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The Nuremberg Race Laws
The Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935 deprived German Jews of their rights of citizenship, giving them the status of "subjects" in Hitler's Reich. The laws also made it forbidden for Jews to marry or have sexual relations with Aryans or to employ young Aryan women as household help. -
The Eternal Jew
The travelling exhibition promoted stereotypes of Jews and Nazi perceptions of their danger to the world. -
Hitler announces Anschluss (union) with Austria.
Adolf Hitler, Führer of Germany, accepts salutes and cheers from the Nazi controlled Reichstag after announcing the Anschluss (union) with Austria. Immediately after the Anschluss, Nazis began a brutal crackdown on Austrian Jews, arresting them and publicly humiliating them -
Kristallnacht
A massive, coordinated attack on Jews throughout the German Reich on the night of November 9, 1938, into the next day, has come to be known as Kristallnacht or The Night of Broken Glass. -
Nazi Euthanasia
In October of 1939 amid the turmoil of the outbreak of war Hitler ordered widespread "mercy killing" of the sick and disabled. -
German Jews ordered to wear yellow stars
The yellow badge (or yellow patch), also referred to as a Jewish badge, was a cloth patch that Jews were ordered to sew on their outer garments to mark them as Jews in public. It is intended to be a badge of shame associated with antisemitism. -
Wannsee Conference to coordinate the "Final Solution".
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Himmler orders destruction of the crematories at Auschwitz.
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Russian troops liberate Auschwitz.
Russian troops liberate Auschwitz. By this time, an estimated 2,000,000 persons, including 1,500,000 Jews, have been murdered there. -
Opening of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal
The trial was conducted by a joint United States-British-French-Soviet military tribunal, with each nation supplying two judges. The majority of the defendants claimed they were unknowing pawns of Adolf Hitler or were simply following orders. Evidence used against the defendants included Nazi propaganda films and extensive Nazi paperwork documenting mass murder and other crimes. Also shown were films taken by the Allies after the liberation of extermination camps. Evidence in the court room incl