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President Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany
Recently appointed as German chancellor, Adolf Hitler greets President Paul von Hindenburg in Potsdam, Germany, on March 21, 1933. Hitler appears in civilian dress, bowing in deference to the heavily decorated von Hindenburg. After the March 5, 1933 elections failed to realize Nazi hopes for an absolute majority in the German parliament, photo opportunities such as this one conferred legitimacy on Hitler's leadership -
The Reichstag Fire
Dome of the Reichstag building, virtually destroyed by fire on February 27, 1933. Hitler and his conservative nationalist Vice-Chancellor, Franz von Papen convinced President Hindenburg that the act of arson was the signal for a Communist uprising to overthrow the state. -
The Nuremberg Laws
Nazis announced new laws which institutionalized many of the racial theories prevalent in Nazi ideology. The laws excluded German Jews from Reich citizenship and prohibited them from marrying or having sexual relations with persons of "German or related blood." Ancillary ordinances to the laws disenfranchised Jews and deprived them of most political rights. -
Summer Olympic Games open in Berlin, Germany
Olympic torch bearer running through Berlin shortly before the opening ceremony. While hosting the Summer Olympics for two weeks in August 1936, the Nazi regime camouflaged its racist, militaristic character. Fifteen months after the Games ended, Germany's expansionist policies and the persecution of Jews and other "enemies of the state" accelerated dramatically. -
Germany incorporates Austria in the Anschluss (Union)
Viennese civilians welcome the arriving German troops into the city.
German troops march into Austria on March 12, 1938, after that nation has endured a prolonged period of economic stagnation, internal political dictatorship, and intense Nazi propaganda. Motivated by committed engagement, fear, exhaustion, and indifference, most Austrians welcomed the invading German troops enthusiastically. Austria was incorporated into Germany the next day. -
Kristallnacht, “Night of Broken Glass”
Violence against Jews engulfed the Reich. Though appearing to be spontaneous, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and other Nazi Party leaders in fact carefully organized & coordinated the violence. In two days, as police and firefighters stood by, Nazi thugs murdered dozens of Jewish people, burned over 250 synagogues, trashed and looted more than 7,000 Jewish businesses, and desecrated or vandalized Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, schools, and homes. -
Germany invades Poland, starting World War II in Europe
German soldiers parade through Warsaw to celebrate the defeat of Poland. After securing the neutrality of the Soviet Union, Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, starting World War II. Honoring their guarantees to Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3. German forces and, beginning on September 17, 1939, invading Soviet forces conquered Poland by the end of that month. Following this, Nazi Germany & the Soviet Union partitioned the Polish state. -
Auschwitz Extermination Camp
Auschwitz began receiving political prisoners in 1940. It was designed to carry out Hitler's Final Solution. Of the 1.3 million people sent to Auschwitz, 1.1 million died. The death toll includes 960,000 Jews, 74,000 non-Jewish Poles, 21,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and up to 15,000 other Europeans. Those not gassed died of starvation, exhaustion, disease, individual executions, or beatings. Others were killed during medical experiments. -
Battle of France
In World War II, the Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, executed from May 10, 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb (Case Yellow), German armored units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and surround the Allied units that had advanced into Belgium -
Germany invades the Soviet Union
Under the codename Operation "Barbarossa," Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 in the largest German military operation of World War II. The destruction of the Soviet Union by military force, the permanent elimination of the perceived Communist threat to Germany, and the seizure of prime land within Soviet borders for long-term German settlement had been a core policy of the Nazi movement since the 1920s. -
Wannsee Conference held near Berlin, Germany
15 high-ranking Nazi Party, SS, & German government officials gathered at this villa in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee to discuss & coordinate the implementation of what they called the
"Final Solution of the Jewish Question." In 1941 Hitler authorized this European-wide scheme for mass murder. Reinhard Heydrich convened the Wannsee Conference to inform & secure support from government ministries & other interested agencies relevant to the implementation of the “Final Solution.” -
Warsaw ghetto uprising begins
German SS & police forces initiated the operation to liquidate the Warsaw ghetto on April 19, 1943, the eve of Passover. When the Germans & their auxiliaries entered the ghetto that morning, the streets were deserted. Nearly all of the residents of the ghetto had gone into hiding places or bunkers. The renewal of deportations was the signal for an armed uprising within the ghetto. -
Germans begin the mass deportation of about 440,000 Jews from Hungary
After the German defeat at Stalingrad on the eastern front in 1942-1943, Minister-President Miklós Kállay sought to negotiate a separate armistice for Hungary with the western Allies. To forestall these efforts, German forces occupied Hungary on March 19, 1944. Upon agreement with the Germans, Hungarian authorities deported nearly 440,000 Jews from Hungary, most to Auschwitz-Birkenau, in six weeks. By the end of July 1944, the only Jewish community left in Hungary resided in Budapest. -
D-Day: Anglo-American forces invade Normandy, France
On June 6, 1944, under overall command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower and, on the ground, of British General Bernard Montgomery, more than 130,000 British and U.S. troops landed on five beaches on the French coast, code named Omaha, Gold, Juno, Sword, and Utah. The night before, 23,000 paratroopers dropped into France behind the German lines. -
Adolf Hitler Dies
Hitler killed himself by gunshot on 30 April 1945 in his Führerbunker in Berlin.[a][b][c] Eva Braun, his wife of one day, committed suicide with him by taking cyanide.[d] In accordance with Hitler's prior written and verbal instructions, that afternoon their remains were carried up the stairs through the bunker's emergency exit, doused in petrol, and set alight in the Reich Chancellery garden outside the bunker -
Germany surrenders to the western Allies and to the Soviets
U.S. Army troops march through the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
From their bridgehead across the Oder River, Soviet forces launched a massive final offensive toward Berlin in mid-April 1945. The German capital was encircled on April 21. Soviet forces met U.S. troops at Torgau, on the Elbe River in central Germany. On May 7, Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Western Allies at Reims and on May 9 to the Soviets in Berlin. -
Dachau Concentration Camp
This prototype for further camps began receiving political prisoners.The Dachau camp system grew to include nearly 100 sub-camps, which were mostly work camps or Arbeitskommandos, and were located throughout southern Germany and Austria.[5] The camps were liberated by U.S. forces on 29 April 1945.
