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The
Holocaust Prior to 1933
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1920
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Nazi Party Platform Drafted
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1921
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Occupation of the Ruhr by
France results is general strike until Fall of 1923
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1923
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Hyperinflation; German economy
collapses failed beer hall Putsch. Hitler imprisoned,
writes Mein Kampf
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1929
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Beginning worldwide economic crisis.
Collapse of Great Coalition in German government
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The
Holocaust 1933-1945
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January
30
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Hitler is appointed Reich Chancellor
of Germany by Hindenburg
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January
30
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Sterilization (of inferiors) Laws
enacted; implemented three weeks later
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February
27
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Reichstag fire
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February
28
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Leading communists arrested.
Constitutional rights "temporarily" suspended
(until 1945)
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March
20
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Dachau
concentration camp established
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March
23
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Enabling Act passed by the Reichstag
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April
1
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General boycott of all Jewish
businesses for one day
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April
7
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Law for the Restoration of the
Professional Civil Service enacted. All Jews removed from
civil service Jews denied admission to the bar
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April
24
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First SA and police raid on the Magdeburg
branch office of Jehovah's Witnesses; literature
confiscated
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April
26
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Gestapo formed
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May
2
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Trade unions dissolved
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May
10
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Burning of books written by Jews and
political opponents
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June
25
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Declaration of Facts is sent to
Hitler, explaining the politically neutral position of the
Witnesses and insisting on their right to teach the Bible
to the German people. Two million copies are distributed.
Some witnesses are arrested and sentenced to terms in
labor and concentration camps.
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June
28
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Second raid and closure of
Watch
Tower
office in Magdeburg
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July
14
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Law for the Prevention of Progeny of
Hereditary Disease mandates the sterilization of patients
with hereditary diseases e.g. feeble-mindedness, epilepsy,
schizophrenia. Some 300,000 to 400,000 people are
sterilized under this law
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July
20
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Concordat signed with the Roman
Catholic Church
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August
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At the opening ceremony for the state
medical academy in
Munich
, Walter Schultze, Bavarian Commissioner of Health,
declares sterilization insufficient and argues for
euthanasia. He adds, "This policy has already been
initiated in our concentration camps."
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November
24
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Nazis pass a Law against Habitual and
Dangerous Criminals, which allows beggars, the homeless,
alcoholics and the unemployed to be sent to concentration
camps.
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The
Holocaust 1934
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June
30
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The blood purge/The Night of the Long
Knives
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August
2
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Hindenburg dies. Hitler becomes Head
of State and Commander-in-Chief
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Beginning
1934
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Mental hospitals encouraged to
neglect patients - funding and inspections either made
perfunctory or suspended.
181 Genetic Health Courts and Appellate Health Courts to
decide cases concerning sterilization established
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The Holocaust 1935
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March
11
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Nazi race hygienists and civil
servants plan the sterilization of the "Rhineland
Bastards"
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May
21
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Jews removed from military
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Summer
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Juden Verboten (No Jews) signs
increase in businesses and elsewhere
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July
26
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Justice Minister Frick orders
marriages between Aryans and non-Aryans be stopped
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September
15
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First of Nuremburg Laws
(Anti-Semitic) passed
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September
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Hitler expresses intention to
eliminate the "incurably ill" at Nuremberg Party
rally to Dr. Gerhard Wagner
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October
18
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Addendum to the sterilization law
forbids marriages between "hereditary ill" and
"healthy" people. In addition, forces the
abortion of children of the "hereditary ill" up
to the sixth month of pregnancy.
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The Holocaust 1936
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Sachsenhausen concentration camp
established
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March
7
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German army marches into the
Rhineland
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May
10
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Burning of books written by Jews
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June
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Central Office to "Combat the
Gypsy Nuisance" opened in
Munich
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July
12
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German Roma and Sinti (Gypsies) are
arrested and deported to
Dachau
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August
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Nazis set up an Office for combating
homosexuality and abortions (by healthy women).
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August
1
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Olympic games in
Berlin
opened.
Anti-Semitic signs temporarily removed
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October
25
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Hitler and Mussolini form Rome-Berlin
Axis
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November
25
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Military pact signed between
Germany
and
Japan
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The Holocaust 1937
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Spring
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Sterilization of the "Rhineland
Bastards" begins
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April
22
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Gestapo order directs that all of
Jehovah's Witnesses released from prisons are to be taken
directly to concentration camps
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July
16
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Concentration camp
Buchenwald
opens
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The Holocaust 1938
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Neuengamme and Mauthausen
concentration camps established
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March
13
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Anschluss: The annexation of
Austria
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April
26
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Decree on the Reporting of Jewish
Assets
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June
15
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Arrest of all "previously
convicted Jews"
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July
6
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Evian Conference: Results in no
international intervention on behalf of Jews
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July
23
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Announcement that Jews will need
identity cards beginning in 1939
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July
25
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Jewish doctors will only be allowed
to treat Jewish patients
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August
17
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Jews required to insert
"Sara" or "
Israel
" as middle name
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September
29
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Munich
Agreement: Britian and
France
accept German annexation of
Sudetenland
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September
30
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Jewish physicians lose their licenses
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October
6
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Passports of Jews marked with a
"J"
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October
26
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Approximately 17,000 Polish Jews
expelled from
Germany
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November
7
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Herschel Grynspan assassinates Nazi
Embassy worker in
Paris
in response to parents deportation from
Germany
to
Poland
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November
9
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Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken
Glass)
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November
12
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26,000 Jews arrested and sent to
concentration camps
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November
15
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Expulsion of Jewish children from
German schools
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December
13
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Compulsory expropriation of all
Jewish businesses and industries
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Late
1938/Early1939
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First German government
sanctioned/authorized "Mercy Killing" of
deformed infant named Knauer
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The Holocaust 1939
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Ravensbruck concentration camp
established
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January
30
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Hitler predicts that Jews will be
"exterminated" in the event of another war
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March
15
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Occupation of
Czechoslovakia
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May
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The S.S. St. Louis, a ship crowded
with 930 Jewish refugees, is turned away by
Cuba
, the
United States
and other countries and returns to
Europe
.
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August
18
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Directive sent ordering Euthanasia
program for deformed/retarded children
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August
23
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Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact
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September
1
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German invasion of
Poland
WWII begins
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September
3
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Britain
and
France
declare war on
Germany
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September
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Mental patients first shot to make
room for soldiers throughout Greater Reich
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September
1 October 1939
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"Fuhrer Decree - medical killing
became official policy
An estimated 275,000 people become victims of
"euthanasia"
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October
1939
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Children's Specialty Institution
(euthanasia center) at Gorden established
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October
1939
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T4 Project for adult
"euthanasia" established
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October
15
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First gassing of Polish mental
patients at Posen
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October
1939 - 1941
|
Over 30 Children's Specialty
Institutions/Therapeutic Convalescent Institutions (adult
euthanasia centers) were established and operated
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October
12
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First deportations to Poland of
Austrian and Moravian Jews
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November
23
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All Jews in
Poland
mandated to wear Judenstern (Jewish Star of David)
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The Holocaust 1940
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Early
1940
|
Gas first used as killing method as
part of T4 project
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April
9
|
Germans invade
Denmark
and
Norway
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April
30
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Lodz
(
Poland
) ghetto sealed off
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May
10
|
Germans invade
France
,
Holland
, and
Belgium
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May
- June
|
Gas vans first used to kill mental
patients
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June
22
|
France
surrenders to
Germany
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September
27
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Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis formed
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November
15
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Warsaw
(
Poland
) ghetto sealed off
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The Holocaust 1941
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June
22
|
Germans attack Soviet Union
Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) follow the German
army and commit mass slaughter throughout
Eastern Europe
. By the spring of 1943, these special killing units kill
more than one million Jews and tens of thousands of
others.
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July
8
|
Jews in
Baltic States
forced to wear the Star of David
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July
31
|
Heydrich appointed by Goering to
carry out the "Final Solution"
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August
|
Due to public protests led by
Catholic Bishop Count von Galen, the killing of mental
patients is temporarily stopped - continues in less
centralized manner
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September
|
Explosives tried as method of mass
killing on mental patients
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September
15
|
Wearing of Jewish Star mandated
throughout the Greater Reich
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September
23
|
First gassing experiments at
Auschwitz
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September
28-29
|
Over 33,000 Jews are massacred during
a two-day period at Babi Yar near the Ukranian capital,
Kiev
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October
10
|
Theresienstadt (
Czechoslovakia
) ghetto established
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October
14
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Deportation of German Jews begins
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October
23
|
Massacre in
Odessa
- 34,000 Jews dead
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October
28
|
Massacre in
Kiev
- 34,000 Jews dead
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November
6
|
Massacre in
Rovno
- 15,000 Jews dead
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December
7
|
Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor
|
|
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December
8
|
U.S.
enters WWII
|
|
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December
8
|
Chelmno (
Poland
) extermination site opens
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Beginning
in December
|
Some 5000 Austrian Roma and Sinti
(Gypsies) killed at Chelmmno in |
