
Accelerated Mass Killings
Over half of the Jews who died in the Holocaust were extreminated during this period. It is argued that Himmler had a huge part in this acceleration. -
Belzec Used
Near Lvov, it was originally a Labour camp but became a death camp until the spring of 1943. More than 500,000 Jews were killed here, together with several thousand gypsies -
Treblinka In Use
It was constructed on purpose for mass killings. Almost 1 million people were murdered there, first about 300,000 from Warsaw and eventually all over central Europe. It stopped functioning in September 1943 -
Josef Mengele
Became the physician of Auschwitz, known as the 'Angel of Death'. -
Revolts In Treblinka & Sobibor
In 1943 both of these camps were subject to a revolt. -
Revolt In Warsaw Ghetto
A large uprising took place at the Warsaw ghetto catching the SS by suprise. 80% of Jews in Warsaw had been exterminated at Treblinka. The first attempt to stop the uprising failed and only in May 1943 it was crushed by 2,000 German troops using heavy weapons and supported by air strikes. -
Surrender At Stalingrad
Germany's 6th Army loses at Stalingrad and is forced to surrender after being surrounded by Russian soldiers. -
'Total War' Speech
Gobbels holds his 'Total War' speech in Berlin, it is just the start of the intesification of the Nazi propaganda war against Jews -
Auschwitz Becomes Main Hub
The main killing centres were at camps such as Sobibor, Belzec and Treblinka. Most of these camps were shutdown after the Jewish population in their vicinity had been exterminated. It was built of several sections: Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II, Auschwitz III and some small outlying buildings for industrial enterprises run by forced labour provided from Auschwitz. -
Propaganda Surge I
In the autumn of 1943 at the time Mussolini had been overthrown and Germany was under mass bombing raids, the Red Army had began to push back German forces to the East. -
Sobibor Revolt
Built as part of the construction programme agreed upon at the Wannsee Conference. Its SS commandant was Franz Stangl. About 250,000 victims died there, mostly Jews and Soviet POWs. In October 1943 a Jewish revolt led to the escape of 800 prisoners. It was closed down just after on Himmler's orders -
Propaganda Surge II
After the allied landings in France propaganda surged massively. -
Auschwitz Closed Down
Auschwitz was closed down towards the end of 1944 and the 'Final Solution' was never completed fully -
'Death Marches' Begin
From the Autumn of 1944 'death marches' were carried out, evacuations of the camps were carried out frantically, moving all inmates westwards, away from the Red Army -
Liberation of Aushchwitz-Birkenau
Advance units of the First Ukrainian Army Group reached the massive complex of camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau -
Liberation At Oranienburg
The final liberation of KZ Sachsenhausen. -
Hitler Dies
Hitler had now commited suicide in his bunker in Berlin
