The Facts

A TIMELINE OF THE HOLOCAUST
DATE	DETAIL
30 January 1933	The Nazi Party Came to Power in Germany.
1 April 1933	Nazis organised nationwide boycott of Jewish businesses in Germany.
10 May 1933	Nazis burned books written by Jews during public rallies in Germany.
13 September 1935	The Nuremberg “Racial” Laws are introduced.
12 March 1933	Germany invaded Austria in what was called “The Anschluss”
9-10 November 1938	“Kristallnacht”, The Night of Broken Glass, the Nazis burned synagogues, looted Jewish homes and businesses, and arrested and imprisoned approximately 30,000 Jewish men.
1 September 1939	Germany invaded Poland, marking the beginning of World War II
3 September 1939	Australia is at war with Germany as a consequence of Britain declaring war on Germany,
20 May 1940	SS authorities established the Auschwitz concentration camp.
30 June 1940	Germany ordered the first major Jewish Ghetto, in Lodz.
15 November 1940	Germany ordered the Warsaw Ghetto to be sealed off, confining more than 350,000 Jews.
15 September 1941	Nazi government decreed that Jews who resided in Germany had to wear a yellow Star of David on their outer clothing in public at all times.
29 September 1941	SS units shot an estimated 33,000 Jews at Babi Yar, a ravine on the outskirts of Kiev (in Ukraine).
15 October 1941	Deportations of Jews from Germany to the ghettos in Poland.
October 1941	SS begin preparation for Operation Reinhard with the goal of murdering the Jews of Germany.
8 December 1941	Gassing operations began at Chelmo, one of the six Nazi killing centres.
20 January 1942	Senior Nazi officials met for The Wannsee Conference to discuss and coordinate implementation of the “Final Solution”.
27 March 1942	German authorities began deportations of Jews from France to camps in the East, predominantly to Auschwitz.
4 May 1942	SS officials performed the first selection of victims for gassing at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Between May 1940 and January 1945, more than one million people were killed or died at the Auschwitz camp complex.
22 July 1942	Between 22 July and 12 September, SS authorities deported approximately 300,000 Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to killing centres and concentration camps, the majority were sent to Treblinka.
23 July 1942	Gassing operations began at Treblinka.
19 April 1943	The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Jewish fighters resisted the German attempt to liquidate the Ghetto for three weeks.
15 May 1944	SS deported nearly 430,000 Jews from Hungary. Most were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau where they were immediately killed.
30 October 1944	The last transport of Jews from Theresienstadt arrived at Auschwitz. During October, SS officials deported approximately 18,000 Jews to Auschwitz. Most were killed in the gas chambers on arrival.
25 November 1944	The SS began to demolish the gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
17 January 1945	As Soviet troops approached, SS units evacuated prisoners in the Auschwitz camp complex, marching them on foot. The forced evacuations came to be called “death marches“.
27 January 1945	Soviet troops liberated about 8000 prisoners left behind at Auschwitz.
11 April 1945	US troops liberated more than 20,000 prisoners at Buchenwald.