Compiled by researchers for exFamily.org July 2003
Berg and Anti-Semitism
by researchers for exFamily.org

PART II - Facts for (ex)members

This page contains material which is considered very disturbing and hateful. We have found it necessary to post these quotes of David Berg for information purposes only -- the anti-Semitic writings of David Berg must be truthfully exposed. WE DO NOT ENDORSE THESE WRITINGS OF DAVID BERG IN ANY FORM.
Berg and Anti-Semitism
by "A Researcher"

It is an ugly thing to read words of hate in any form. It is a shocking experience to read Berg's extensive anti-Jewish writings. It is never easy to read utterances of hate against any race of people, but these are words which Berg, the self-proclaimed "Prophet of Love" uttered to his followers through extensive secretive internal publications called "Mo letters", usually classified "DO" for Disciples Only. These very doctrines of vitriolic hatred were read by members of a religious group calling themselves the "Children of God" a.k.a. the "Family of Love" a.k.a. "The Family" - a group whose adherents want only to be known as a loving missionary group, a group whose members sang for George Bush sr. in the White House. These are the hateful words of their founder, the "Prophet of Love", David Berg.

To show Berg for who he really was; and to show The Family/Children of God/Family of Love for the beliefs they truly adhere(d) to in secret while deceiving the public with a peace corps type facade, soliciting donations to support their charity works; to show them for what they are, these statements cannot remain hidden.

To repeat these quotes here is utterly shameful, but it is more shameful not to tell the truth about Berg. It is shameful that such writings exist at all, and were/are endorsed by a group which would like to only be known for its deeds of charity.

These are the writings of a hateful man who claimed Jewish ancestry, and yet said some of the most derogatory things against Jewish people. To be fair, David Brandt Berg occasionally mentions his Jewish ancestry with pride. But overall, his writings condemned an entire people, damned them to hell, praised Hitler, and claimed the Holocaust a fake manufactured by Jewish conspirators.

Early on when the group was newly founded, Berg aspired to have a Children of God kibbutz in Israel which would be Christian but modeled after Jewish culture. The "tribes" of the early family were named after the tribes of Israel. Many of the songs the early Children of God learned were traditional Jewish songs. On visiting Israel and realizing Jewish people were not interested in his brand of cross culturalization, he turned against them - Bergs ever-changing revelations then began depicting Jewish people as subhuman, demons and antichrist.

In his next stage, he began to embrace the Arab-Islamic world as in his "Godhafi" series (Khadafi). Although there was probably zero compatibility between Islamic faith and Berg's ideas, he sent his daughter and others to speak personally with Khadafi in Libya, to establish relations with the man he said would be the future "Anti-Christ". Berg's message then became more and more anti-Israeli, more anti-Jewish.

It is not surprising that many (ex)members, after receiving a steady diet of anti-Jewish material for years with no alternative sources of information (since reading of outside material was either discouraged or banned), retain some anti-Jewish sentiment and disinformation, and are confused as to the facts about Hitler and the holocaust.

This is what he taught - the truth of Berg's writings and teachings must be revealed. The public has a right to know. There are almost 100 paragraphs in total, none of them are repeated - Berg wrote extensively about the subject
  • "May God damn the God-damned Jews! My God, I think if I could get over there and had a gun I think I'd shoot 'em myself! My God damn them in Jesus' name! In Jesus' name, strike! Strike! Strike! God damn the Jews! Those Anti-Christ, Christ-hating Jews, God damn them! O God, if I had a gun I'd shoot them myself! God damn the Jews! God damn them, God damn them, God damn them, in Jesus' name! Damn the anti-Christ Jews! Damn them O God! God damn them!" ("A Prayer for the Poor!", 681:23,25,33,34,35,76)
  • "And yet the Jews condemn Hitler for killing Jews! Well, now you know why Hitler wanted to kill'm all! The World would have been a lot better off without'm a long time ago!" ("The Beirut Massacre!", 1284:38)
  • "'Ah, he's not only an anti-Semite, he's a racist!'--Yes, I'm an anti-Semite, because God is! Yes, I'm a racist, because God is!" ("The Troublemakers!--And the Solution!", 1222:110)
    exFamily.org does not endorse this material but posts it here to document the existence of such writings by Berg, the founder of The Family (a.k.a. the Family of Love, a.k.a. COG)

BERG: THE RISE OF HITLER & THE NAZIS
  • "If you've every read Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' it is pretty persuasive according to his logic and theory, including that the anti-Christ Jews are responsible for a good many of the world's ills, which of course they have been." ("The World Today!", 350: 65)
  • "I think Hitler was... on the right track: The Jews were the ones to blame for most of his country's ills & Europe's ills & the World's ills." ("More Current Jewels!", 1258:61)
  • "Before World war II, before Hitler, the Jews had taken over Germany--that was the whole problem! Most of them were socialists and communists and they were selling Germany right down the line to Russia, and that's what brought Hitler to power. Hitler was a last ditch stand to save Germany from the Jews and the communists. ("From Whence Come Wars!", 601:53,54)
  • "The earliest supporters of the Nazis were evangelicals & Fundamentalists, some of the staunchest supporters of Hitler!--Because he claimed at first to be a Christian & claimed to be... saving the World from the anti-Christ Jews! ("Can You be Delivered From the Mark?", 2030:55)
  • "Even with Hitler, it was the Evangelicals who were his staunchest supporters,--The Christians of Germany! Think of that! Because he was for a lot of good things & a lot of the right things, which now as we look back we can see were right. ("Worldwide Insanity!", 2025:37)
    exFamily.org does not endorse this material but posts it here to document the existence of such writings by Berg, the founder of The Family (a.k.a. the Family of Love, a.k.a. COG)
  • "The word 'Nazi' was not a bad word before the war, except amongst their enemies the Jews. Nazi meant the National Socialist Party of Germany & was composed largely of Catholics, Protestants, Fundamentalists & Evangelicals. All the best people of Germany were Nazis! About the only ones who weren't were the Jews, & nearly all of them were Communists & Communist leaders! So Hitler arose to power voted in by the Christians to save Germany from the atheist Communist Jews!" ("Constant Vigilance is the Price of Security!", 1889:12)
  • "Europe was in a hell of a mess when Hitler took over. Germany was in a hell of a mess, it was becoming run by Communist Jews & the Communists were taking over. The Jews had already taken over, but now, led by the Jews, Communism was taking over Germany, & that's what gave rise to Hitler, to fight the Jewish-Communist takeover of Germany, believe it or not!" ("Worldwide Insanity!", 2025:39)
  • "In fact, he started out claiming to be a Christian, favouring the Evangelicals. The Evangelical conservative fundamentalist groups were his prime supporters in the beginning, because they considered his principles & the things he was fighting for etc. to be Christian. They thought that he was going to literally Christianise Germany & Europe, get rid of those damn anti-Christ Jews, & he was going to get'm organised & industrialised & have a new utopia of Europe! He was planning a Heaven-on-Earth in Europe! Well, you can see that he obviously made some mistakes which created nothing but Hell on Earth!" ("The God of Empires!", 2095:70)
    exFamily.org does not endorse this material but posts it here to document the existence of such writings by Berg, the founder of The Family (a.k.a. the Family of Love, a.k.a. COG)

BERG: THE HOLOCAUST HOAX
  • "You hear all about Hitler & how he was supposed to have killed 6 million Jews!--Well, they've never been able to prove yet that he even killed 60,000! ("The Happy Ending!", 767:41)
  • "Personally I'm convinced that the numbers who died in these camps was minimal compared to what they claim." ("They Staged the Whole Thing!", 1340:41)
  • "Certainly they never killed six million of them, I don't think there were that many in all of Europe! It's amazing what big lies people will believe!" ("The Antichrists & The Economy!", 1783:24)
  • "World War 2 was a war of the Jews against the Nazis & Hitler...And the Jews engineered that very cleverly where they got off scot-free more or less, despite the many wild tales about extermination & the Holocaust & the massacre & the slaughter etc., most of which I don't even believe. It would have been physically impossible for Hitler & the Nazis to have slaughtered six million Jews!
  • I think the Jews...simply took a figure & multiplied it by their favourite number, 6, or 66--or maybe 666, which is going to be their favourite number--& came up with six million! Let's see, how much would that take to multiply 666 & come up with six million or close to it? (Peter: About 9,000.) I wouldn't be surprised if it could have actually been as little as that!--Only 9,000! Some fairly authoritative fellows over there who were not even necessarily on one side or the other have said that there probably weren't more than a few thousand Jews actually massacred." ("God's Way!--The Wind-Down!", 1659:73-75)
    exFamily.org does not endorse this material but posts it here to document the existence of such writings by Berg, the founder of The Family (a.k.a. the Family of Love, a.k.a. COG)
  • "I mean, six million Jews were supposed to have been slaughtered, that is the most ridiculous statistic! What hat they pulled that out of, I don't know. So they picked this colossal figure of six million Jews! My Lord, there weren't six million Jews in all of Europe just a short time before Hitler! Well, some of them claim that there were ten million Jews in Europe [but] if Hitler wiped them all out, for God's sake, where did all the rest of them come from that nearly sank America right after WW2?" ("World History!--And Russia!", 1767:71-73)
  • That's what brought Jewish-led Britain & America into the war...to rescue the Jews, with all this Jewish propaganda about Hitler's slaughter of Jews etc. Which you have to take with a grain of salt. There was definitely Nazi Jewish persecution, there's no doubt about that & there's plenty of proof of it, but I'll never believe in a million years they slaughtered six million Jews, that was impossible! They didn't have the facilities for it, not even the death camps had the capacity for it. They had trouble even burying the bodies of a few thousand. But it was bad enough, & it was enough for the Jews to make Worldwide publicity of it to turn the World sentiment against Hitler. ("Generation of Vipers!", 1773:30)
  • "That stupid little bit of Nazi persecution of the Jews. That was no holocaust! They're exaggerating the whole thing, blowing it up far out of proportion to what really happened." ("Love'm and Leave'm!", 1760:19)
  • "The wording of some of the charges is so ridiculous! They teach that holocaust business, "Six million Jews slaughtered by Hitler"...I have yet to see any documentation or proof that they ever killed that many Jews.
    exFamily.org does not endorse this material but posts it here to document the existence of such writings by Berg, the founder of The Family (a.k.a. the Family of Love, a.k.a. COG)
  • "No doubt lots of Jews died in those concentration camps, but who knows whether they were really killed or not. One writer says the gas chambers were nothing but delousing, decontamination chambers. And that's what they say, that those chambers could never have been used as gas chambers, they were not airtight as gas chambers needed to be etc.
  • "The Jews are always calling the slaughter of some of their people in the most exaggerated number you ever heard of! There's no way one man, Mengele, could've killed 400,000 people! I think he was there 6 years, you try to figure up how many people he'd have had to kill very day in order to kill that many people, & it comes to some ridiculous impossible number, just as ridiculous as the six million Jews supposedly killed by Hitler!--Ridiculous! Impossible! They had a hard enough time trying to dispose of the bodies of the few they did kill!"
  • "What puzzles me is if Hitler was out to get them all, how come he let so many of them loose? He certainly didn't do a very good job, because there are still so many of them, still millions of them!--Here, there, yon, everywhere, taking over the World! I think it's a big farce, I think it's a big lie, I think it's a big lot of baloney to try to get the goys, the gentiles & Christians off their guard & to think, "Well Hitler destroyed most of the Jews so we don't have to worry about them any more!"--When they're still with us, brother! They're still everywhere & very busy little termites chewing into the woodwork!
  • "The whole thing is a fix! It's a hoax! It's a frame-up! It's staged! It's lies!--By the Jews, to get sympathy & power & control & make the World bow down!
  • "They say, 'Look at this horrible thing, they cremated these Jews in these concentration camps!' Well, what the Hell do you think they're going to do with those dead bodies anyhow, stack'm around & let'm stink? People were dying not only in concentration camps during the war, millions were dying outside the concentration camps of war & starvation. And when people die, you've either gotta bury'm or burn'm or they stink up the World!
    exFamily.org does not endorse this material but posts it here to document the existence of such writings by Berg, the founder of The Family (a.k.a. the Family of Love, a.k.a. COG)
  • "So what do you think they're supposed to do with people dying in concentration camps? People outside in Germany were having a hard time getting enough to eat, so why shouldn't they starve inside the concentration camp as well as outside? Sure you're got pictures of starving people, but you could have taken pictures outside the concentration camps of starving people too!" ("The Antichrist & his Government are Already Here!", 2184:38-43,47 under the heading, "Bitberg Cemetary, Jews Running the World, Holocaust Hoax".)
  • "You know how proficient the Jews are in lying! Look how they cooked up that figure of six million Jews killed in Europe by Hitler! Good night, in all Europe put together there were only about ten million Jews, & how he managed to get around to six million of them would have had to have been a miracle of some kind, & I don't believe it, it's impossible! Several mathematicians have figured out how it was humanly, mathematically impossible to have killed that many Jews, it's ridiculous! ("The God of Empires!", 2095:68,69)
  • "Germany is having to pay millions of dollars of indemnities to Israel today...as reparations for what Hitler did to the Jews in Germany, supposedly killing six million. Boy, are those Jews smart! They cooked up this big lie, this big story about how many millions of Jews were killed by Hitler & his Nazis & said, "But you're guilty, you're Germany, therefore you've got to pay us for it!" ("Ezekiel 39:6--End & Zechariah 10-13!", 2155:28)
  • "The number of Jews Hitler was supposed to have killed probably started out at 6,000, & it's pretty hard to even kill 60,000 people. I might've by the wildest stretch of my imagination figured out some way they might have been able to kill, burn or bury 600,000 Jews, but 6 million?!--There wasn't room in those camps for 6 million people much less to bury them or burn them!--It's a LIE!" ("The Troublemakers!--And the Solution!", 1222:82)
    exFamily.org does not endorse this material but posts it here to document the existence of such writings by Berg, the founder of The Family (a.k.a. the Family of Love, a.k.a. COG)
  • "The Jews are always trying to minimise their numbers. The only thing they exaggerate is their numbers killed by Hitler! That has grown from a possible 6,000 to 60,000, & then after the war when they took over they figured they could get away with more than that, 600,000! And now the latest for the past few years has been six million! This is so ridiculous because there weren't even six million Jews in all Germany at that time!
  • "So how did they get six million Jews, anyway? Well, you say, they added some from Poland & Eastern Europe. Well, if they had killed six million Jews they would have killed nearly all the Jews in Europe! If that's true, I'd like to know where the Hell did all these other Jews come from all of a sudden, popping out of the walls & out of the woodwork right after the War & taking over Germany & running Berlin & Europe & the U.S.A. ever since!
  • "My conservative estimate might be about what some open honest scholars have estimated, maybe as high as possibly 60,000 Jews were killed in the death camps." ("They Staged the Whole Thing!", 1340:20,21,49)
BERG DESCRIBES THE TREBLINKA DEATH CAMP
  • "Have you ever heard that story about Treblinka & what a hard time they had burning just a few bodies? It was so difficult! When they heard that the Allies were coming they wanted to hide some of the evidence--a few score Jews that they had exterminated--& they wanted to try to burn them so they could bury them. They thought it would be easier to burn 'em because it took less space to dig a hole & bury the ashes than the bodies, but they had one helluva time trying! Then they found out if they put the fat people on the bottom, put the fat in the fire, that it really burned nice & hot! So watch out, you fat people! ("The Antichrists & The Economy!", 1783:25)
    exFamily.org does not endorse this material but posts it here to document the existence of such writings by Berg, the founder of The Family (a.k.a. the Family of Love, a.k.a. COG)
  • "They used to stack'm outside at Treblinka like cord wood, they lit fires under them & everything else & they had a terrible time trying to get them to burn.--Till finally they hit on the bright idea, they found the fat ones burned best, really burned furiously, so they put them on the bottom! And they really lit up the fire, really lit their fire! But I mean that was just a few hundred bodies, a lot of whom had died as a result of various diseases, probably malnutrition & a lot of other things." ("The Antichrist & his Government are Already Here!", 2184:41)
  • "That's one of the biggest problems they had a Treblinka, was burning the dead! They found out finally if they put the fat ones on the bottom that the fat was in the fire & it really burned bright & it helped burn all the bodies! I guess they didn't have any trouble finding fat ones. There must have been some fat ones left, so they couldn't have starved them all to death, as they were supposed to have done, blah, blah!("The Troublemakers!--And the Solution!", 1222:83)

BERG: GOD SENT HITLER
  • "You can go back & think about some of the famous conquerors of the World who are now considered evil monsters & the worst villains the World has ever known, & it's all because their side lost & the other side wrote the history! You never hear a good thing about Napoleon any more, whereas there was a time when Napoleon & even Hitler were considered saviours of Europe!
  • "Some of those men portrayed as evil monsters in history, as you look back you can realise that who knows but what God sent them...to slow down some of the anti-Christ forces which were at work. You can name the various most villainous of all the world conquerors right on back through ancient history & you can see that God allowed it & that some good came of it, & many of them were literally saving the World from something much worse!" ("Worldwide Insanity!", 2025:39,40, under the title, "THE WORLD'S SAVIOURS!")
    exFamily.org does not endorse this material but posts it here to document the existence of such writings by Berg, the founder of The Family (a.k.a. the Family of Love, a.k.a. COG)
  • "Wasn't Hitler an instrument of God's judgment? A lot of these so-called evil men have been just exactly what the people deserved & needed, & in the case of Hitler, particularly the Jews." ("Medusa Touch!", 955:14,15)
  • "Hitler was either a scourge on the World's sin, or a saviour to try to save them from the Communists, depending on how you look at it! And God didn't stop him until he'd done his part & his damage & just about gotten rid of the World's biggest scourge, the Jews!" ("The Course of History Must Go On!", 2190:3,4)
  • "He could have gone ahead & conquered Russia too & put an end to Communism if the U.S. & Britain hadn't knifed him in the back, which is what they did to save their Jews. Therefore the World rejected its saviour, in a sense." ("The Sooner The Better!", 2231:46) The following quotes are from "The God of Empires!", under the subtitle, "THE WORLD ALWAYS REJECTED ITS SAVIOURS!":
  • "It reminds me of the story about the vineyard that the Lord said He sent His servant to, where the people wouldn't submit or obey. (Mk.12:111) I think some of these tyrants were God's instruments to bring order to some countries, but they would have none of them. They were God's solutions, but the people rejected them & their rejection caused the wars, the horrible slaughters & nightmares.
  • "Maybe those tyrants were saviours sent by God to try to save the people & save the countries & the poor & their economies, because they're certainly worse off now than ever!
  • "Americans & Europeans are so brainwashed with all this ridiculous theory of democracy & so-called freedom! I mean they've got history turned inside-out & upside-down & backwards!--Whereas I'm more inclined to interpret history exactly the opposite from the way they're misinterpreted it! Their "ministry of truth" has glorified everything that's wrong, just the opposite of the truth!
    exFamily.org does not endorse this material but posts it here to document the existence of such writings by Berg, the founder of The Family (a.k.a. the Family of Love, a.k.a. COG)
  • "Since we know the lies of the Devil & the System, if we turn all of their propaganda & interpretation of history inside-out & backwards, we'd probably get the true picture! All these world conquerors & tyrants were probably saviours sent by God, but whom the World rejected, & that's why they're such a mess! That's a radical theory, but I think it's consistent!
  • "You know the U.S. Jews & their media, their historical accounts & propaganda are all lies & the exact opposite of the truth! So if you look back on recent history & turn it around so it's just the opposite, then you get the true picture! Maybe Hitler was a good man saving the World!
  • "All of them rejected their saviours so now God's Wrath will be heaped on the World because they rejected His solutions. ("The God of Empires!", 2095:97,98,100,102-104)
  • "(Maria: So we would have approved of Hitler's war against the Jews?) His war against Communism, which was led by the Jews, I do approve, and have approved! He was trying to save his people and trying to save Europe! Boy, how they have rewritten history & made Hitler a monster, when he was trying to save the World from Communism! Whoever said we didn't believe in war? I never said it!" ("The Sooner The Better!", 2231:45,47,48)

BERG: THE JEWS CREATED--& USED--HITLER
  • "Somebody said that if Hitler hadn't risen on the World scene, the Jews would have had to manufacture him in order to get the Jews out of Germany & Europe & get Israel populated! In fact, it is a known fact now that Zionists were cooperating with Hitler & telling him what to do about the Jews--literally to persecute them & drive them out & try to get rid of them so that they'd come over to Israel! Otherwise, why would those nice, big, fat, rich Jews living in luxury & palaces in Europe want to go down to that stinkin' little dirty, sandy, dusty country? But they finally did & it took killing'm to do it! The Jews virtually let Hitler kill a few hundred or a few thousand in order to get the job done so they could get the rest of them down in Israel." ("The Antichrists & The Economy!", 1783:24.26)
    exFamily.org does not endorse this material but posts it here to document the existence of such writings by Berg, the founder of The Family (a.k.a. the Family of Love, a.k.a. COG)
  • "Somebody said that if Hitler hadn't come along, the Jews would have had to create him! I'm convinced they did--that the Zionists created him, or helped to create him--to drive the Jews out of Europe so they could people Israel & take over Palestine. And there's all kinds of evidence that the Zionists cooperated with Hitler. They were gung-ho for Hitler because he was doing them a big favour, driving the Jews out of Europe...into Israel." ("God's Way!--The Wind-Down!", 1659:76)
  • If the Zionists had not had Hitler they would have had to cook one up in order to drive the Jews out of Europe & get'm to come almost unwilling to Israel. And it's common knowledge, you've had a few articles in the WND showing how the Zionists were hand-in-glove cooperating with the Nazis & even picking out the Jews that they wanted the Nazis to persecute & which ones to leave alone. Scandal! ("World History!--And Russia!", 1767:75)
  • "Suddenly I heard this voice just as clear as I ever heard the voice of God with the shocking words: 'They staged the whole thing!"--Meaning the Jews!'I suddenly had a picture of Hitler & the Nazis & Nazi Germany right immediately after that! What could that mean if you had heard such a message in the middle of the night?--Yes...they have staged the whole thing!--Even Hitler & his Nazis in Germany!
  • "You say, 'Now you're expecting us to believe the impossible, that the Jews were actually the ones behind Hitler!' Well, I don't know how they did it, but this is one thing we know, it happened, & we know that they wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice some of their own if they thought it was going to be for the benefit of the whole!
    exFamily.org does not endorse this material but posts it here to document the existence of such writings by Berg, the founder of The Family (a.k.a. the Family of Love, a.k.a. COG)
  • "Some people want to know how come God allowed Hitler--I say how come the Jews allowed Hitler! Why would they have allowed such a thing? In other words, it's fulfilling what the Lord just said: 'They staged the whole thing!' No wonder Hitler committed suicide, maybe he found out he was being used!
  • "Skokie...publicising the Jews' grievances & their persecution & blah blah blah blah blah! That was nothing compared to the Worldwide wave of tremendous publicity that they got out of Hitler & the Nazis & Nazi Germany & a World War that squelched their enemies almost once & for all forever--they hope--& put them in control of Europe & America & World domination!
  • "World War 2 was the final stage in the final show that really put things in their hands! And who else could they have done it? And where else could they have started than in Germany where they were the most predominant & most powerful of all? And how else could they have gotten so much publicity out of it & so much propaganda that still rolls along today...constantly talking about the holocaust! Let me tell you, the Jews got more mileage out of Hitler & the Nazis than anybody else in the world!
  • "If it required that a few Jews got destroyed in the process, they were willing to go to any extreme & to that length & to cause a few Jews to be sacrificed that a few might die to save the people!--But not near as many as they claim, of course! Let me tell you the prize was World domination & World Jewish control! Was it worth sacrificing a few thousand Jews to do it? They would say yes!
    exFamily.org does not endorse this material but posts it here to document the existence of such writings by Berg, the founder of The Family (a.k.a. the Family of Love, a.k.a. COG)
  • "They begged Jews to go to Israel! They did everything they could to try to get emigration to Israel in the days of the early Zionism, but...they couldn't persuade'm by hook nor crook nor anything! Well, they did finally persuade'm by hook & crook! The swastikad persecution of the Jews by Nazi Germany & throughout Europe did more to help populate Israel & make Israel what it is today than anything else that happened!
  • "They staged the whole thing!--the Nazis, Hitler, Goebels, the war, the persecution, the death camps, the whole thing has worked out to accomplish their purpose & in their favour! And if you want to really know how they work & that they don't hesitate to kill their own to accomplish their ends, just read the famous 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' & some of those other things about the World Jewish Conspiracy, etc.
  • "Was it worth it? What did they get out of it?--The World--and Israel! Was it worth it to the Jews even if it cost a few thousand Jewish lives? To them it was worth it!
  • "What an answer to the whole Jewish problem, the Jewish question, anti-Semitism, the whole works! They staged the whole thing! Ha! That is amazing! That was a real shocker! This is the answer to almost every problem in the World today!--Every war, every financial crisis, everything that happens, they staged the whole thing! The Holocaust & all, they staged the whole thing! They couldn't have picked anything better to further their cause & propagandise their whole thing. They staged the whole thing! ("They Staged the Whole Thing!", 1340:34,35,41-45,47,49-53,56,62, 84,89)
    exFamily.org does not endorse this material but posts it here to document the existence of such writings by Berg, the founder of The Family (a.k.a. the Family of Love, a.k.a. COG)
  • They don't mind destroying part of themselves just like they did under Hitler! They were willing, in fact they even encouraged the Hitlerian persecution of Jews & slaughter of Jews, in order to get Hitler to drive them out of Europe so they could populate Israel! They didn't mind seeing the Jews slaughtered. They didn't mind seeing Jews persecuted & beaten up & driven out of their shops & their homes & even into the death camps, as long as it got millions of Jews driven to Israel, literally! ("Tribulation Survival!", 1779:28)
  • So the best thing that ever happened to the Zionist movement was what?--You could put it in one word!--Hitler! Somebody has said that if there hadn't been a Hitler the Jews would have to create him, because they couldn't get those rich Jews out of their cities & out of their banks & out of their industries & even out of their Communist leadership. They couldn't persuade them to go to Israel. Zionism was being virtually defeated until finally along came Hitler. And the news is out now that as he began to persecute the Jews & try to get'm out of Germany, that he even cooperated with the Zionists & they cooperated with him & they couldn't have been happier, because he was helping them ship Jews out of Germany to Israel! So the Zionists liked Hitler & co-operated with him. So as I say, Hitler was the best thing that ever happened to the Jews as far as the Zionists were concerned." ("Daniel 8:9-11!", 2178:5,6 under the heading "HITLER WAS GOOD FOR THE JEWS!")
  • "They staged the whole thing, just like WWII! They certainly staged that thing!...by getting Russia to come in & cooperate with the United States & Britain & France to lick the only outstanding pro-Christ or anti-Jewish power in the World that was left, Hitler Germany, the Nazis." ("World Currents!--No.23", 2067:19)
    exFamily.org does not endorse this material but posts it here to document the existence of such writings by Berg, the founder of The Family (a.k.a. the Family of Love, a.k.a. COG)

BERG: HITLER'S MISTAKES
  • Well, I must say, I think Hitler had more excuse to try to defend his country against the Jews than most countries!--Ha! If he'd have just stuck to that he might have been all right! But he wasn't satisfied with that, he wanted to start defending all of Europe against the Jews & the Communists, he claimed. ("Daniel 8:9-11!", 2178:55)
  • "But like most men, they can't resist the desire to rule the World, and he wasn't satisfied just saving Germany, he had to take over all Europe!" ("From Whence Come Wars!", 601:56)
  • "Hitler tried to wake up the World, but he tried to do it in the way of the flesh...It shows you how wrong you can be & how wrong you can even do right, like he tried to do, but he did it the wrong way. Instead of that he just made a bigger mess out of things. It actually put the Jews almost in total control through that war, put them in total control both in America & in Western Europe. The very evil that he tried to stamp out gained control through what he did." ("The Easter Story!", 972:296)
  • "There were some horrors that occurred in Germany, don't excuse'm! And don't excuse Hitler either. I haven't excused Hitler, I've just said he had plenty of provocation from the Jews." ("Why Anti-Semitism?", 1272:102)
  • Well, I'm no Hitler sympathiser--you've heard me say plenty of things against him so don't misunderstand me. ("World History! --And Russia!", 1767:77)
  • "I don't doubt he was somewhat of a villain, as nearly all dictators are. They have to be partly tough & villainous & tyrannical in order to control the awful people they rule over!" ("The Course of History Must Go On!", 2190:3)
    exFamily.org does not endorse this material but posts it here to document the existence of such writings by Berg, the founder of The Family (a.k.a. the Family of Love, a.k.a. COG)
  • "He was trying to save his people and trying to save Europe! Hitler just went too far, he went beyond what he was supposed to do. He went beyond his calling to save Europe from the Communists led by the Jews. But it went to his head! ("The Sooner The Better!", 2231:45)
  • "Now I'm not saying I like Hitler, don't misunderstand me, I think he became a monster! But believe it or not, I think he started out with some of the right ideas. Well, you can see that he obviously made some mistakes which created nothing but Hell on Earth!" ("The God of Empires!", 2095:----)

BERG: HITLER'S DEATH
  • Poor Hitler, he tried to save the World from the Jews but they were so diabolically clever they persuaded both Capitalism & Communism to fight him & kill him! He was a martyr to the cause. ("Current Events Jewels!", 1256:50)
  • "The Jews leading the United States & Britain & France & so on put up a big fight & stopped the war & it killed him with grief--he committed suicide. ("Forbidden Planet!", 1378:75)
  • "'They staged the whole thing!' No wonder Hitler committed suicide, maybe he found out he was being used!" ("They Staged the Whole Thing!", 1340:42,43)
  • There have been a few other people who exposed the Jews. Poor Hitler did for awhile--but look what they did to him!--They destroyed him & his country & divided it. ("Israel's Rights!", 1277:105,108)

BERG: HITLER SHOULD HAVE WON THE WAR
  • Hitler really thought he had the War won by 1940, until the Japs got the U.S. into it with Pearl Harbour in 1941. If he could have kept the U.S. out, he would have won the War! Sometimes I wonder if it hadn't been better if he had! ("Americans Abroad!", 905:4)
    exFamily.org does not endorse this material but posts it here to document the existence of such writings by Berg, the founder of The Family (a.k.a. the Family of Love, a.k.a. COG)
  • "Now take a look at England today & the mess it's in. Dare I ask you this question? Do you think if Hitler had won the war and taken over England & done for England what the Germans have done for Germany, that England would be better off than it is today or worse off? (Family: Better off!) You know it would have been better off! They wouldn't have had that awful war that literally made it lose its entire Empire & slaughter its people!" ("The God of Empires!" "IF HITLER HAD WON THE WAR!", 2095:60)
  • "But in spite of Hitler & all his mistakes, I dare say Europe would probably be better off today & certainly would have been spared World War 2 & all of its slaughter if they had submitted & yielded to Hitler & become a genuine truly united Europe. And do you know what would have happened if that had happened? They wouldn't be fighting Russia today! Europe would have become so strong & so powerful & considered itself Christian, that the Russians wouldn't have even dared challenge them! Hitler would have been able to march in on Russia & would've taken over Communism & obliterated it & made Russia a part of Europe--& he almost did!
  • "I am challenging you with some unthinkable thoughts today, that Europe would have been better off under Hitler than they are today. Who knows but what Germany could have saved Europe? Who knows but what God sent Germany to save Europe from the mess that it's now in? Who knows but what Europe would have been much better off if Germany had taken over & they'd not had World War 2!
  • "If they had submitted, I really believe they would have been better off today. You know good & well that Europe would be better off if Germany were running it!" ("The God of Empires!", 2095:72,73,85,97)
    exFamily.org does not endorse this material but posts it here to document the existence of such writings by Berg, the founder of The Family (a.k.a. the Family of Love, a.k.a. COG)

BERG: WHY ANTI-SEMITISM?
  • "Any Jews ought to know why so few people like them & why every country they go to...they eventually make the countries so mad & themselves to stink so bad that they want to get rid of them & drive them out!--Just like Hitler did. Nearly every nation or empire they ever were hosted by & went to live in finally threw'm out or tried to slaughter'm. Why? Why? Now think of it, why? The cause of anti-Semitism is the damn Semites!--The Jews themselves! They make themselves to stink wherever they go. ("Why Anti-Semitism?", 1272:29,30,36)
BERG & THE FAMILY "EXPOSE" THE JEWS
  • Whew! This is dangerous doctrine, beloved! Don't go shouting this from the housetops! Well, I kind of do in my Letters & my publications, but I have to tell the Truth! You've got to know the Truth! How are you going to know if I pussyfoot around, soft-peddle it & don't tell you just because I'm afraid they're going to get me someday!" ("Raiser of Taxes & Rise of the Antichrist!", 2189:104,105)
  • "Sometimes I think it looks to me that we're the only ones who know what's happening!--Ha!--Although there have been a few other people who exposed the Jews. Poor Hitler did for awhile." ("Israel's Rights!", 1277:105)
  • "I obeyed the Lord & went ahead & attacked'm, & exposed'm ...& now we've got a reputation of being anti-Semites! Maybe that's one reason the Lord's blessed us, we've come out in the open & really socked it to'm & exposed'm & we've been fighting'm & exposing'm now for years! ("Lost Opportunities!", 1425:40,49)
    exFamily.org does not endorse this material but posts it here to document the existence of such writings by Berg, the founder of The Family (a.k.a. the Family of Love, a.k.a. COG)
  • "If this be treason, make the most of it! You may think that's rewriting history, but that's a fact, that' s history! Call me a Nazi, call me a Fascist!" ("The Sooner The Better!", 2231:46)
  • "You never really heard much of that from any other teacher but me, because it's dangerous doctrine today! It's considered sedition in the United States, & it's traitorous...to even say these terrible things!" ("Worldwide Insanity!", 2025:40)
  • "How about that? It's kind of a strange doctrine & radical teaching, isn't it? I doubt if you ever heard any other preacher dare say these things. They're dangerous!" ("The God of Empires!" 2095:80)
  • "The World is absolutely turned upside down by the Devil & his forces & largely through the Goddamned Jews & their stooges, the negroes!--Boom!--Believe it or not! You say, "Oh boy, now you really sound like a Fascist, now you're really a Nazi! I always wondered just what was down there! Now it's true, KKK's." Well, I can prove it to you & I can show it to you through history & I've written a letter on it." ("The Troublemakers!--And the Solution!", 1222:70,71)
  • "That's a prophet's job & his business, to tell you the facts & the truth that is now being expunged from history, blotted out, hidden, lied about & twisted with a whole new kind of history being written by the Jews!" ("The Antichrist & his Government are Already Here!", 2184:50)

BERG: ALL JEWISH PEOPLE ARE "ANTI-CHRISTS"
  • "We've got a reputation of being anti-Semites! Ha! Anti-Jewish. Well, PTL! I guess I am!I'm not against the good Jews, we're the good Jews! Hallelujah!--Or the poor little ignorant Jews at the bottom of the totem pole who don't even know what's going on, that just follow their leaders blindly. But they're to blame too. They're anti-Christ because they don't accept the Lord. So they're just as much to blame because they're blind followers of the blind leaders!" ("Lost Opportunities!", 1425: 40,41)
    exFamily.org does not endorse this material but posts it here to document the existence of such writings by Berg, the founder of The Family (a.k.a. the Family of Love, a.k.a. COG)
  • "I'm talking particularly about their leaders: the Scribes & the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin, the Illuminati, the Elders of Zion, the wicked old boys who run the outfit. I feel a little sorry for some of the poor ignorant Jews who are dupes of their leaders, but they too are Christ-haters or they'd no longer be Jews! In fact, they aren't Jews!--We're the only true Jews they are today; true Christians are the real Jews. We don't worship the same God!--They don't even had a god except the Devil." ("The Trouble-makers!--And the Solution!", 1222:92,96)

BERG'S "FINAL SOLUTION" FOR JEWS
  • "Hitler...tried to get rid of them with the so-called final solution, but that wasn't the way to do it. The only way God will ever be able to get rid of the Jews is to send them to Hell permanently! You can't get rid of them by killing them, they multiply too fast. You've gotta send'm to Hell!--which God has & will! The final solution is the Goddamned Jews!--And He has & He will! --And He does every day! That's the final solution & they deserve it!" ("Current Events Jewels!", 1256:50-54)

A PARTING THOUGHT:
  • "The Germans need a Hitler to arise to buck those Goddamned Jews! I was just thinking & praying about it, that what the Germans need now is a strong man, a strong Hitler, another Hitler who can buck the Jews. I think they're just about ready for him. They're sick & fed up with Jews again. At least Hitler offered them something, some self-respect, something to stand up for." ("The Jews & the Antichrist!", 1344:1,4)

Does The Family endorse anti-Semitism?
David Berg believed that the Jewish people, led by their evil rulers "the Elders of Zion", are involved in a global conspiracy called the "Illuminati". He believed that their plans to take over the world were predicted 100 years ago in a document called "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and that the Jews are manipulating international events to prepare the world for a takeover by the demonic "Despot King of the Blood of Zion", that is, the Antichrist.

Family DO (Disciples Only--for secret internal use) literature still contains material about the "Antichrist International Jewish Conspiracy against Gentile Christendom." It is interesting to note that the current leader of The Family, Maria (Karen Zerby, called "Mama" by current members) was the one who pushed to publish material about Jewish conspiracy theories.

In November, 1982, after watching the movie SKOKIE, Berg had a "revelation" that the Jews had orchestrated Hitler, the Second World War and the holocaust: "They staged the whole thing!--the Nazis, Hitler, Goebels, the war, the persecution, the death camps, the whole thing has worked out to accomplish their purpose! And if you want to really know how they work & that they don't hesitate to kill their own to accomplish their ends, just read the famous 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion'... about the World Jewish Conspiracy, etc." ("They Staged the Whole Thing!", 1340:53) Berg said, "just read the Protocols", but most members of The Family didn't have a copy to read. In December, 1982, Maria urged Berg to publish "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" for The Family: "(Maria: That's what the Jews say they're going to do in the Protocols...) She wants me to take 20 pages & publish that. I hate to publish that kind of stuff, I hate to publish the horrors & the bad news, but it's not the Devil's propaganda, it's God's expose' of their chicanery & their wickedness & their machinery & what they're planning!("Time Is Short!", 1347:143) That same month, Good News 22 was published containing an edited version of the Protocols. It read: "Our editor's intro: I am convinced that the following are what they claim to be. The basic principles of the Antichrist International Jewish Conspiracy against Gentile Christendom, an outline of their plans, tactics & methods of destroying Christ-ianity & conquering the World for their false messiah, the Anti-christ 'King of Zion' as they call him, 'our Sovereign Lord'--the Devil in person. They have now accomplished nearly all their goals outlined herein except thethe final Antichrist takeover." ("The Program of the Antichrist!", 1342:1,2) It's interesting that the "great prophetess" Maria, the present leader of the Family, was the one who pushed to publish the Protocols.



PART II

Rampant misinformation amongst current/ex members

Many current and former members of The Family/Family of Love/Children of God have been indoctrinated by Berg's writings to believe that the holocaust of WWII Jews was exaggerated, based on manufactured facts and falsified statistics - they tend to minimize on historical facts.

It may be a good idea for anyone with doubts about the holocaust, to visit a holocaust museum if there is one that is accessible, or to look up the wealth of information that can be found online.

Contrary to Berg, the Holocaust has absolutely nothing to do with the conflict between Israel and Palestine. It is a fact of history (see PART III below).

If Hitler had had his way, he would eventually have killed or worked to death all non-Aryan's, it was his plan from early on in the Nazi regime. The Nazis had Nuremburg Race Laws that outlined people's status based on racial and religious heritage. These laws had finely detailed genealogy breakdowns to determine racial origin. Hitler wanted any blacks captured to be killed by the SS. The list of dark practices in Germany and worldwide by the Nazi's is almost endless.

Many non-Jewish historians participated in the historical record of the death camps.

The Nazi regime also kept meticulous records of the numbers killed.

There are actual films of the carnage as the allies liberated the camps. In one photo array alone of only one camp, there are more than 9000 dead and thousands more close to death (Berg claims only 9000 Jews were killed in total for WWII).

Historical Facts -- the number of killed in the Holocaust
Berg's argument is that the Jews claimed only 6,000 dead at the end of WW II, then as the years went by (in the 1950's) they multiplied that by 10 to 60,000, then multiplied that by 10 to get 600,000 murdered, and now multiplied that by 10 to get 6,000,000 Jews killed by Hitler. Yet, historians named the figure 6,000,000 in the very year WW II ended. (William Shirer in "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”)

Demographic records of many European countries, concentration camp records, eyewitness testimonies, military reports, memoirs and diaries of high-ranking Nazi officers, and film footage easily corroborate the conservative number of 6,000,000 killed.

The holocaust required heavy logisitcs, and thus generated paperwork and countless written records. To verify the number killed in the holocaust, accumulative figures can be obtained from documents belonging to the institutions of nations independant from and completely unrelated to Jewish interests.

Besides eye-witness testimonies and the confessions of perpetrators, all facts and numbers have been checked against pre-war demographic records, Gestapo/police arrest documents, reports, internment records, transportation records, dispatches, concentration camp processing records, financial records, emigration and immigration records, even the amount of gold harvested from the teeth of victims, etc.

Convicted Nazi War Criminal, Karl Adolf Eichmann, who had a major role in orchestrating the Holocaust after being sentenced to death, said he would "leap laughing into the grave, because the feeling that he had 5 million people on his conscience would be for him a source of extraordinary satisfaction."

The International Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunals were conducted in the city of Nuremberg, Germany, between 1945 and 1949, and as they brought out, millions of Jews were indeed gassed and systematically annihilated in the concentration camps.

Exactly how many? William L. Shirer also answers this question in “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” pages 1273-4:
“The ‘final solution’ went on to the very end of the war. How many Jews did it massacre? The figure has been debated. According to two S.S. witnesses at Nuremberg the total was put at between five and six million by one of the great Nazi experts of the subject, Karl [Adolf] Eichmann, chief of the Jewish Office of the Gestapo, who carried out the ‘final solution’ under the prodding hand of its originator, Heydrich. The figure given in the Nuremberg indictment was 5,700,000 and it tallied with the calculations of the World Jewish Congress. By 1949, four years after WW2, the figure of Jews murdered by Hitler was determined to be 5,700,000, or nearly 6,000,000.

Berg's rewrite of history (only 6,000 Jews killed) was ludicrous.

Berg statements that only 6,000 Jews were probably killed during WW II go against all evidence and the conclusions of the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal. In fact, 5,000 Jews were murdered in one town alone, Dubno in the Ukraine. Shirer on pgs. 1252-53 of “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,” talks about how during the trials a sworn affidavit by a German engineer was read:
"An eyewitness report by a German of how a comparatively minor mass execution was carried out in the Ukraine brought a hush of horror over the Nuremberg courtroom when it was read by the chief British prosecutor, Sir Hartley Shawcross. It was a sworn affidavit by Herman Graebe, the manager and engineer of a branch office in the Ukraine of a German construction firm. On October 5, 1942, he witnessed the Einsatz [German Special Action Groups, Extermination squad] commandos, supported by Ukrainian militia, in action at the execution pits at Dubno in the Ukraine. It was a matter, he reported, of liquidating the town’s 5,000 Jews.

". . . My foreman and I went directly to the pits. I heard rifle shots in quick succession from behind one of the earth mounds. The people who had got off the trucks—men, women and children of all ages—had to undress upon the order of an S.S. man, who carried a riding or dog whip. They had to put down their clothes in fixed places, sorted according to shoes, top clothing and underclothing. I saw a heap of shoes of about 800 to 1,000 pairs, great piles of under-linen and clothing.

“Without screaming or weeping these people undressed, stood around in family groups, kissed each other, said farewells and waited for a sign from another S.S. man, who stood near the pit, also with a whip in his hand. During the fifteen minutes that I stood near the pit I heard no complaint or plea for mercy . . .

“An old woman with snow-white hair was holding a one-year-old child in her arms and singing to it and tickling it. The child was cooing with delight. The parents were looking on with tears in their eyes. The father was holding the hand of a boy about 10 years old and speaking to him softly; the boy was fighting his tears. The father pointed to the sky, stroked his head and seemed to explain something to him.

“At that moment the S.S. man at the pit shouted something to his comrade. The latter counted off about twenty persons and instructed them to go behind the earth mound . . . I well remember a girl, slim and with black hair, who, as she passed close to me, pointed to herself and said: ‘twenty-three years old.’

“I walked around the mound and found myself confronted by a tremendous grave. People were closely wedge together and lying on top of each other so that only their heads were visible. Nearly all had blood running over their shoulders from their heads. Some of the people were still moving. Some were lifting their arms and turning their heads to show that they were still alive. The pit was already two-thirds full. I estimated that it contained about a thousand people. I looked for the man who did the shooting. He was an S.S. man, who sat at the edge of the narrow end of the pit, his feet dangling into the pit. He had a tommy gun on his knees and was smoking a cigarette.

“The people, completely naked, went down some steps and clambered over the heads of the people lying there to the place to which the S.S. man directed them. They lay down in front of the dead or wounded people; some caressed those who were still alive and spoke to them in a low voice. Then I heard a series of shots. I looked into the pit and saw that the bodies were twitching on the heads lying already motionless on top of the bodies that lay beneath them. Blood was running from their necks. The next batch was approaching already. They went down into the pit, lined themselves up against he previous victims and were shot.

“And so it went, batch after batch. The next morning the German engineer returned to the site.

“I saw about thirty naked people lying near the pit. Some of them were still alive . . . Later the Jews still alive were ordered to throw the corpses into the pit. Then they themselves had to lie down in this to be shot in the neck . . . I swear before God that this is the absolute truth.”

PART III
 A Chronology of the Holocaust

The following timeline is for educational purposes only. It is a chronology of WW II, focusing on how the Jewish Holocaust started and ended. It is detailed and clearly illustrates the reality that it happened. The Holocaust is well-documented and the information below compiled from countless diverse sources. Individual facts can easily be investigated and verified.


1933 - Germany
The Rise of Hitler and the SS, Passing of Racial Laws
  • Jan 30, 1933 - HITLER BECOMES CHANCELLOR
    Adolf Hitler is appointed the Chancellor of Germany, a nation which according to demographic records included 566,000 citizens of Jewish ethnicity.

  • Feb 22, 1933 - THE SS IS FORMED
    40,000 SA and SS (Schutz Staffel) servicemen are sworn in as auxiliary and paramilitary police.

  • Feb 27, 1933 - THE REICHSTAG FIRE
    Nazis burn the Reichstag building, creating an atmosphere of tension, fear and crisis.

  • Feb 28, 1933 - EMERGENCY POWERS GRANTED TO HITLER
    These are given, in response to the burning of the Reichstag.

  • Mar 9 - HIMMLER APPOINTED CHIEF OF POLICE
    Heinrich Himmler is appointed the Chief of Police, in Munich.

  • Mar 22, 1933 - INAUGURATION OF FIRST SS CONCENTRATION CAMP
    The Dachau concentration camp (near Munich) is opened. This is later followed by the opening of the Buchenwald camp (near Weimar in central Germany) in 1937, the Sachsenhausen camp (near Berlin in northern Germany), and the Ravensbrück camp for women.

  • Mar 24, 1933 - HITLER GIVEN DICTATORIAL POWER
    The Reichstag (German Parliament) approves the "Enabling Decree" (Gesetz zur Erhebung der Not von Volk und Reich) which granting Hitler virtually unlimited dictatorial powers.

  • Apr 1, 1933 - BOYCOTT OF JEWISH BUSINESSES
    Under the leadership of Joseph Goebbels, a National Boycott is organized against Jewish businesses and professionals. Nazis supporters stage and enforce a boycott of Jewish shops and businesses.

  • Apr 11, 1933 - RACIAL DECREE DECLARED
    Nazis issue a racial decree defining a non-Aryan as "anyone of non-Aryan descent, especially Jewish parents or grandparents... One non-Aryan parent or grandparent classifies the descendant as non-Aryan... especially if one parent or grandparent was of the Jewish faith."

  • Apr 26, 1933 - THE GESTAPO IS FORMED
    In the provincial state of Prussia, Hermann Göring under Hitler's direction, creates the secret police organization, the Gestapo.

  • May 10, 1933 - BOOK BURNINGS
    Public book burnings are held in Berlin and other cities. Works by Jewish people and other opponents of National Socialism are targeted.

  • Jul 14, 1933 - NAZI PARTY DECLARED THE ONLY LEGAL PARTY
    Law declaring National Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei, NSDAP) as the one and only legal political party in Germany - all others are outlawed.

  • Jul 14, 1933 - POLISH JEWS STRIPPED OF GERMAN CITIZENSHIP
    A law is also passed stripping Polish-Jewish immigrants of their German citizenship.

  • Jul 20 - TREATY WITH VATICAN
    Concordat (treaty) signed between the Vatican and Nazi Germany. Later, in Mar 1937, the Vatican takes issue with Germany's racial ideology and accuses Germany of failing to uphold the terms of the Concordat.

  • Jul 1933 - ENFORCED STERILIZATION
    The Nazis, now the only legal party in Germany, pass a new law allowing for the forced sterilization of anyone found by the Hereditary Health Court to have genetic defects.

  • Sept 1933 - JEWS BANNED FROM THE ARTS
    The Nazis establish the Reich Chamber of Culture, which later excluded all people of Jewish ancestry from the Arts.

  • Sept 29, 1933 - NO LAND OWNERSHIP FOR JEWS
    THose of Jewish ancestry are prohibited from owning land in Germany.

  • Oct 4, 1933 - NO PRESS FOR JEWS
    Citing misinformation, those of Jewish ancestry are prohibited publishing or editing newspapers.

  • Oct 19 - GERMANY LEAVES THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS
    Germany leaves the League of Nations placing itself outside any signed conventions, and answerable to no international governing bodies.

  • Nov 24, 1933 - The Nazis pass a Law against "Habitual and Dangerous Criminals." Beggars, alcoholics, the homeless, and/or the unemployed could be sent to concentration camps under this law.

1934
  • Jan 24, 1934 - NO UNION MEMBERSHIP FOR JEWS
    The Nazi party, a national socialist organization, bans those of Jewish ancestry from national labor unions.

  • Jan 26 - NON-AGGRESSION PACT WITH POLAND
    Non-aggression Pact signed by Germany and Poland, guaranteeing a free hand and cooperation with the Polish government for a time, especially regarding the " Jewish question".

  • Apr 20 - HIMMLER APPOINTED HEAD OF GESTAPO
    Heinrich Himmler appointed head of the Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei).

  • May 17, 1934 - NO HEALTH BENEFITS FOR JEWS
    People of Jewish ancestry are denied national health insurance benefits.

  • Jun 30 - Jul 2, 1934 - Hitler, Göring and Himmler purge the SA (Sturmabteilung, Storm Troopers) leadership in the "Night of Long Knives" (Nacht der Langen Messer). Also known as the "Blood Purge" of the SA and other enemies of the Nazis.

  • Jul 20, 1934 - SS SPLITS FROM SA, UNDER HITLER'S CONTROL
    The SS (Schutzstaffel) body gains independence from the SA. The SS becomes independent from the Political Police, directly under Hitler with Himmler as the Chief.

  • Jul 22, 1934 - NO LEGAL QUALIFICATIONS FOR JEWS
    People of Jewish ancestry are prohibited from obtaining or holding legal qualifications.

  • Aug 2, 1934 - HITLER BECOMES FÜHRER
    German President Paul von Hindenburg dies. Hitler combines the offices of chancellor and president as Führer. The armed forces (Wehrmacht) are required to take an oath of personal allegiance to Hitler.

  • Aug 19, 1934 - HITLER'S APPROVAL RATINGS AT 90% HIGH
    The German population shows their approval of Hitler's new powers in a 90% 'Yes' vote.
1935
  • May 21, 1935 - NO JEWS IN THE MILITARY
    People of Jewish ancestry are banned from serving in the German military.

  • Jun 26, 1935 - LAW FOR ENFORCED ABORTIONS
    New law allows forced abortions to prevent the passing on of hereditary diseases.

  • Aug 6, 1935 - ALL JEWISH ARTISTS MUST REGISTER
    Jewish performers/artists are forced to join Jewish Cultural Unions.

  • Sept 15, 1935 - RACE LAWS AGAINST JEWS
    Nuremberg decrees Racial Laws against the people of Jewish ancestry and/or faith, and announces them at the annual NSDAP Party Rally (Parteitag). The new laws institutionalize many of the racial theories prevalent in Nazi ideology. German Jews are excluded from Reich citizenship and prohibited from marrying or having sexual relations with persons of "German or related blood." Ancillary ordinances to the laws disenfranchise Jews and deprive them of most political rights.

1936
  • Feb 10, 1936 - GESTAPO PLACED ABOVE THE LAW
    The Gestapo is given power to act without answer to law.

  • Mar 1936 - SS CONTROL OF CONCENTRATION CAMPS
    The SS establishes the Deathshead division to guard concentration camps.

  • Mar 7, 1936 - Nazis occupy the Rhineland.

  • Jun 17, 1936 - HIMMLER APPOINTED CHIEF OF POLICE
    Heinrich Himmler consolidates control of the police forces in Germany as Reichsführer SS and Chief of German Police.

  • Aug 1, 1936 - OLYMPICS BRING TEMPORARY RELIEF FOR JEWS
    In the weeks before and during the Olympic Games in Berlin, acts against Jewish people are temporarily stepped down in order to gain the favorable public opinion of foreign visitors. Signs saying "Jews Unwelcome" were removed from public places. However, German Jewish athletes were prohibited from participating.

  • Aug 1926 - NO ABORTIONS OR HOMOSEXUALITY ALLOWED
    The Nazi government sets up the "Office for Combating Homosexuality and Abortions" (against elected abortions by healthy Aryan women).

1937
  • Jan, 1937 - NO PROFESSIONAL OCCUPATIONS FOR JEWS
    People of Jewish ancestry are banned from many esteemed professional occupations such as being accountants or dentists, and from holding teaching posts where they instruct Germans.

  • Jan, 1937 - NO TAX REDUCTIONS NOR BENEFITS FOR JEWS
    The Nazi party, a national socialist organization, further denies those of Jewish ancestry tax reductions and child allowances.

  • Mar 21 - VATICAN OPPOSITION TO RACIAL IDEOLOGY
    Copies of Pope Pius XI's Encyclical 'Mit brennender Sorge' (With Burning Anxiety), which declares the Catholic Church's opposition to Nazi racial ideology and criticizes the failure of the Nazis to uphold the terms of the 1933 Concordat, are smuggled into Germany.

  • Jul 16 - ANOTHER CONCENTRATION CAMP OPENED
    The Buchenwald Concentration Camp is established near Weimar.

  • Nov 8, 1937 - ANTI-JEWISH PROPAGANDA FILM RELEASED
    In further efforts to 'educate' the populace against Jewish people, Der ewige Jude (the 'Eternal Jew') traveling exhibition is opened in Munich. A film produced under the active supervision Joseph Goebbels, it depicts Polish Jews as corrupt, filthy, lazy, ugly, rat-like and perverse: "they are an alien people which have taken over the world through their control of banking and commerce, yet which still live like animals."
1938
  • Mar 12, 1938 - HITLER ANNEXES AUSTRIA
    On Hitler's orders, Nazi troops march into Austria, and Hitler declares the Anschluß (Annexation) of Austria. Demographic records of the time showed a population of about 200,000 people of Jewish ethnicity living mainly in Vienna.

  • In March - FORCED EMIGRATION OF AUSTRIAN JEWS
    After the Anschluss, the SS is placed in charge of Jewish affairs in Austria with Adolf Eichmann establishing an Office for Jewish Emigration in Vienna. Himmler then establishes Mauthausen concentration camp near Linz.

  • Apr 22, 1938 - NO NOMINAL 'ARYAN' BUSINESSES FOR JEWS
    The Nazis prohibit nominal Aryan 'front-ownership' of businesses on behalf of Jewish people or Jewish interests.

  • Apr 26, 1938 - JEWS MUST DECLARE ALL WEALTH
    People of Jewish ethnicity are ordered by the Nazi government to register all their wealth and property.

  • Jun 14, 1938 - NO 'UNREGISTERED' JEWISH BUSINESSES
    Jewish owned businesses are required by the Nazi party to be registered.

  • July, 1938 - INACTION BY LEAGUE OF NATIONS
    At Evian, France, under the leadership of the U.S., a League of Nations conference is held, with representatives and delegates from 32 countries. The agenda of helping Jewish people to escape the Nazis is discussed, but results in inaction, for lack of landing grounds -- no country will accept them.

  • Jul 6, 1938 - JEWISH TRADE AND SERVICES CURBED
    The Nazis prohibit Jewish people from trading and/or providing specified commercial services.

  • Jul 23, 1938 - ID CARDS FOR JEWS
    Those of Jewish ethnicity over age 15 are ordered by the Nazi government to apply for identity cards from the police -- these are to be shown on demand to any police or paramilitary officer.

  • Jul 25, 1938 - NO JEWISH DOCTORS ALLOWED
    The Nazi government enacts law prohibiting Jewish doctors from practicing medicine -- Jewish doctors are forbidden to treat non-Jews.

  • Aug 11, 1938 - SYNAGOGUE DESTROYED
    Nazis destroy the synagogue in Nuremberg.

  • Aug 17, 1938 - JEWS FORCIBLY NAMED 'ISRAEL' AND 'SARAH'
    To make recognizable Jewish ethnicity in the event Jews do not possess recognizably "Jewish" first names, the Nazi government requires all Jewish females to add 'Sarah', and all Jewish men to add 'Israel' to their names on all legal documents, including passports.

  • Sept 27, 1938 - NO JEWISH LEGAL REPRESENTATIVES
    The Nazis prohibit Jewish lawyers from practicing law.

  • Sept 29-30 - Several meetings are held to resolve the "Czech Crisis" staged by Hitler. Under his encouragement, 3.2 ethnic Germans in the Sudetenland region on the border with Germany begin demanding secession from Czechoslovakia. Hitler announces his intentions to occupy the Sudetenland.

  • Oct 5, 1938 - "J" STAMPED ON ALL JEWISH PASSPORTS
    The Nazis enact a law requiring all Jewish passports to be stamped with a large red "J."

  • Oct 15, 1938 - NAZIS SEIZE WESTERN CZECHOSLOVAKIA
    Nazi troops occupy the Sudetenland, a region in western Czechoslovakia comprising 3.2 ethnic Germans.

  • Oct 27-28, 1938 - POLISH JEWS ARRESTED AND EXPELLED
    17,000 Jewish people of Polish nationality living in Germany are arrested and expelled to Poland. Poland in turn refuses them entry, leaving them for several months in a strip of 'no-man's land' between German and Polish border police.

  • Nov 7, 1938 - DEPORTED POLISH JEW ASSASSINATES DIPLOMAT
    Herschel Grynszpan, a 17 year old son of a deported Polish Jew shoots Ernst von Rath, the 3rd secretary of the German Embassy in Paris.

  • Nov 9, 1938 - RATH DIES, NAZIS STRIKE BACK IN 'KRISTALLNACHT'
    Rath dies on precipitating what comes to be known as 'Kristallnacht' (the Night of Broken Glass) so called from the broken glass left in its aftermath. This incident marks a major escalation in the Nazi program of Jewish persecution and the Holocaust.

    In a single night of violence carried out by members of the German Nazi Party and instigated by J. Goebbels, 91 Jewish people are killed, hundreds are seriously injured, about 7,500 Jewish businesses are gutted and some 177 synagogues are demolished.

  • Nov 10, 1938 - GESTAPO EXTORTS WEALTHY JEWS
    30,000 wealthy people of Jewish ethnicity are arrested by the Gestapo. They are offered release on the condition they surrender all their wealth and financial assets and emigrate.

  • Nov 12, 1938 - 1,000,000,000 GERMAN MARKS IN FINES FOR JEWS
    The Nazi government issues a fine on all Jews, for the sum of one billion marks for damages related to Kristallnacht (a night of violence 3 days earlier, in which Nazis destroyed 177 Synagogues, 7,500 Jewish businesses, and killed 90 Jewish people.)

  • Nov 15, 1938 - NO JEWS IN GERMAN SCHOOLS
    Jewish students are expelled from all German schools -- they are to be confined to Jewish schools.

  • Dec 3, 1938 - CONFISCATION OF ALL JEWISH BUSINESSES
    The Nazis enact a law for the compulsory Aryanization of all Jewish businesses -- all Jewish businesses are to be surrendered to Aryans. Jews are required to register their property and businesses. Upon registration, Jewish workers and managers are dismissed, and the ownership of Jewish businesses transfered to non-Jewish Germans.

  • DEC 14, 1938 - GÖRING TO RESOLVE JEWISH QUESTION
    Hermann Göring takes charge of resolving the "Jewish Question."
1939
  • Jan 24, 1939 - JEWISH EMIGRATION SPEEDED UP
    Göring orders SS leader Reinhard Heydrich to speed up the forced emigration or deportation of Jews.

  • Jan 30, 1939 - JEWS THREATENED BY HITLER
    In a Reichstag speech, Hitler threatens the Jewish people openly, blaming them for the nation's woes.

  • Feb 21, 1939 - CONFISCATION OF GOLD & SILVER FROM JEWS
    Jews are forced to hand over all gold and silver items to Nazi authorities.

  • Mar 15/16 - NAZIS SEIZE CZECHOSLOVAKIA
    After successfully negotiating away British, French and Soviet involvement, Nazi troops enter Czechoslovakia. Demographic records of the time show a Jewish population of 350,000 living in the nation.

  • Apr 19, 1939 - SLOVAKIA PASSES RACIAL LAWS
    Slovakia passes its own version of the 1935 Nuremberg Racial Laws against people of Jewish ancestry.

  • Apr 30, 1939 - JEWISH SEGREGATION LAWS
    Jewish people are denied rights as tenants, barred from renting any property, and ordered to be relocated into Jewish houses.

  • May - Jun 1939 - JEWISH REFUGEE SHIP TURNED AWAY
    The St. Louis, a ship crowded with 930 German Jewish refugees, leaves Germany for Cuba. Before arrival, the Cuban government revokes their permission to land. The U.S. and other countries also deny entry, forcing the ship to return to Europe.

  • Jul 4, 1939 - NO GOVERNMENT JOBS FOR JEWS
    German Jews are denied the right to hold governmental positions and jobs.

  • Jul 21, 1939 - JEWS DEPORTED FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA
    Hitler appoints Adolf Eichmann as director of the Prague Office of Jewish Emigration, beginning the systematic deportation of Jews from Czechoslovakia.

  • Aug 23, 1939 - TREATY WITH SOVIETS
    Hitler signs a Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, buying time for Germany's Nazi and expansion activities, and temporarily preventing intervention from the Soviets.

  • Sept 1, 1939 - GERMANY INVADES POLAND
    Nazi seize Poland, a nation with the largest population of Jews in Europe, numbered at 3.4 million according to demographic records of the time. SS activities in Poland begin immediately.

  • Sept 1, 1939 - GERMANY CURFEW IMPOSED ON JEWS
    German Jews are forbidden from being outdoors after 8pm. winter time and 9pm. summer time.

  • Sept 3, 1939 - Britain and France declare war on Germany.

  • Sept 4, 1939 - The city of Warsaw is cut off and besieged by the German Army.

  • Sept 17, 1939 - Under a Non-Aggression treaty with the Nazis, the Soviets with their own designs for expansion, launches its army and invades eastern Poland.

  • Sept 21, 1939 - JEWISH GHETTOS AND ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCILS
    In occupied Poland, Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Sicherheitspolizie (Security Police, consisting of the Gestapo and the 'Kriminalpolizei' [Criminal Police]) and the Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service, political police of the SS and NSDAP), creates the SS Einsatzgruppen (special action squads). Heydrich orders a census, and issues instructions to the Einsatzgruppen for the establishment of ghettos and Jewish administrative councils (Judenräte). The ghettos are to be located near railroads for the future "final goal." The councils established within the ghettos are used to implement Nazi policies and decrees.

  • Sept 23, 1939 - NO RADIOS FOR JEWS
    German Jews are forbidden from owning wireless devices such as radios.

  • Sept 27, 1939 - Besieged for 2 weeks, the city of Warsaw surrenders; Heydrich becomes leader of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Main Office, also known as RSHA).

  • Sept 29, 1939 - NAZIS AND SOVIETS DIVIDED POLAND
    Hitler and Stalin carve up Poland. More than 2 million Jews are caught in the German controlled territories, with about 1.3 million Jews residing on the Soviet side.

  • Sept 1939 - NAZI PUBLISHER CALLS FOR EXTERMINATION OF JEWS
    Julius Streicher, publisher and owner of paper "Der Stuermer," member of the Reichstag, holder of the title of Obergruppenfuehrer in the SA, self-proclaimed "Jew-baiter Number One" of Nazi Germany, after publishing a line of articles over the years inciting Germans to hatred Jewish people, now calls for the persecution and to the extermination of Jews. He writes: "The Jewish people ought to be exterminated root and branch. Then the plague of pests would have disappeared in Poland at one stroke."

  • Oct 1939 - FORCED LABOR FOR POLISH JEWS
    Jews are liable for forced labor. They can be picked up off the streets for work at manual labor jobs such as digging ditches, shoveling snow, and cleaning streets

  • Oct 1939 - EUTHANASIA
    Nazis doctors perform euthanasia on the sick and disabled in Germany.

  • Oct 6, 1939 - RELOCATION AND ISOLATION OF JEWS
    Proclamation issued by Hitler calling for the isolation of Jews, including their seclusion, in designated areas in Poland, following their resettlement there from Germany.

  • Oct 10, 1939 - NAZIS ANNEX WESTERN POLAND
    Establishment of the 'Government General' in the eastern portion of Nazi occupied Poland with the annexation of the western half of Poland to Germany.

  • Oct 12, 1939 - DEPORTATION OF JEWS FROM VIENNA
    Beginning of the 'Evacuation' (deportation) of Jews from Vienna for resettlement in "the East" i.e. to one or another of the various ghettos in occupied Poland in the area now known as the 'Government General'. Demographic records of the time showed a population of about 200,000 people of Jewish ethnicity in Vienna.

  • Oct 12, 1939 - NAZI GOVERNOR FOR OCCUPIED POLAND
    Hans Frank is appointed the Nazi Gauleiter (governor) of 'Government General', the German occupied part of Poland.

  • Oct 26, 1939 - JEWISH SLAVE LABOR
    A decree for forced labor is issued for Polish Jews between the ages of 14 to 60.

  • Nov 23, 1939 - YELLOW STARS TO BE WORN BY JEWS
    All Jews over the age of 10 throughout German occupied Poland are required to wear Yellow stars.

  • DEC 1939 - EICHMANN IN CHARGE OF JEWISH 'EVACUATIONS'
    Self-proclaimed 'Jewish specialist' Karl Adolf Eichmann heads the Gestapo Department IV B4 for Jewish Affairs. Eichmann later keeps the trains rolling from all over Europe to the death camps during the days of the 'Final Solution'.
1940
  • Jan 25, 1940 - AUSCHWITZ CONCENTRATION CAMP OPENED
    A new concentration camp is opened in the Polish town of Oswiecim (Auschwitz) near Krakow. It is the size of a small city.

  • Jan 1940 - DEATH "MACHINE WILL GO INTO MOTION"
    Julius Streicher publishes the following statement in his Nazi newspaper 'Der Stürmer': "...The time is near when a machine will go into motion which is going to prepare a grave for the world's criminal - Judah - from which there will be no resurrection."

  • Feb 12, 1940 - GERMAN JEWS DEPORTED TO OCCUPIED POLAND
    The Nazis begin the systematic deportation of German Jews to occupied Poland.

  • Apr 9, 1940 - NAZIS INVADE DENMARK AND NORWAY
    German troops invade Denmark which demographic records showed to have a population of some 8,000 people of Jewish ethnicity. Germany also sends troops through neutral Sweden into Norway, which has a Jewish population of 2,000.

  • Apr 30, 1940 - LODZ GHETTO SEALED AND ISOLATED
    Nazis seal off the Lodz Ghetto in occupied Poland, effectively imprisoning and isolating 230,000 Jews from contact with the outside world. Inadequate food rations begin to cause disease and the systematic starvation of the entrapped Jews.

  • May 1, 1940 - HESS BECOMES KOMMANDANT OF AUSCHWITZ CAMP
    With previous experience heading the Dachau concentration camp, Rudolf Walther Höss (also known as Rudolf Hess) is appointed commander of the Auschwitz camp in occupied Poland.

  • May 10, 1940 - GERMANY INVADES FRANCE, BELGIUM, HOLLAND...
    Hitler sends his troops into France which according to demographic records had a Jewish population of 350,000; Belgium which had a Jewish population of 65,000; Holland which had a Jewish population of 140,000; and Luxembourg which had a Jewish population of 3,500.

  • Jun 14, 1940 - Nazis march into Paris.

  • Jun 22, 1940 - Hitler takes revenge on the French - France signs an armistice with Hitler. It was signed in the same railway carriage where the Germans had surrendered at the end of World War 1 in 1918. Immediately upon the French signing of the armistice, Hitler has the site at Compiegne destroyed. The final French humiliation was the German victory parade in Paris. The victorious German army took the same route that the French army had taken on their victory march at the end of World War 1.

  • July 1940 - BULGARIA EMULATES NUREMBURG RACIAL LAWS
    Bulgaria institutes anti-Jewish legislation which excludes Jews from public service, limits their choices of places of residence, and restricts them economically. Marriage between Jews and non-Jews is prohibited.

  • July 1940 - EICHMANN'S JEWISH DEPORTATION PROPOSAL
    Adolf Eichmann presents the Madagascar Plan, which proposes the deportation of all European Jews to the island of Madagascar, off the coast of east Africa.

  • Jul 17, 1940 - ANTI-JEWISH MEASURES IN OCCUPIED FRANCE
    The Nazis begin anti-Jewish activities in Vichy France.

  • Aug 8, 1940 - ROMANIA FOLLOWS HITLER'S ANTI-JEWISH POLICIES
    Romania, acting under a dictatorship and one party system and openly inspired by the Nazi Nuremberg Laws, introduces draconian anti-Jewish legislature. New laws forbid Jews from: having access to higher education, the right to hold pubic office, the possession of radios, the right to practice legal or artistic professions, membership from unions and professional societies, etc. The "Romanianization" of Jewish businesses also begins.

  • Sept 27, 1940 - Tripartite (Axis) Pact signed by Germany, Italy and Japan.

  • Oct 3, 1940 - VICHY FRANCE MIMICS NUREMBURG RACIAL LAWS
    Vichy France collaborates with Hitler and enacts a statute copying the Nuremburg Racial Laws. Naturalization and citizenship of Jews is denied, Jewish properties are confiscated, Jewish livelihoods are restricted, Jews are made to wear yellow stars.

  • Oct 7, 1940 - GERMAN TROOPS ENTER ROMANIA
    Nazis invade Romania, a country with a Jewish population 34,000, the majority of which had not escaped Romania's recent anti-Jewish measures.

  • Oct 22, 1940 - GERMAN JEWS DEPORTED TO VICHY FRANCE
    29,000 German Jewish citizens from Baden-Wurttemberg, the Saar regions of southwestern Germany, and Alsace-Lorraine are moved to Vichy France.

  • Nov 1940 - Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia become allies with Nazi Germany.

  • Nov 1940 - KRAKOW GHETTO SEALED
    The Jewish population of Krakow, after being herded into a ghetto, is isolated, effectively imprisoning 70,000 Jews and cutting them off from contact with the outside world.

  • Nov 15, 1940 - WARSAW GHETTO SEALED
    The Warsaw Jewish ghetto, into which over 400,000 Jews are herded, is sealed. Warsaw had a prewar Jewish population of more than 350,000 Jews (30% of the city's total population, the largest Jewish community in both Poland and Europe, second largest in the world behind New York City).
1941
  • Jan 1941 - FAMINE IN LODZ GHETTO
    Poor rations in the sealed off ghetto of Lodz cause famine and disease.

  • Jan 1941 - JULIUS STREICHER: "JUDGMENT [ON JEWS] HAS BEGUN"
    Julius Streicher publishes in his Nazi newspaper, Der Stürmer, "Now judgment has begun and it will reach its conclusion only when knowledge of the Jews has been erased from the earth."

  • Jan 21 - 23, 1941 - ROMANIAN POGROM KILLS 2,000 JEWS
    Anti-Jewish riots take place in Bucharest. In a 'pogrom' organized by the gangs of Romanian Legionnaires of the Romanian fascist organization "Iron Guard", Jews are hunted, and of Jewish hundreds of homes and shops looted and destroyed. 25 synagogues are desecrated, and over 2,000 Jews killed.

  • Feb 13, 1941 - DEPORTATION OF VIENNESE JEWS ORDERED
    The exodus of Vienna's pre-war population of 200,000 Jews begins.

  • Feb 22, 1941 - 430 JEWS ARRESTED FOR DEATH OF DUTCH NAZI
    A Jewish youth brigade kills a Dutch Nazi, in defense against provocative actions and anti-Jewish campaigns in the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam. In retaliation, Hans Rauter (Seyss-Inquart's Assistant Commisartt for Justice) has 430 Dutch Jewish men and boys arrested on the streets of Amsterdam. Eventually, all of them are sent to Mauthausen, the Austrian concentration camp and perish within three months.

  • March 1941 - Bulgaria joins Axis forces.

  • Mar 1941 - EXECUTION FOR COMMUNIST OFFICIALS
    Hitler's Commissar Order authorizes the execution without trial of anyone suspected of being a Communist official in the Soviet territories.

  • Mar 1, 1941 - HIMMLER VISITS AUSCHWITZ, ORDERS EXPANSION
    Himmler visits to Auschwitz, and orders Kommandant Höss (Rudolf Hess) to begin massive expansion of the camps facilities, including the building of a new compound in nearby Birkenau for holding as many as 100,000 prisoners.

  • Mar 2, 1941 - GERMANY ENTERS BULGARIA
    Nazi troops march into Bulgaria which has a pre-war population of 50,000 Jews. Bulgaria, a traditional ally, joins the Axis Alliance.

  • Mar 7, 1941 - INDUCTION OF GERMAN JEWS INTO FORCED LABOR
    German Jews are ordered into forced labor,

  • Mar 26, 1941 - MURDER SQUADS APPROVED
    The German Army High Command gives approval to RSHA and Heydrich on the tasks of SS murder squads (Einsatzgruppen) in occupied Poland.

  • Mar 29, 1941 - EICHMANN IN CHARGE OF JEWISH AFFAIRS
    Adolf Eichmann is made 'Commissariat' for Jewish Affairs in Vichy France, placed in charge of section IV B4 of the Gestapo, and charged with Jewish affairs and emigration

  • Apr 6, 1941 - GERMANS ENTER YUGOSLAVIA AND GREECE
    Nazis troops invade Yugoslavia which has a pre-war Jewish population of 75,000. Greece has at that time a Jewish population 77,000.

  • May 14, 1941 - 3,700 JEWS ROUNDED UP IN PARIS
    The first 3,700 Jews are arrested in Paris and brought to the Pithiviers and Beaune-la-Rolande internment camps.

  • May 15, 1941 - In a speech broadcast by radio to the French people, Marshal Petain approves recent collaboration meetings with Hitler, and says, "For you, the French people, it is simply a question of following me without mental reservation along the path of honor and national interest."

  • May 15, 1941 - ROMANIAN FORCED LABOR LAW FOR JEWS
    Romania passes a law condemning Jews to forced labor.

  • Jun 1941 - ETHNIC CLEANSING BY EINSATZGRUPPEN
    Heydrich organizes his Einsatzgruppen into four groups - A, B, C, D - with orders to "pacify" all occupied areas. This euphemism translates into widespread search and destroy missions that witness the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Jews and Soviet civilians suspected of being "political commissars" or partisans. The daily reports of these mass killings went directly to Reinhard Heydrich. By the end of 1941, almost half a million people had been reported killed in the Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. By the end of WW II, more than 1,300,000 men, women, and children will have been killed by Heydrich's death squads.

  • Jun 1941 - NO CIVIL RIGHTS FOR FRENCH JEWS
    The Vichy government revokes civil rights of French Jews in North Africa and decrees many restrictions.

  • Jun 22, 1941 - GERMANY INVADES THE SOVIET UNION
    Breaking the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of August 1939, Hitler orders his troops to launch a surprise attack against the Soviet Union. Demographic records of the time show 3 million people of Jewish ancestry living in the Soviet Union.

  • Jun 25, 1941 - ROMANIA ROUNDS UP AND KILLS 900 JEWS
    The Romanian army orders a search of all Jewish homes in Yasi. Thousands of the city's 50,000 Jews are herded into the police station, supposedly for an identity check. Women and children are first released, and then air-raid sirens sounded in order to cover the sound of the machine-gun fire of German and Romanian soldiers, as they kill some 500 Jews in the police station courtyard. A total of 900 Jews are shot that day, and buried in mass graves dug earlier by the same Jews.

  • Jun 29, 1941 - KILLING SPREE IN YASI
    Romanian troops go on a killing spree in Yasi, killing 10,000 Romanian Jews, gunning them down on sight in their homes and in the streets.

  • Jun 29, 1941 - JEWS DIE IN OVERCROWDED ROMANIAN TRAINS
    4,000 Jews are loaded into two merchant trains, where most of them die of asphyxiation on their way to a work camp.

  • July 1941 - HIMMLER INFORMS HESS ABOUT 'FINAL SOLUTION'
    Auschwitz Kommandant Höss is summoned to Berlin, where Himmler tells him, "The Führer has ordered the Final Solution of the Jewish question. We, the SS, have to carry out this order...I have therefore chosen Auschwitz for this purpose."

  • July 1941- ETHNIC CLEANSING RAIDS BY EINSATZGRUPPEN
    Accusing Jews of being partisans and enemy collaborators, the SS Einsatzgruppen follows advancing German troops into captured territories, and systematically hunts down Jews, who are typically killed with a single shot to the back of the head in front of mass graves dug just outside the villages where they are found.

  • July 1941 - MORE GHETTOS ESTABLISHED
    Ghettos are established at Kovno, Minsk, Vitebsk and Zhitomer.

  • July 1941 - VICHY FRANCE SEIZES JEWISH PROPERTY
    The government of Vichy France calls for the aryanization of property, and orders the confiscation and transfer of all Jewish owned property.

  • Jul 7, 1941 - EINSATZGRUPPEN KILLS JEWS IN LITHUANIA
    Einsatzkommando 3 begins the systematic slaughter of Lithuanian Jewry. Ultimately, 70,000-100,000 Jews are shot in forests near Vilna.

  • Jul 17, 1941 - REICH MINISTER FOR EASTERN TERRITORIES
    Alfred Rosenberg, deputized by Hitler as responsible for the spiritual and philosophical education of the NSDAP and all related organizations, head of the Hohe Schule (literally "high school") Center of National Socialistic Ideological and Educational Research since 1940, is appointed head of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, to administer territories seized from the Soviet Union.

  • Jul 21, 1941 - MAJDANEK CAMP OPENED, ALL ACTIVITIES VISIBLE
    Situated in an area of rolling terrain visible from all sides, 4 km from the city center of Lublin on the eastern Polish border with Ukraine, the Majdanek camp is established openly, without a security zone around it. A completely unobstructed view of the tall brick chimney of the crematorium wafting smoke from the top, and the even the gas chamber building are located close to the street, on the main route to the eastern front for the German army.

  • Jul 25/26 - LITHUANIAN AUXILIARIES AID EINSATZGRUPPEN
    3,800 Jews are killed in a pogrom by Lithuanians in Kovno.

    Shortly before and immediately after the arrival of German forces, Lithuania erupts in violent riots against Jewish people. Lithuania now incorporated into the Reich Commissariat Ostland (Reichskommissariat Ostland), a German civilian administration covering the Baltic states and western Belorussia, dispatches Lithuanian auxiliaries to work with the German Einsatzgruppen to hunt and shoot all Jews.

    By the end of August 1941, most Jews in rural Lithuania are shot. By November 1941, most of the Jewish people concentrated in ghettos in the larger cities are killed. The surviving 40,000 Jews were concentrated in the Vilna, Kovno, Siauliai, and Svencionys ghettos, and in various labor camps in Lithuania. The overcrowded ghettos are plagued with severe food shortages and outbreaks of disease.

  • Jul 31, 1941 - PREPARE FOR THE 'FINAL SOLUTION'
    Hermann Göring, a high Nazi official and associate of Hitler, orders Einsatzgruppen Chief Reinhard Heydrich to begin preparations for the “Final Solution.”

  • August 1941 - DRANCY AND LES MILLES CAMPS ESTABLISHED
    A complex of unfinished housing blocks in Drancy, near Paris are turned into a collection camp for Jews. During the first two years, the camp is administered by the Paris police prefecture; in August 1943, it is taken over by the Gestapo. Most of the Jews deported from France will pass through this camp. On Jun 22, 1942 the first of 61 deportation trains left Drancy; the last departed on Jul 31, 1944. Over 62,000 people were deported from here to Auschwitz and Sobibor.

  • Aug 1941 - JEWS PERISH IN TRANSNISTRIA CAMP
    Jews from Bukovina, Bessarabia, Romania and Hungary are sent to Transnistria. Here they are not gassed or cremated, but die from hunger, cold and typhus. By December 1941, 70,000 perish.

  • Aug 1941 - NEW GHETTO IN BIALYSTOK
    The Bialystok ghetto is established. It interns as many 50,000 Jews, and is eventually liquidated on Aug 16, 1943, following five days of fighting by the Jewish underground.

  • Aug 26, 1941 - HUNGARIAN FORCES ROUND UP 18,000 JEWS
    Hungarian forces which fought alongside Nazi Germany take over Kamenets-Podolsk. They arrest 14,000 Jews. Non-Hungarian citizens are deported to Korosmezo near the Polish border. From there, they were sent to Kolomija near Kamenets-Podolsk, and turned over to the SS. SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Friedrich Jeckeln promised to kill by September, all the Jews whom the Hungarians had turned over. On Aug 27-28, and according to Jeckeln’s report (Operational Report USSR No. 80), 23,600 Jews are killed, of which 14,000-18,000 are those arrested in Kamenets-Podolsk.

  • Sept 3, 1941 - ZYKLON-B GAS TESTED AT AUSCHWITZ
    Höss' subordinate Hauptsturmführer Fritsch, tests the use of a patented insecticide, Zyklon B -- a crystalline form of hydrogen cyanide that turns gaseous when exposed to the air. 600 Russians and 250 sick prisoners are crammed into a sealed underground detention cell. By the next day, only some have died, and the SS men release more insecticide to kill the survivors. Höss later informs Eichmann about the possibilities of Zyklon-B, and, according to Höss, they decide to use the pesticide and the peasant farmstead for extermination.

    (Höss, "Commandant of Auschwitz," 175. Interrogation of Höss, 14 May 1946, NA RG 238, M-1019/R 28/63) (Höss, Commandant at Auschwitz, 173. See also Yehuda Bauer, "Auschwitz," in Jäckel and Rohwere, eds., Der Mord an den Juden, 167-68)

  • Sept 1, 1941 - YELLOW STARS FOR GERMAN JEWS
    German Jews are ordered to wear yellow stars.

  • Sept 6, 1941 - VILNA GHETTO ESTABLISHED
    The Vilna Ghetto is established and contains 40,000 Jews. This is later to become the scene of an uprising led by a Jewish resistance movement.

  • Sept 17, 1941 - GERMAN JEWS DEPORTED
    Orders are given for the beginning of general deportation of German Jews.

  • Sept 19, 1941 - German troops capture Kiev.

  • Sept 29/30 - EINSATZGRUPPEN KILLS 33,771 UKRAINIAN JEWS
    The Einsatzgruppen kill 33,771 Jews at Babi Yar near Kiev.

  • Oct 1941 - EINSATZGRUPPEN KILLS 35,000 JEWS IN ODESSA
    35,000 Jews from Odessa are shot and buried in mass graves.

  • Oct 2, 1941 - German Army marches towards Moscow.

  • Oct 23, 1941 - NO JEWS MAY EMIGRATE THE REICH
    Nazis forbid the emigration of Jews from the Germany and all German captured territories.

  • Nov 1941 - NEW GHETTO IN LVOV
    The Lvov ghetto is established and interns nearly 150,000 Jews. Its last few thousand inhabitants are removed in June 1943, the rest were been deported to their deaths in Belzec and Janowska.

  • Nov 1941 - EINSATZGRUPPEN STATISTICS FOR NOVEMBER 1941
    The sub unit B of the SS Einsatzgruppen reports 45,476 Jews killed.

  • Nov 24, 1941 - THERESIENSTADT GHETTO ESTABLISHED
    The Theresienstadt Ghetto is established near Prague in Czechoslovakia. It is used as a model ghetto for propaganda purposes.

  • Nov 30, 1941 - EINSATZGRUPPEN IN LATVIA
    A mass shooting of Latvian and German Jews is reported near the Latvian capital of Riga.

  • DEC 7, 1941 - Surprise Japanese attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor. The U.S. and Britain declare war on Japan.

  • DEC 8, 1941 - CHELMO EXTERMINATION CAMP OPERATIONAL
    Near Lodz, in occupied Poland, a new extermination camp becomes operational. Jews are placed in wagons, driven to a burial place and killed with carbon monoxide from engine exhaust fed into sealed rear compartments. Victims include 5,000 Gypsies.

  • DEC 11, 1941 - Hitler declares war on the U.S. Roosevelt then declares war on Germany, concentrating 90 percent of U.S. military resources to defeat Hitler.

  • DEC 12, 1941 - JEWISH REFUGEE SHIP SUNK
    The "Struma" leaves Romania for Palestine carrying 769 Jews.
    British authorities deny permission for disembarkation, forcing the ship to turn back to the black sea. It is torpedoed by a Soviet submarine and sunk as an "enemy target."

  • DEC 16, 1941 - GERMAN GOVERNOR OF POLAND SPEAKS ABOUT JEWS
    Hans Frank, Gauleiter (Governor General) of occupied Poland makes a closing address in Krakow saying, "My attitude towards the Jews will, therefore, be based only on the expectation that they must disappear. They must be done away with." "Gentlemen, I must ask you to rid yourselves of all feeling of pity. We must annihilate the Jews wherever we find them and wherever it is possible in order to maintain there the structure of the Reich as a whole..."



1942
  • Jan 1942 - ZYKLON-B USED IN AUSCHWITZ
    After successful experiments of the use of the crystallized hydrogen cyanide gas, Jews are stripped and crammed into Bunker I (the red farmhouse) of Auschwitz-Birkenau, and gassed and buried in mass graves in a nearby meadow.

  • Jan 20, 1942 - WANNSEE FINAL 'SOLUTION' COORDINATION MEETING
    At a villa on the shores of the Berlin lake Wannsee, mid­level bureaucrats from a number of Nazi agencies are assembled at the request of Reinhard Heydrich (chief of the Reich Main Security Office and head of the Gestapo). Heydrich and Heinrich Himmler (head of the SS) assume leadership in the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question," and lead the bureaucratic coordination required for the massive efforts throughout Europe to kill 11,000,000 Jews. The minutes, later to be known as the Wannsee conference, were taken by Heydrich's subordinate, Adolf Eichmann, and later edited by Heydrich who substituted Nazi euphemisms for references to actions planned against Jewish people.

  • Jan 31, 1942 - EINSATZGRUPPEN STATISTICS
    The sub unit B of the SS Einsatzgruppen reports a total of 229,052 Jews killed.

  • March 1942 - BELZEC EXTERMINATION CAMP OPERATIONAL
    In occupied Poland, the Belzec extermination camp is fitted with gas chambers. Jews are killed though carbon monoxide piped in from engines placed outside the chambers. This is later substituted for Zyklon-B.

  • Mar 17, 1942 - JEWS MOVED TO BELZEC
    Jews are deported from Lublin to the Belzec extermination camp.

  • Mar 24, 1942 - SLOVAKIAN JEWS SENT TO AUSCHWITZ
    Slovak Jews are ordered to be deported to Auschwitz.

  • Mar 27, 1942 - FRENCH JEWS SENT TO AUSCHWITZ
    French Jews are ordered to be deported to Auschwitz.

  • Mar 28, 1942 - SAUCKEL IN CHARGE OF SLAVE LABOR
    Fritz Sauckel, responsible for mobilizing German and foreign workers for the military industrial complex is appointed Nazi plenipotentiary-general (Chief of Manpower) for labor mobilization. He orders 5 million workers deported from their homes in the occupied territories and forces them to work as slave labor. Sauckel instructed that these slave laborers be exploited "to the highest degree possible at the lowest conceivable degree of expenditure." He was responsible for the death of thousands of Jewish workers in Poland.

  • Mar 30, 1942 - PARIS JEWS ARRIVE AT AUSCHWITZ
    The first trainloads of Jews from camps in the Paris arrive at Auschwitz.

  • In Apr - JEWS ARRIVE AT MAJDANEK
    The first trainloads of Jews arrive at the Majdanek concentration camp.

  • Apr 20, 1942 - NO PUBLIC TRANSPORT FOR JEWS
    German Jews are banned from using public transportation.

  • May 1942 - NEW SOBIBOR EXTERMINATION CAMP OPERATIONAL
    One of the 3 Nazi death camps erected during “Operation Reinhard”, the Sobibor extermination camp located in the Lublin district near Wlodawa in occupied Poland, is fitted with 3 permanent gas chambers. Jews are killed though carbon monoxide piped in from engines placed outside the chambers. This is later substituted for Zyklon-B. is located in , Poland.

  • May 18, 1942 - NEW YORK TIMES REPORTS MASSACRES
    Reports published by the New York Times tell of over 100,000 Jews machine-gunned in the Baltic states, 100,000 in Poland, and 200,000 in western Russia.

  • May 27, 1942 - CZECH AGENTS HIT HEYDRICH
    Two Czech parachutists trained in England, mortally wound SS leader Heydrich with a hand grenade.

  • Summer 1942 - ARMED RESISTANCE PUT DOWN
    Armed resistance by Jews in ghettos of Kletzk, Kremenets, Lachva, Mir, and Tuchin are put down by SS troops, and reprisals follow.

  • Jun 1942 - GAS USED IN RIGA EXTERMINATION CAMP
    Gas vans are used in Riga to kill Jews.

  • Jun 1, 1942 - YELLOW STARS FOR JEWS IN OCCUPIED LANDS
    Jews in the German occupied territories of France, Holland, Belgium, Croatia, Slovakia, Romania are ordered to wear yellow stars at all times.

  • Jun 4, 1942 - HEYDRICH DIES FROM WOUNDS

  • Jun 5, 1942 - SS REPORT ON NUMBER KILLED
    In a SS report, 97,000 persons are "processed" in mobile gas vans.

  • Jun 10, 1942 - HITLER DESTROYS CZECH TOWN IN REVENGE
    the Czech town of Lidice was liquidated, in response to the assassination of Heydrich.

  • Jun 11, 1942 - EICHMANN COORDINATES DEPORTATIONS
    Eichmann meets with collaborators and representatives from France, Belgium and Holland to coordinate the deportation of Jews to death camps.

  • Jun 22, 1942 - DEPORTATION OF JEWS FROM DRANCY
    The first of 61 deportation trains leave the Drancy camp which was established in August 1941. The last train departs on Jul 31, 1944. Over 62,000 people are deported from Drancy to Auschwitz and Sobibor.

  • Jun 30, 1942 - SECOND GAS CHAMBER AT AUSCHWITZ INSTALLED
    To cater to the overwhelming number of Jews arriving for extermination, a 2nd gas chamber is installed at Auschwitz, in Bunker II (the white farmhouse).

  • Jun 30 - Jul 2, 1942 - LONDON REPORTS HOLOCAUST
    The New York Times reports via the London Daily Telegraph, that over 1,000,000 Jews have been killed by Nazis.

  • Jul 1942 - EXTERMINATION PLANS LEAKED
    The World Jewish Congress receives information from a German industrialist regarding the Nazi Final Solution. The information is passed on to London and Washington.

  • Jul 2, 1942 - BERLIN JEWS TO THERESIENSTADT
    Berlin Jews are sent to Theresienstadt, the model ghetto city used for Nazi propaganda purposes.

  • Jul 7, 1942 - HIMMLER STARTS STERILIZATION EXPERIMENTS
    Himmler grants permission for forced sterilization experiments to begin at Auschwitz. Prisoners are operated on and body parts removed, often without any form of anesthesia.

  • Jul 14, 1942 - DUTCH JEWS GO TO AUSCHWITZ
    Orders are given for the deportation of Dutch Jews to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

  • July 1942 - JEWS LEAVE FRANCE FOR AUSCHWITZ
    12,887 Jews of Paris who were rounded up earlier, are sent to Drancy Internment Camp located outside the city

    At the end of July, a total of 13,000 Jews are moved from the Pithiviers and Beaune-la-Rolande camps. By the end of August, 26,000 Jews will have left French soil. The transport schedule for the month of September also provides for 13 trains of Jews who are transported to Auschwitz.

    A total of approximately 74,000 Jews, including 11,000 children, will ultimately be transported from Drancy to Auschwitz, Majdanek and Sobibor.

  • Jul 17/18 1942 - HIMMLER INSPECTS AUSCHWITZ
    Himmler visits Auschwitz-Birkenau for 2 days, inspecting construction and expansion of the site, observes the extermination process from start to finish performed on 2 trainloads of Jews from Holland. He promotes Kommandant Höss. Plans are made for the construction of four large gas chamber/crematories.

  • Jul 19, 1942 - OPERATION REINHARD
    Himmler orders Operation Reinhard - the mass deportation of Jews in Poland to extermination camps for the 'Final Solution'.

  • Jul 22, 1942 - JEWS MOVED FROM WARSAW GHETTO TO TREBLINKA
    Jews are ordered to be systematically deported from the Warsaw Ghetto to the new extermination camp, Treblinka.

  • Jul 22, 1942 - BELGIAN JEWS TO AUSCHWITZ
    Transportation begins for Belgian Jews, ordered to be moved to Auschwitz for extermination

  • Jul 23, 1942 - TREBLINKA EXTERMINATION CAMP OPERATIONAL
    A new Treblinka extermination camp is opened in occupied Poland, east of Warsaw. 2 buildings are fitted with 10 gas chambers, each with a capacity of 200 persons. Carbon monoxide gas is piped in from engines placed outside the chambers, later substituted with Zyklon-B. Bodies are burned in open pits.

  • Aug 1942 - PRISONERS FROM GURS FRANCE TO AUSCHWITZ
    The Gurs and Le Vernet camp which has interned German Jews and prisoners of other nationalities and ethnicities, as many as 30,000 at a time, begins deporting Jews via Drancy to Auschwitz and Sobibor.

    A telex from the Gestapo headquarters in Paris sent to the Reich Security Main Office and the Auschwitz camp on Aug 14, 1942 reads: "...transport train no. D901/14 departed the Le Bourget-Drancy station for Auschwitz carrying a total of 1,000 Jews (including children for the first time). The persons involved were chosen in accordance with the guidelines that have been laid down."

  • Aug 1942 - CROATIAN JEWS TO AUSCHWITZ
    Transportation begins for Croatian Jews ordered to be deported to Auschwitz for extermination.

  • Aug 23, 1942 - German troops attack Stalingrad.

  • Aug 26-28 - MORE JEWS FOUND AND ARRESTED IN FRANCE
    An additional 7,000 Jews are arrested in unoccupied France, and sent to ghettos for processing.

  • Sept 1942 - THERESIENSTADT GHETTO SWELLS
    By September 1942, Theresienstadt, near Prague, the chosen model ghetto city used for Nazi propaganda purposes, is overcrowded and facing starvation. Originally housing elderly German Jews sent to the "Reich Nursing Home" under "home purchase agreements," and a transit camp for Jews from the "Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia", Theresienstadt swells to include 58,000 Jews herded together in an area where formerly 7,000 had lived. Of these, 30,000 are elderly and/or sick, nearly 4,000 are invalids, and over 1,000 blind. Only 60% of the internees have a place to sleep; 5,500 are camped in lofts. There is one doctor for 1,500 patients.

    By the end of the war, a total of 141,000 people will be transported to Theresienstadt, including 70,000 elderly and 15,000 children. Of these 141,000 arrivals, 33,550 die there, 88,200 are deported to extermination camps where all but 3,500 are murdered. Only 23,000 survive Theresienstadt until liberation.

  • Sept 9, 1942 - OPEN CREMATIONS AT AUSCHWITZ
    Unable to cope with the overwhelming number of Jews to be exterminated, Höss orders the burning of bodies in open pits at Auschwitz in place of burial. To prevent fouling of ground water, Höss orders those previously buried in mass graves to be dug up and burned. Internees dig up 107,000 corpses.

  • Sept 18, 1942 - LESS FOOD RATIONED FOR GERMAN JEWS
    Food rations are reduced for Jews in Germany.

  • Sept 26, 1942 - SS LOOT FROM HOLOCAUST VICTIMS
    The SS begins processing mounds of valuables and jewelry confiscated from Jews in Auschwitz and Majdanek. German currency is returned to the Reichs Bank. Foreign currency, gold, jewels and other valuables are sent to the SS Headquarters of the Economic Administration. Watches, clocks and pens are distributed to troops at the eastern front. Clothing is distributed to German families. By Feb. 1943, over 800 boxcars of confiscated goods will have left Auschwitz.

  • Oct 1942 - NAZI REPRISALS FOR JEWISH UNDERGROUND
    Several hundred Jews in the Riga ghetto hiding in the forests organize resistance activities against the Germans. In reprisal for partisan activities, Germans seize and kill more than 100 people from the ghetto, and execute almost all Jewish policemen on suspicion of participating in resistance activities.

  • Oct 5, 1942 - ALL JEWS IN GERMANY TO DIE
    Himmler orders the deportation of all remaining Jews in concentration camps in Germany, to Auschwitz and Majdanek for extermination.

  • Oct 5, 1942 - EYE-WITNESS TO MASS EXECUTION
    A German eyewitness observes SS mass murder.

  • Oct 14, 1942 - LIQUIDATION OF MIZCOZ AND MASS EXECUTION
    In the process of liquidating the Mizcoz ghetto in the Ukraine, German Gendarmerie and Ukrainian Schutzmannschaft round up 1,700 Jews for a mass execution. On the eve of the ghetto's liquidation (Oct 13, 1942), some of the inhabitants rose up against the Germans and were defeated after a short battle. The remaining members of the community were transported from the ghetto to a ravine in the Sdolbunov Gebietskommissariat, south of Rovno, where they were executed. Infamous photo coverage was captured, of SS officers stepping into the ravine full of women to shoot any still alive after a machine-gunning.

  • Oct 22, 1942 - ANOTHER UPRISING PUT DOWN
    The SS puts down another revolt, this time at Sachsenhausen by a group of Jews about to be sent to Auschwitz.

  • Oct 25, 1942 - NORWEGIAN JEWS SENT TO AUSCHWITZ
    The Deportations of Norwegian Jews to Auschwitz begin.

  • Oct 28, 1942 - THERESIENSTADT JEWS ARRIVE AT AUSCHWITZ
    The first trainloads of Jews from Theresienstadt arrive at Auschwitz, and are immediately scheduled for extermination.

  • Nov 1942 - MASS EXECUTIONS IN BIALYSTOK GHETTOS
    The start of mass executions for 170,000 Jews in the area of Bialystok.

  • Oct 29, 1942 - MASS EXECUTIONS IN BELORUSSIA
    16,000 Jews are executed by the Einsatzgruppen in (M)Pinsk, Belorussia.

  • Nov 1, 1942 - BIALYSTOK JEWS SENT TO AUSCHWITZ
    Deportations begin for Bialystok Jews who are ordered to Auschwitz for extermination.

  • DEC 10, 1942 - GERMAN JEWS ARRIVE AT AUSCHWITZ
    The first trainload of German Jews arrives at Auschwitz.

  • DEC 1942 - BELZEC EXTERMINATION CAMP CLOSED
    The Belzec extermination center which began operations Mar 17th, 1942 ends all activities. The camp is then dismantled, plowed over and planted. In 9 months, 600,000 Jews and several thousand Gypsies were exterminated at this camp. Those remaining when the camp ceased to function were transported to the Sobibor death camp and executed.

  • DEC 17, 1942 - BRITISH GOVERNMENT SPEAKS ABOUT HOLOCAUST
    British Foreign Secretary Eden says the Nazis are "now carrying into effect Hitler's oft repeated intention to exterminate the Jewish people of Europe." The U.S. promises justice for these crimes against the Jewish people.

  • DEC 28, 1942 - STERILIZATION EXPERIMENTS BEGIN
    Forced sterilization experiments begin on the women at Birkenau camp.

Map of Concentration/Death Camps

1943
  • In 1943 - EINSATSGRUPPEN STATISTICS EXCEED 1 MILLION KILLED
    The SS Einsatzgruppen reports that it has killed more than 1 million Jews. Slave labor is later used to dig up and burn the buried bodies in mass graves in order to remove evidence of the atrocities.

  • Jan 18, 1943 - UPRISING IN WARSAW
    The first armed uprising by Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.

  • Jan 29, 1943 - GYPSIES ORDERED FOR EXTERMINATION
    Nazis order all Gypsies arrested and sent to extermination camps.

  • Jan 30, 1943 - NEW HEAD OF RSHA APPOINTED
    After the assassination of Heydrich, Ernst Kaltenbrunner becomes the new head of RSHA (Reich Security Main Office).

  • Feb 1943 - ROMANIAN PROPOSAL FOR RESETTLEMENT IGNORED
    The Romanian government proposes to transfer 70,000 Jews to Palestine which is under British control. The proposal is ignored by the allies.

  • Feb 1943 - GREEK JEWS ORDERED INTO GHETTOS

  • Feb 2, 1943 - Germans surrender at Stalingrad in the first big defeat of Hitler's armies.

  • Feb 27, 1943 - BERLIN SLAVE LABOR SENT TO AUSCHWITZ
    Remaining Jews in Berlin, working in the armaments industry, are sent to Auschwitz for extermination.

  • March 1943 - GREEK JEWS SENT TO AUSCHWITZ
    Greek Jews begin to be deported to Auschwitz for extermination. By August 1943, a total of 49,900 Jews are transported to Auschwitz.

  • Mar 1, 1943 - JEWS DEMONSTRATE IN NEW YORK
    American Jews hold a demonstration in Madison Square Garden, New York, calling on the U.S. government to help European Jews.

  • Mar 13, 1943 - THE KRAKOW GHETTO IS LIQUIDATED
    The Podgorze ghetto in Warsaw is liquidated and the remaining 6,000 Jews who are able to work are sent to the Plaszow forced labor camp, while 2,000 children and old people were sent to other camps, including Auschwitz II, also known as Birkenau.

  • Mar 17, 1943 - BULGARIA REFUSES TO DEPORT ITS OWN JEWS
    Bulgaria, a German ally in the Axis Alliance, opposes the deportation of Bulgarian Jews. Significant and public protest from key political and clerical leaders moved King Boris to renege on its extensive plans to comply with the Nazi demand to deport Bulgaria's Jews. Although secure from deportation to German-held territory, Bulgarian Jews are still drafted for forced labor.

    However, non-Bulgarian Jews in territories it had annexed from Yugoslavia and Greece (Macedonia and Thrace) are arrested and deported. In Macedonia, Bulgarian officials intern 7,000 Jews in a transit camp in Skopje. In Thrace, formerly a Bulgarian-occupied province of Greece, about 4,000 Jews are deported to Bulgarian assembly points at Gorna Dzhumaya and Dupnitsa and handed over to the Germans.

    In all, Bulgaria deports over 11,000 Jews to German-held territory. By the end of March 1943, most of them are deported to the Treblinka extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.

  • Mar 22, 1943 - AUSCHWITZ FACILITIES EXPANDED
    A newly built gas chamber and crematorium "IV" becomes operational in Auschwitz.

  • Mar 31, 1943 - FURTHER EXPANSION AT AUSCHWITZ
    A newly built gas chamber and crematorium "II" becomes operational in Auschwitz.

  • Apr 4, 1943 - AUSCHWITZ EXPANDED SOME MORE
    A newly built gas chamber and crematorium "V" becomes operational in Auschwitz.

  • Apr 9, 1943 - TEMPORARY STOP TO CHELMNO EXTERMINATIONS
    Exterminations at Chelmno are terminated for 1 year. The camp will later be reactivated for a brief period in the spring of 1944 to liquidate ghettos in nearby regions. A total of 300,000 people will be exterminated at Chelmno

  • Apr 19-30 1943 - BERMUDA CONFERENCE HELD
    Representatives from the U.S. and Britain discuss the plight of the Jewish people and the establishment a temporary safe haven for up to 100,000 Jews in an area of Eastern Libya. Fears of Nazi designs and an overflow of refugees results in inaction.

  • Apr 19, 1943 - WARSAW JEWISH ARMED RESISTANCE PUT DOWN
    German Waffen SS puts down armed Jewish Resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto.

  • May 1943 - MENGELE ARRIVES AT AUSCHWITZ
    SS Dr. Josef Mengele arrives at Auschwitz and carries out experiments on inmates, placing them in pressure chambers, testing drugs on them, castrating them or extracting fetuses without anesthesia, freezing them to death, and exposing them to various other traumas.

  • May 1943 - JEWS EXPELLED FROM SOFIA
    The Bulgarian government announces the expulsion of 20,000 Jews from its capital, Sofia, to the provinces. (The prewar Jewish population of Sofia was about 26,000; comprising 9 percent of the capital's total population.) Protests staged by both Bulgarian Jews and non-Jews are brutally suppressed by the police. Within about two weeks, almost 20,000 Jews are expelled to the provinces.

  • May 13, 1943 - German and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allies.

  • May 19, 1943 - BERLIN DECLARED "FREE OF JEWS"
    The German government declares Berlin 'Judenfrei' (free/cleansed of Jews).

  • Jun 11, 1943 - ALL POLISH GHETTOS TO BE LIQUIDATED
    Himmler orders the liquidation of all Jewish ghettos in occupied Poland.

  • Jun 25, 1943 - AUSCHWITZ EXPANDED TO FULL CAPACITY
    Newly built gas chamber and crematorium "III" becomes operational in Auschwitz. With the four new crematories completed, Auschwitz now has a daily capacity of 4,756 bodies.

  • Jul 9/10 - Allies land in Sicily.

  • Aug 2, 1943 - REVOLT AT TREBLINKA
    A revolt breaks out, organized by Jewish prison workers who manage to kill over a dozen S.S. men, set fire to buildings, cut through the wire fencing, and initiate a mass escape. Of the 840 Jewish inmates involved, only 200
    succeed in escaping from the camp. Of these, only 100 survive.

  • Aug 16, 1943 - BIALYSTOK GHETTO LIQUIDATED AFTER UPRISING
    The Bialystok Ghetto is enveloped in 3 tight rings of Wehrmacht and SS forces, and Ukrainian auxiliary forces. Informed that they would be relocated to Lublin, some 30,000 Jews stream toward the evacuation point, but the Jewish underground launch an uprising. For 5 days, fierce battles rage in the ghetto. The main bunker of the underground is surrounded on Aug 19 and the uprising is quelled.. Deportations from the ghetto continue for 3 days. Most inhabitants of the ghetto are sent to extermination in Majdanek and Treblinka. The 2,000 Jews who were left behind were deported three weeks later.

  • Aug 1943 - EXTERMINATIONS CEASE AT TREBLINKA
    After 870,000 deaths, extermination activities are halted at Treblinka. The camp started under Operation Reinhard, is closed down

  • Sept 1943 - VILNA AND MINSK GHETTOS LIQUIDATED

  • Sept 11, 1943 - GERMANS ENTER ROME
    After a long campaign in northern and central Italy, German troops take Rome, a city with a Jewish population of 35,000.

  • Sept 11, 1943 - THERESIENSTADT TRAINS ARRIVE IN AUSCHWITZ
    The first transports of Jewish families from the Theresienstadt arrive at Auschwitz.

  • October 1944 - BULGARIA SWITCHES ALLEGIANCES
    Axis Ally Bulgaria declares war on Germany.

  • Oct 1943 - DANISH JEWS RESCUED
    The Danish Underground moves 7,220 Danish Jews to safety in Sweden by sea.

  • Oct 4 1943 - HIMMLER TALKS OPENLY ABOUT 'FINAL SOLUTION'
    At Posen Himmler says, "I am talking about the evacuation of the Jews, the extermination of the Jewish people. It is one of those things that is easily said. 'The Jewish people are being exterminated,' every Party member will tell you, 'perfectly clear, it's part of our plans, we're eliminating the Jews, exterminating them, a small matter.'"

  • Oct 5, 1943 - DANISH JEWS MOVED TO THERESIENSTADT
    466 prominent Danish Jews are moved to Theresienstadt ghetto, the chosen model ghetto city used for Nazi propaganda purposes. They are ordered to receive preferential treatment and consequently survive till the end of the war. The Red Cross was allowed limited tracking of their state and well being, for public relations purposes.

  • Oct 14, 1943 - ESCAPE FROM SOBIBOR
    Shortly after Yom Kippur, Jewish-Soviet prisoner of war First Lieutenant Alexander (Sasha) Pechersky leads a revolt. 300 Jews and Soviet POWs break out, making it safely through a minefield into nearby woods. Of those 300, only 50 survive. Camp commander Franz Reichsleitner orders the extermination of all remaining Jews and POWs.

  • Oct 1943 - SOBIBOR CLOSES DOWN
    Extermination operations are halted at Sobibor, after over 250,000 deaths. All traces of the death camp are then removed and trees are planted in its place.

  • Oct 16, 1943 - ITALIAN JEWS SENT TO AUSCHWITZ
    Jews are rounded up in Rome, and more than 1,000 are sent to Auschwitz for extermination.

  • Nov 1943 - TREBLINKA TO BE DESTROYED
    After the revolt of Aug 2, 1943, the camp is gradually liquidated. After 850,000 people are killed there, orders are issued for the Treblinka camp to be destroyed. Camp buildings and installations are demolished. A house is built for a Ukrainian family and the area of the former camp ploughed up and planted with lupines.

  • Nov 1943 - RIGA GHETTO LIQUIDATED
    Germans destroy the Riga ghetto, deport the last Jews to the Kaiserwald camp. The surviving Jews in Latvia, from the destroyed ghettos of Riga, Liepaja, and Dvinsk, are concentrated in Kaiserwald and its sub camps.

  • Nov 1943 - CONGRESS HEARINGS ON STATE DEPT. INACTION
    The U.S. Congress conducts hearings regarding the State Department's inaction in aiding European Jews, in the wake of reports of mass extermination.

  • Nov 3, 1943 - OPERATION HARVEST FESTIVAL
    Nazis launch Operation Harvest Festival killing 42,000 Jews in occupied Poland.

  • Nov 4, 1943 - JULIUS STREICHER WRITES IN DER STÜRMER
    Der Stürmer, publishes quote by Julius Streicher: "It is actually true that the Jews have, so to speak, disappeared from Europe and that the Jewish 'Reservoir of the East' from which the Jewish pestilence has for centuries beset the peoples of Europe has ceased to exist. But the Führer of the German people at the beginning of the war prophesied what has now come to pass."

  • Nov 11, 1943 - HÖSS PROMOTED TO CHIEF INSPECTOR
    Auschwitz Kommandant Rudolf Höss (also known as Hess) is promoted to Chief Inspector of Concentration Camps, assuming direct responsibility for the Final Solution and answering only to Hitler. The new Auschwitz kommandant, Liebehenschel, organizes the vast Auschwitz complex of over 30 sub-camps into three main sections.

  • DEC 2, 1943 - JEWS TRANSPORTED FROM VIENNA IN AUSCHWITZ
    The first trainloads of Vienna Jews arrive at Auschwitz and are immediately processed for extermination.

  • DEC 16, 1943 - MENGELE REPORTS ON OPERATIONS
    The chief surgeon at Auschwitz, Dr. Mengele, reports that 106 castration operations have been performed.

  • DEC 1943 - DANISH KING DEMANDS TO INSPECT THERESIENSTADT
    Danish King Christian X demands an inspection of Theresienstadt to know the condition of 466 prominent Danish Jews forcibly deported to the ghetto. These prominent Danish Jews are given preferential treatment and consequently all of them survive, and are returned to Denmark on Apr 15, 1945. The Nazis begin their beautification program in preparation for the inspection, which will take place more than 6 months later.
1944
  • Jan 3, 1944 - Eastern front moves to former Polish border as Soviets push west.

  • Jan 24, 1944 - ROOSEVELT CREATES WAR REFUGEE BOARD
    U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., persuades President Franklin D. Roosevelt to establish the War Refugee Board, in response to growing political pressure to help Jews trapped in Nazi control.

  • Jan 25, 1944 - HANS FRANK: 2.4 MILLION JEWS EXTERMINATED
    Hans Frank, Gauleiter (German Governor) of Poland writes in his diary about the 2.5 million Jews originally under his jurisdiction, "At the present time we still have in the General Government perhaps 100,000 Jews."

  • Jan 26, 1944 - HIMMLER: JEWISH QUESTION SOLVED
    At the municipal theater in Posen, Himmler makes an address to more than 260 high-ranking Wehrmacht army and navy officers. Himmler tells them that Hitler, himself, had given him the mission to exterminate the Jews. "I can assure you," Himmler told them, "the Jewish question has been solved. Six million have been killed." According to an eyewitness, all, but five officers, applauded enthusiastically.

  • Feb 1944 - EICHMANN VISITS AUSCHWITZ

  • Mar 19, 1944 - GERMANS TAKE HUNGARY
    Hungary's demographic records of the time show a Jewish population of 725,000. Eichmann arrives together with Special Section Commandos of the Gestapo.

  • Spring 1944 - CHELMNO RE-OPENED FOR BRIEF PERIOD
    Chelmno re-opens and resumes extermination activities for a brief period, and is shut down again.

  • Mar 24, 1944 - ROOSEVELT CONDEMNS CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY
    In a statement, President Roosevelt against Hitler's crimes: "Hitler is committing these crimes against humanity in the name of the German people. I ask every German and every man everywhere under Nazi domination to show the world by his action that in his heart he does not share these insane criminal desires."

  • Apr 5, 1944 - JEWISH COUNCIL WARNED ABOUT AUSCHWITZ
    Siegfried Lederer escapes from Auschwitz. He warns the Elders of the Council at Theresienstadt about the extermination activities at Auschwitz.

  • Apr 6, 1944 - NAZIS ATTACK FRENCH HOME FOR JEWISH CHILDREN

  • Apr 7, 1944 - ESCAPEE INFORMS VATICAN ABOUT AUSCHWITZ
    Rudolf Vrba, one of 2 escapees from Auschwitz, submits a report about Nazi extermination activities to the Vatican via the Slovakian Papal Nuncio. The report arrives at the Vatican in mid June.

  • Apr 14, 1944 - GREEK JEWS ARRIVE AT AUSCHWITZ
    The first trainloads of 5,200 Jews from the Athens area arrive at Auschwitz and are scheduled for extermination.

  • May 1944 - NAZI PROPOSAL TO TRADE JEWS FOR SUPPLIES
    On seeing the Allied sympathies for Jews, Himmler dispatches agents to secretly propose the trade of Jews for trucks, other commodities or money.

  • May 8, 1944 - HÖSS TO OVERSEE AUSCHWITZ EXTERMINATIONS
    Himmler orders Rudolf Höss to return to Auschwitz to oversee the extermination of Hungarian Jews.

  • May 15, 1944 - HUNGARIAN JEWS GO TO AUSCHWITZ
    Hungarian Jews are ordered to be deported to Auschwitz.

  • May 16, 1944 - EICHMANN SPEEDS UP PROCESS AT AUSCHWITZ
    As Hungarian Jews begin arriving at Auschwitz, Eichmann arrives to speed up the extermination process.

    By May 24, 1944 approximately 100,000 will have been gassed.

    The SS reports that in 2 weeks between May 16 and May 31, 1944, they harvest 40 kilos (88 pounds) of gold and white precious metal from the teeth of those gassed.

  • Mid 1944 - EXTERMINATION REPORTS REACH WESTERN PRESS
    The 2 Slovakian Jews, Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzlar, escapees from Auschwitz, give detailed accounts of the systematic extermination of Jews at Birkenau (i.e. Auschwitz II), and the use of gas chambers and crematoria. Their reports reach London and Washington. Another Polish escapee from Auschwitz Jerzy Tabeau corroborates their accounts in his report. In June and July of 1944, reports appear in the New York Times about the mass exterminations of Jews by gassing at Auschwitz.

  • Mid 1944 - AUSCHWITZ KILLINGS AT A PEAK
    Auschwitz-Birkenau records show the highest-ever number of persons gassed and cremated per day - more than 9,000. In addition to the use of the crematoria which are now overwhelmed and beyond capacity, six huge pits are used for burning the bodies.

  • Jun 6, 1944 - D-day: Allied landings in Normandy.

  • Jun 12, 1944 - CHILD SLAVE LABOR ORDERED
    Rosenberg orders operation Hay Action - the abduction of 40,000 Polish children from 10 - 14 years of age, for slave labor in the 3rd Reich.

  • Jun 23, 1944 - RED CROSS VISITS THERESIENSTADT
    With 6 months of preparations for a Red Cross visit, Nazis clean up the overcrowded ghetto of Theresienstadt, moving some internees to extermination camps. Two Swiss delegates of the International Red Cross and 2 representatives of the government of Denmark (concerned with 466 deported Danish Jews had been sent there, beginning on Oct 5, 1943) resulting in a favorable report. The Danish Jews had been ordered to receive preferential treatment for propaganda purposes.

  • End of June 1944 - HALF OF HUNGARIAN JEWS AT AUSCHWITZ
    Records at Auschwitz show 381,661 persons or half of all Hungarian Jews have arrived at Auschwitz.

  • July 1944 - SWEDISH DIPLOMAT SAVES 33,000 JEWS
    Raoul Wallenberg establishes safe houses for Jews in Budapest, Hungary, and uses diplomatic privileges to issue diplomatic papers for escaping Jews. He proceeds to rescue 33,000 Jews.

  • Jul 24, 1944 - SOVIETS LIBERATE MAJDANEK
    Soviet troops reach and liberate their first concentration camp at Majdanek, where more than 360,000 were killed..

  • Aug 4, 1944 - ANNE FRANK CAUGHT BY NAZIS
    Anne Frank and her family are arrested by the Gestapo in Amsterdam and deported to Auschwitz. Anne and her sister Margot are later moved to Bergen-Belsen (in Lower Saxony near Celle) where Anne dies of typhus on Mar 15, 1945.

    Originally created as a transit center, Bergen-Belsen was never officially given formal concentration camp status, but the second commandant, SS-Hauptsturmführer Josef Kramer, had completed the transformation of Bergen-Belsen into a regular concentration camp.

  • Aug 6, 1944 - LAST GHETTO IN POLAND LIQUIDATED
    Lodz, the final ghetto in Poland, is liquidated. Its last 60,000 surviving Jews sent to Auschwitz for extermination.

  • Oct 7, 1944 - REVOLT AT AUSCHWITZ DESTROYS CREMATORIUM IV
    Auschwitz-Birkenau is now the only remaining fully operational Nazi extermination camp still in operation. On learning that they are soon to be liquidated, and sensing liberation at hand, a unit of Sonderkommando (Jewish slave laborers) stage a revolt. After smuggling small amounts of gunpowder from the Weichsel-Union-Metallwerke, a munitions factory within the Auschwitz complex, the conspirators set fire to and destroy Crematorium IV. Several hundred prisoners escaped from Birkenau, but almost all are recaptured and killed. 200 prisoners who took part in the revolt are executed.

  • Oct 15, 1944 - NAZIS REMOVE HUNGARIAN PUPPET GOVERNMENT
    With most of its Jewish population removed, and with mounting international pressure, the Hungarian calls for a halt in deportations. The Germans remove their installed Hungarian puppet government and resume the deportation of Jews.

  • Oct 17, 1944 - EICHMANN ARRIVES IN HUNGARY
    Eichmann arrives in Hungary to oversee the deportation of Jews.

  • Oct 28, 1944 - LAST TRAINLOAD OF JEWS ARRIVES AT AUSCHWITZ
    The last trainload of 2,000 Jews from Theresienstadt scheduled for extermination, arrives at Auschwitz,

  • Oct 30, 1944 - FINAL USE OF GAS CHAMBERS AT AUSCHWITZ

  • Nov 8, 1944 - FORCED MARCHES
    German troops force 25,000 Jews to walk more than 100 miles in rain and snow from Budapest to the Austrian border. Another forced march of 50,000 persons to Mauthausen.

  • Nov 25, 1944 - HIMMLER ORDERS AUSCHWITZ DESTROYED
    Realizing defeat is at hand, and the imminent discovery of Nazi genocide activities by the approaching Soviet army, Himmler orders the dismantling of the remaining crematoria at Auschwitz. .

  • Late 1944 - SCHINDLER SAVES 1200 JEWS
    Industrialist Oskar Schindler saves 1200 Jewish slave laborers, by moving them from Plaszow labor camp to his hometown of Brunnlitz.

1945
  • In 1945 - SIGNIFICANT ESCAPE FOR BULGARIAN JEWS
    The Jewish population of Bulgaria is still about 50,000, at its prewar level. Next to the rescue of Danish Jews, Bulgarian Jewry's escape from deportation and extermination represents the most significant exception of any Jewish population in Nazi-occupied Europe. Beginning in 1948, however, more than 35,000 Bulgarian Jews will choose to emigrate to the new state of Israel.

  • Jan 1945 - SS DISMANTLE AUSCHWITZ
    On Himmler's orders, the SS begin to hide the evidence of genocide at Auschwitz, setting off demolition charges to finish-off the partially dismantled Crematoria II, III & V.

  • In 1945 - DEATH MARCHES
    As the Allies advance, German troops march camp inmates away from the front. Many weak, sick and poorly clothed inmates die during these hurried marches. Thousands of potential survivors die within days of liberation.

  • Jan 6, 1945 - SOVIETS LIBERATE BUDAPEST
    The Soviet army reaches Budapest and liberates more than 80,000 Jews.

  • Jan 14, 1945 - Soviet army reaches eastern Germany.

  • Jan 17, 1945 - Soviet army reaches Warsaw.

  • Jan 18, 1945 - NAZIS MOVE 66,000 FROM AUSCHWITZ
    Auschwitz prisoners are moved west into the concentration camps of Germany's interior at Bergen-Belson, Buchenwald, Ravensbruck. In these death marches, thousands of potential survivors of Auschwitz die with liberation only days away.

  • Jan 27, 1945 - SOVIETS LIBERATE AUSCHWITZ
    Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz. An estimated 2,000,000, including 1,500,000 Jews, have been murdered at Auschwitz by this time.. The Russians find thousands abandoned by the retreating SS: 1200 survivors in the main camp, 5,800 in Birkenau and around 700 in Monowitz. Those remaining were primarily people who had been unable to walk.

  • Apr 4, 1945 - OHRDRUF CAMP LIBERATED
    Western allied forces liberate the Ohrdruf camp is liberated. General Eisenhower later visits the camp.

  • Apr 10, 1945 - ALLIES LIBERATE BUCHENWALD.

  • Apr 15, 1945 - BRITISH LIBERATE BERGEN-BELSEN CAMP
    The British army reaches the German interior and liberates 40,000 at Bergen-Belsen. A quite from their report reads "both inside and outside the huts was a carpet of dead bodies, human excreta, rags and filth."

  • Apr 23, 1945 - Soviets reach Berlin

  • Apr 29, 1945 - U.S. 7th ARMY LIBERATES DACHAU

  • Apr 30, 1945 - Hitler commits suicide in Berlin bunker.

  • Apr 30, 1945 - U.S. ARMY FREES 33,000 FROM CAMPS
    Americans free 33,000 prisoners from various concentration camps.

  • May 2, 1945 - RED CROSS TAKES OVER THERESIENSTADT

  • May 5, 1945 - U.S. FORCES LIBERATE MAUTHAUSEN

  • May 7, 1945 - GERMANS SIGN UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER

  • May 9, 1945 - HERMANN GÖRING CAPTURED BY U.S. FORCES

  • May 23, 1945 - SS-REICHSFÜHRER HIMMLER COMMITS SUICIDE

  • Nov 20, 1945 - START OF NUREMBURG TRIALS
    The Nuremberg International Military Tribunal begins investigating evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Holocaust Statistics

1946
  • Mar 11, 1946 - HÖSS CAPTURED
    Former Auschwitz Kommandant Höss is arrested by the British, while posing as a farm worker. He testifies at Nuremberg, then is later tried in Warsaw, found guilty and hanged at Auschwitz, on Apr 16, 1947, near Crematory I.
    While in prison, Höss writes along with his memoirs about Auschwitz, "History will mark me as the greatest mass murderer of all time."

  • Oct 16, 1946 - GÖRING COMMITS SUICIDE
    Two hours before his scheduled execution along with other major Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg, Göring commits suicide.

  • 1946 - HANS FRANK REPENTANT
    Hans Frank states during his imprisonment, "A thousand years will pass and the guilt of Germany will not be erased." Frank and others Nazi war criminals are hanged, their bodies are brought to Dachau and burned (the final use of the crematories there), and their ashes scattered into a river.

  • DEC 9, 1946 - SS DOCTORS AND SCIENTISTS FOUND GUILTY
    The U.S. Military Tribunal at Nuremberg tries 23 former SS doctors and scientists. 16 are found guilty, and 7 of them hanged.
1947
  • Sept 15, 1947 - EINSATZGRUPPEN LEADERS TRIED
    The U.S. Military Tribunal at Nuremberg tries 21 former SS Einsatzgruppen leaders. 14 are sentenced to death, but only 4, the group commanders, are executed.
1960
  • May 11, 1960 - EICHMANN CAPTURED
    The Israeli secret service captures Adolf Eichmann in Argentina.
1961
  • Apr 11 - Aug 14 - EICHMANN TRIED FOR CRIMES
    Eichmann is put on trial in Jerusalem for "Crimes Against the Jewish People," "Crimes Against Humanity" and "War Crimes." He is found guilty and hanged at Ramleh on May 31, 1962.

    Unremorseful, Eichmann is reported to have once said that "he would leap laughing into the grave, because the feeling that he had 5 million people on his conscience would be for him a source of extraordinary satisfaction."

(click once)


Responses
to this article:
 3
Last response dated:
Nov 9, 2004

read/post
responses


[homepage]