Holocaust Timeline
This is a chronology of key events in the development of the Holocaust. In addition to this, a timeline of the events in Rwanda are also provided in our educational resources.
These chronologies are not for comparing but for a greater understanding of both events and so that patterns can be seen.
There are some classroom activities to accompany this at the end.
The Holocaust
1933
April- Professional Civil Service Act: Jews are excluded from the civil service and teaching.
May- Public burning of books by Jewish authors or other writers deemed objectionable to Nazi ideals.
1934
May- Der Stomer, the Nazi anti-Semitic paper accuses Jews of the mediaeval crime of ritual slaughter (using Christian blood for religious purposes).
1935
May- Introduction of a law that made Jews (and other non-Aryans) ineligible for military service.
September – Nuremberg Laws, taking away citizenship from Jews and stopping them from holding public office.
The law “For the protection of German Blood and Honour” bans Jews from marrying Germans.
1936
Jews in Germany prevented from taking part in the German teams at the Olympics in Munich
1938
March- Anschluss (union between Germany and Austria), Austrian Jews immediately have German anti Jewish laws applied to them.
July- Jewish Doctors and Lawyers have their licences withdrawn. All Jews must add Sarah (for a woman) and Israel (for a man) to their names to distinguish them from non-Jews.
November – Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass) Organised pogrom against the Jews living in all Nazi territories, – 91 Jews were killed, 30,000 arrested and 191 synagogues destroyed.
Jewish children are excluded from all German schools.
1939
September – Nazis invade Poland leading to the outbreak of war and millions of Polish Jews come under Nazi control
November – All Jews in Poland ordered to wear the “Star of David”.
1940
January onwards- Nazis begin to create ghettos in Eastern European cities, separating Jews from non-Jews.
Throughout the year Western Europe comes under Nazi control and central European countries agree to side with Nazi Germany.
1941
June- Nazi special killing units (Einsatzgruppen) start killing Jews and other ‘enemies of Nazism’ across Eastern Europe. The victims are unarmed and include women, children and the old. The victims are buried in mass graves.
September – All Jews in Nazi controlled areas are ordered to wear a yellow star at all times.
1942
January – The Wannsee Conference – a meeting by top Nazis to plan the murder of all the Jews of Europe.
March- Polish Jews start being sent to the death camps.
Jews from Western Europe begin to be sent to the death camps of Eastern Europe especially Auschwitz-Birkenau.
August- British and American governments are informed about mass killings of Jews by the Nazis.
1943
Throughout the year the ghetto set up in Eastern Europe are “liquidated”, meaning that the Jews still living there are killed on the spot or sent to death camps.
1944
Despite Nazi Germany experiencing defeats on all war fronts the push to murder Jews continues as a priority. Nearly 500,000 Hungarian Jews are gassed between May to July.
1945
January- Auschwitz-Birkenau Death camp is liberated by the Soviet Army
April- Buchenwald concentration camp liberated by the US army. Bergen-Belsen concentration camp liberated by the British army.
November – International War Crimes Tribunal opens in Nuremberg.
- Holocaust_timeline (PDF document)
