Map of the Holocaust Beginning by Joanie Haynes

1935: The Nuremberg Laws Enacted

jmhaynes — 2024-02-28 19:11:42 UTC

The Nuremberg Laws were anti-Jewish statutes enacted by Nazi Germany that marked a major step in clarifying racial policy and removing Jewish influences from Aryan society. These laws were announced at the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party and barred Jews from Reich citizenship and prohibited them from marrying or having sexual relations with persons of "German or related blood."

1938: Kristallnacht

jmhaynes — 2024-02-28 19:11:43 UTC

The Night of Broken Glass, or Kristallnacht, is considered the outset of Jewish pogroms across Germany. It involved a series of coordinated attacks against Jews conducted by SA paramilitary forces and civilians throughout Nazi Germany (including Austria) on the night of November 9-10. Jewish homes, hospitals, and schools were plundered; over 1,000 synagogues were burned; and over 7,000 Jewish businesses were destroyed.

1938: Annexation of Austria

jmhaynes — 2024-02-28 19:11:43 UTC

The Annexation of Austria, also known as the Anschluss, saw Nazi Germany annex Austria into the Reich in March 1938. This move was a crucial step in Hitler's desire to unify all German-speaking peoples and marked an important point in the buildup to World War II. It also led to a significant increase in Nazi persecution of Austrian Jews.

1940: Warsaw Ghetto Established

jmhaynes — 2024-02-28 19:11:44 UTC

The Warsaw Ghetto was established by the Nazi government in October 1940, confining over 400,000 Jews in an area of 3.4 km2. It was the largest ghetto in both size and population during World War II. The living conditions were atrocious, with severe food shortages and the spread of diseases.

1942: Operation Reinhard Begins

jmhaynes — 2024-02-28 19:11:45 UTC

Operation Reinhard, also known as Aktion Reinhard, was the secret name given to the Nazi plan to murder approximately two million Polish Jews during World War II, beginning in 1942. The operation marked the most deadly phase of the Holocaust, with victims transported to extermination camps like Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka.

1942: Wannsee Conference

jmhaynes — 2024-02-28 19:11:45 UTC

The Wannsee Conference, held on January 20, 1942, was a meeting of senior government officials of Nazi Germany and SS leaders, planned to ensure the cooperation of administrative leaders of various government departments in the implementation of the so-called Final Solution to the Jewish question.

1941: Operation Barbarossa

jmhaynes — 2024-02-28 19:11:46 UTC

The invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany in June 1941 marked a significant escalation in the hostilities of World War II. Codenamed Operation Barbarossa, this invasion opened the Eastern Front, the largest front of WWII, and led to a massive increase in the killing of Jews by Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units).

1942: Deportation from Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka

jmhaynes — 2024-02-28 19:11:46 UTC

The deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka extermination camp began in July 1942. Over a period of just under two months, about 254,000–265,000 Jewish men, women, and children were transported from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka, where they were murdered in gas chambers.

Elie Wiesel’s childhood home, Strada Tudor Vladimirescu, Sighetu Marmației, Romania

jmhaynes — 2025-04-17 22:16:11 UTC

Auschwitz, Poland

jmhaynes — 2025-04-17 22:16:41 UTC

Auschwitz or Oświęcim,^[3] was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939)^[4] during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschwitz I, the main camp (Stammlager) in Oświęcim; Auschwitz II-Birkenau, a concentration and extermination camp with gas chambers; Auschwitz III-Monowitz, a labour camp for the chemical conglomerate IG Farben; and dozens of subcamps.^[5] The camps became a major site of the Nazis' Final Solution to the Jewish question.

Buna, Bosnia and Herzegovina

jmhaynes — 2025-04-17 22:22:29 UTC

Buna-Monowitz was a Nazi concentration camp and labor camp run by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland from 1942–1945, during World War II and the Holocaust.

Buchenwald, Weimar, Germany

jmhaynes — 2025-04-17 22:24:56 UTC

Buchenwald (German pronunciation: [ˈbuːxn̩valt]; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (Old Reich) territories. Many actual or suspected communists were among the first internees.

Prisoners came from all over Europe and the Soviet Union, and included Jews, Poles, and other Slavs, the mentally ill, and physically disabled, political prisoners, Roma, Freemasons, and prisoners of war. There were also ordinary criminals and those perceived as sexual deviants by the Nazi regime. All prisoners worked primarily as forced labor in local armaments factories. The insufficient food and poor conditions, as well as deliberate executions, led to 56,545 deaths at Buchenwald of the 280,000 prisoners who passed through the camp and its 139 subcamps.^[1]

The camp gained notoriety when it was liberated by the United States Army in April 1945; Allied commander Dwight D. Eisenhower visited one of its subcamps.

From August 1945 to March 1950, the camp was used by the Soviet occupation

The Eagle's Nest, Berchtesgaden, Germany

jmhaynes — 2025-04-17 22:26:40 UTC

The Kehlsteinhaus (German pronunciation: [ˈkeːlʃtaɪnˌhaʊs]; known in English as the Eagle's Nest) is a Nazi-constructed building erected atop the summit of the Kehlstein, a rocky outcrop that rises above Obersalzberg near the southeast German town of Berchtesgaden. It was used exclusively by members of the Nazi Party for government and social meetings. It was visited on 14 documented instances by Adolf Hitler.^[1]^[2] Today, it is open seasonally as a restaurant, beer garden, and tourist site.

Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory, Lipowa, Kraków, Poland

jmhaynes — 2025-04-17 22:32:02 UTC

Oskar Schindler was a German industrialist, humanitarian, and member of the Nazi Party who is credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and ammunitions factories in occupied Poland and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.