Chronology of the Holocaust and Rescue in Poland - Part 1

Part 1: 1025-1938 - See Below

Part 2: 1939-1941

Part 3: 1942-1943

Part 4: 1944-2021

Part 1: 1025-1938

Note: Some of the content in this chronology on the history of Poland is based on a Wikipedia entry, with editing.

The history of the Jews in Poland dates back more than 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland is home to the largest and most significant Jewish community in the world. Poland is a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the long period of statutory religious tolerance and social autonomy which ends after the Partitions of Poland in the 18th century.

“The culture and intellectual output of the Jewish community in Poland had a profound impact on Judaism as a whole. Some Jewish historians have recounted that the word Poland is pronounced as Polania or Polin in Hebrew, and as transliterated into Hebrew, these names for Poland were interpreted as "good omens" because Polania can be broken down into three Hebrew words: po ("here"), lan ("dwells"), ya ("God"), and Polin into two words of: po ("here") lin ("[you should] dwell"). The "message" was that Poland was meant to be a good place for the Jews. During the time from the rule of Sigismund I the Old until the Nazi Holocaust, Poland would be at the center of Jewish religious life. Many agreed with Rabbi David ben Shemu’el ha-Levi (Taz) that Poland was a place where "most of the time the gentiles do no harm; on the contrary they do right by Israel" (Divre David; 1689). [Wikipedia]

“During World War II there is a nearly complete genocidal destruction of the Polish Jewish community by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during the German occupation of Poland between 1939 and 1945, called the Holocaust.” [Wikipedia]

1025
The founding of the Kingdom of Poland

1085
The first permanent Jewish community is mentioned by a Jewish scholar Jehuda ha-Kohen in the city of Przemyśl.

1102
Bolesław III is born. Under Bolesław III (1102–1139), Jews, encouraged by the tolerant regime of this ruler, settled throughout Poland, including over the border in Lithuanian territory as far as Kiev. He recognizes the utility of Jews in the development of the commercial interests of his country. [Wikipedia]

1098
First Crusade in 1098. The first extensive Jewish migration from Western Europe to Poland occurs.

1264
Under the General Charter of Jewish Liberties (commonly called the Statute of Kalisz). Jews are granted unprecedented legal rights in Europe, including the freedom of worship, trade, and travel in by Bolesław the Pious. The statute was ratified by subsequent Polish Kings: Casimir III in 1334, Casimir IV in 1453, and Sigismund I in 1539.

1332-33
Jews persecuted across Europe are invited to Poland by Casimir the Great (1303-1370), who, in particular, vowed to protect them as "people of the king". Also known as "King of the serfs and Jews." Under penalty of death, he prohibited the kidnapping of Jewish children for the purpose of enforced Christian Baptism. Under his reign, many Jews immigrate to Poland. Approximately 70 percent of the world's European Jews, or Ashkenazim, can trace their ancestry back to Poland—thanks to a 14th-century king, Casimir III, the Great, who drew Jewish settlers from all across Europe.

1348
The first blood libel accusation against Jews in Poland is documented.

1349
Pogroms are committed against Jews in many towns in Silesia.

1356
First Jewish settlement mentioned in Lvov.

1367
First Jewish settlement mentioned in Sandomierz.

Pogrom in Poland takes place in Poznań.

1386
First Jewish settlement mentioned in Kazimierz near Kraków (1386).

1388
As a result of the marriage of Wladislaus II to Jadwiga, daughter of Louis I of Hungary, Lithuania is united with the kingdom of Poland. In 1388–1389, broad privileges were extended to Lithuanian Jews including freedom of religion and commerce on equal terms with the Christians. [Wikipedia]

1399
Accusations of blood libel by the priests, and more riots against the Jews in Poznań.

1454
1454 anti-Jewish riots in Bohemia's ethnically German Wrocław and other Silesian cities, Jews are banned from Lower Silesia.

The Nieszawa Statutes are a set of laws enacted in the Kingdom of Poland which, among other things, abolished the ancient privileges of the Jews "as contrary to divine right and the law of the land."

1456
Casimir IV the Jagiellonian (1447–1492), issues a document announcing that he could not deprive the Jews of his benevolence on the basis of "the principle of tolerance which in conformity with God's laws obliged him to protect them".

1460 or 1470
Rabbi Jacob Pollak (Yaakov Pollack) is born. He is the son of Rabbi Joseph, is the founder of the Polish method of halakhic (religious laws) and Talmudic (central text of Rabbinic Judaism) study known as the Pilpul (‘sharp analysis’).

1492
The Spanish Inquisition

Kingdom of Poland becomes more tolerant as the Jews are expelled from Spain. Poland emerges as a haven for exiles from Western Europe; and Polish Jewry make it the cultural and spiritual center of the Jewish people.

1495
Jews are ordered out of the center of Kraków and allowed to settle in the "Jewish town" of Kazimierz.

Alexander the Jagiellonian (1501–1506) when he is the Grand Duke of Lithuania, expels Jews from Lithuania. For several years they take refuge in Poland.

1500
Shalom Shachna (c. 1500–1558), a pupil of Jacob Pollak, is among the prominent pioneers of Talmudic learning in Poland. He lived and died in Lublin, where he was the head of the yeshivah which produced the rabbinical scholars the following century.

1503
After becoming King of Poland Alexander allows Jews to return to Lithuania. In 1504 he issues a proclamation in which he states that a policy of tolerance befits "kings and rulers".

1520
Moses Isserles (known as the ReMA) (1520–1572) is the co-author of the Shulkhan Arukh, (the "Code of Jewish Law").

1530
A Hebrew Pentateuch (Torah) was printed in Kraków.

Mordecai ben Avraham Yoffe (or Jaffe or Joffe) (c. 1530 – 7 March 1612; Rabbi, (religious teacher) Rosh (Dean-head) yeshiva (religious school) and posek. (legal scholar). He is known as author of Levush Malkhus, a ten-volume codification of Jewish law that particularly stressed the customs of the Jews of Eastern Europe.

1506-1548
The most prosperous period for Polish Jews begins following a new influx of Jews with the reign of Sigismund I the Old. Many Jews leave Bohemia and go to Poland, founding a community in Kraków.

1548-1572
Sigismund II Augustus (1548–1572), follows his father's tolerant policy and also granted communal-administration autonomy to the Jews and lays the foundation for the power of the Qahal, or autonomous Jewish community. This period led to the creation of a proverb about Poland being a "heaven for the Jews". [Wikipedia]

1561
Joel ben Samuel Sirkis (born 1561 - March 14, 1640) also known as the Bach (an abbreviation of his magnum opus Bayi CHadash), is a prominent Ashkenazi posek (“decisor”) and halakhist, (authority on Jewish religious law).

1569
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth is founded. Poland is the most tolerant country in Europe. Historians called it paradisus iudaeorum (Latin for "Paradise of the Jews"). Poland becomes a shelter for Jews persecuted and expelled from various European countries. It is home to the world's largest Jewish community at the time. About three-quarters of the world's Jews live in Poland by the middle of the 16th century. With the weakening of the Commonwealth and growing religious conflict (due to the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation), Poland's traditional tolerance begins to lessen from the 17th century. [Wikipedia]

July 1, 1569
The Union of Lublin was signed in Lublin, Poland. It creates a single state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest countries in Europe at the time. It replaced the personal union of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with a real union and an elective monarchy. [Wikipedia]

1573
Polish and Lithuanian nobles gather at Warsaw in 1573 and sign a document in which representatives of all major religions pledge mutual support and tolerance.
As a result, there is a golden age of Jewish life. Jewish academies were established in Lublin, Kraków, Brześć (Brisk), Lwów, Ostróg and other towns. Poland-Lithuania is the only country in Europe where the Jews cultivate their own farmer's fields. The central autonomous body that regulated Jewish life in Poland from the middle of the 16th to mid-18th century was known as the Council of Four Lands. [Wikipedia]

August 1, 1626
Sabbatai Zevi (August 1, 1626 – c. September 17, 1676), a Sephardic ordained rabbi from Smyrna (now İzmir, Turkey). A kabbalist of Romaniote origin, Zevi, is active throughout the Ottoman Empire, claims to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. He is the founder of the Sabbatean movement, whose followers subsequently are known as Dönmeh "converts" or crypto-Jews. [Wikipedia]

1648
The multi-ethnic Commonwealth of Poland is devastated by several devastating conflicts, in which the country lost over a third of its population (over three million people). The Jewish losses were counted in the hundreds of thousands. The first of these large-scale massacres were the Khmelnytsky Uprising, in which Bohdan Khmelnytsky's Ukrainian Cossacks massacred tens of thousands of Jews and Catholic Poles in the eastern and southern areas of Polish-occupied Ukraine. The Jewish community also suffered greatly during the 1648 Ukrainian Cossack uprising which had been directed primarily against the Polish nobility and landlords. The Jews, perceived as allies of the Poles, are also victims of the revolt, during which about 20% are murdered. [Wikipedia]

1655
Commonwealth of Poland is invaded by the Swedish Empire in what becomes known as the Deluge. Charles X of Sweden, at the head of his army, captures and plunders Kraków and Warsaw.

1657
The Polish general Stefan Czarniecki defeats the Swedish Army at the battle of Magierów. This results in the Peace of Oliwa.

1698
Israel ben Eliezer, known as the Baal Shem Tov, or BeShT, (1698–1760), a Jewish mystic and healer from Poland, who is regarded as the founder of Hasidic (“Pietist-Piety”) Judaism. He has a profound effect on the Jews of Eastern Europe and Poland in particular. His disciples teach and encourage a new fervent brand of Judaism based on Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) known as Hasidism. The rise of Hasidic Judaism within Poland's borders and beyond had a great influence on the rise of Haredi Judaism all over the world, with a continuous influence through its many Hasidic dynasties including those of Chabad-Lubavitch, Aleksander, Bobov, Ger, Nadvorna, among others. (As of 2016, there were over 130,000 Hasidic households worldwide, about 5% of the global Jewish population). [Wikipedia]

1726
Jacob Joseph Frank born Jakub Lejbowicz; 1726 – December 10, 1791) is an 18th-century Polish-Jewish religious leader who claims to be the reincarnation of the self-proclaimed messiah Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676) and also of the biblical patriarch Jacob. The Jewish authorities in Poland excommunicate Frank and his followers due to his heretical doctrines.

1742
Most of Silesia is lost to Prussia.

1764
Accession to the throne of Stanislaus II Augustus Poniatowski

There are about 750,000 Jews in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The worldwide Jewish population is estimated at 1.2 million.

1768
Koliyivshchyna rebellion west of the Dnieper river in Volhynia causes the murders of Polish noblemen, Catholic priests, and thousands of Jews by the Ukrainian Haidamaka Cossacks.

1772
The military Partitions of Poland begins between Russia, Prussia, and Austria.
The Commonwealth loses 30% of its land during the annexations of 1772, and even more of its peoples. Jews are most numerous in the territories that fall under the military control of Austria and Russia. [Wikipedia]

April 27, 1792
The Targowica Confederation a confederation established by Polish and Lithuanian magnates. The confederation opposed the Constitution of May 3, 1791, and fought in the Polish–Russian War of 1792, which led to the Second and Third Partitions of Poland. [Wikipedia]

July 17, 1793
The second partition of Poland.

1794
The Kościuszko Uprising, also known as the Polish Uprising of 1794 and the Second Polish War. An uprising against the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia led by Tadeusz Kościuszko in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Prussian partition. [Wikipedia]

1795
After the Partition of Poland in 1795 and the destruction of Poland as a sovereign state, Polish Jews become subject to the laws of the partitioning powers, including the increasingly antisemitic Russian Empire, as well as Austria-Hungary and Kingdom of Prussia (later a part of the German Empire). Following the partitions of Poland at the end of the 18th century, Poland ceases to exist as an independent state for 123 years. [Wikipedia]

1804
Alexander I of Russia issues a "Statute Concerning Jews", meant to accelerate the process of assimilation of the Empire's new Jewish population. The Polish Jews are allowed to establish schools with Russian, German, or Polish curricula. They could own land in the territories annexed from Poland. However, they are also restricted from leasing property, teaching in Yiddish, and from entering Russia. The harshest measures designed to compel Jews to merge into society at large called for their expulsion from small villages, forcing them to move into towns. Thousands of Jews lost their only source of income. Their living conditions in the Pale began to dramatically worsen. [Wikipedia]

1807
Napoleon creates the Duchy of Warsaw also known as Napoleonic Poland, as a client state of the French Empire.

1815
The Congress of Vienna creates the Kingdom of Poland, ruled by Russia. It is a semi-autonomous Polish state and successor to Napoleon's short-lived Duchy of Warsaw. It is established in the Russian sector after Poland is partitioned by the Habsburg Monarchy, Russia, and Prussia. [Wikipedia]

1816
Jewish population in the area of former Congress of Poland increases sevenfold between 1816 and 1921, from around 213,000 to about 1,500,000.

1827
Decree by Nicolas – while lifting the traditional double taxation on Jews in lieu of army service – made Jews subject to general military recruitment laws that require Jewish communities to provide 7 recruits per each 1000 "souls" every 4 years. Unlike the general population that have to provide recruits between the ages of 18 and 35, Jews have to provide recruits between the ages of 12 and 25. Between 1827 and 1857 more than 30,000 children are placed in the Canonists schools, where they are pressured to convert. "Many children are smuggled to Poland, where the conscription of Jews did not take effect until 1844." [Wikipedia]

May 24, 1829
Tzar Nicholas I of Russia formally crowned himself as King of Poland in Warsaw.

November 29, 1830
The November Uprising (1830–31), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. After it is put down Russian Emperor Nicholas I decrees that henceforth Russian-occupied Poland will lose its autonomy and become an integral part of the Russian Empire. Jews take part in the uprising. [Wikipedia]

1848
The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, a series of political upheavals throughout Europe in 1848. It is essentially democratic and liberal in nature, with the aim of removing the old monarchies and creating independent nation-states. More than 50 countries are affected. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in European history.

March 1855
Tzar Alexander II April 29, 1818 – March 13, 1881) is Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 2 March 1855 until his assassination.

1861
The Emancipation Reform of 1861 in Russia, also known as the Edict of Emancipation of Russia, ("peasants' reform of 1861") is the first and most important of the liberal reforms enacted during the reign of Emperor Alexander II of Russia. The reform abolishes serfdom throughout the Russian Empire. Jews are accorded slightly more rights with the reform, but they are still restricted to the Pale of Settlement and subject to restrictions on ownership and profession. [Wikipedia]

April 4, 1866
Attempted assassination of Tzar Alexander II.

1879
Wilhelm Marr (November 16, 1819 – July 17, 1904) Germen agitator and publicist becomes the first proponent of racial anti-Semitism, blaming Jews for the failure of the German revolutions of 1848–49. Marr popularized the term "antisemitism" (1881).

1881
In Russia newly enacted repressive anti-Jewish laws are passed and remain in effect until 1917. Along with violent pogroms they provide the motivation for mass emigration from Russia. In the period from 1881 to 1920, over two million Jews leave.

March 13, 1881
Tzar Alexander II of Russia is assassinated in Saint Petersburg. The assassination triggered major suppression of civil liberties in Russia, A series of anti-Jewish pogroms and antisemitic legislation, the May Laws, were instituted.

Jews left the Russian Empire. Most Russian Jewish emigrants go to the United States or Argentina, though some made to Palestine.

May 15, 1882
Temporary regulations regarding the Jews (also known as May Laws) are proposed by the minister of internal affairs and enacted on 15 May 1882, by Tsar Alexander III of Russia. Originally, regulations of May 1882 are intended only as temporary measures until a future revision of the laws concerning the Jews but remain in effect for more than thirty years. [Wikipedia]

1884
In response to the Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire 36 Jewish Zionist delegates met in Katowice, forming the Hovevei Zion-Hibbat Zion (Lovers of Zion) movement. Their goal is to promote Jewish immigration to Palestine, and continue Jewish settlement there, particularly agricultural.

1891
Most Jews are deported from Moscow and a newly synagogue is closed by the city's authorities, headed by governor-general Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the Tsar's brother. About 20,000 Jews are expelled, causing international criticism.

1892
In Russia new measures ban Jewish participation in local elections despite their large numbers in many towns in the Pale of settlement. "The Town Regulations of 1892 prohibit Jews from the right to elect or be elected to town Dumas (a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions.

1893
In Russia the Law Concerning the Names impose criminal punishment on Jews who tried to "adopt Christian names" and declare that Jews must use their birth names in business, writings, advertisements, nametags, etc.

1899
The British-German racist Houston Stewart Chamberlain publishes The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century, in which he writes that the 19th century is "the Jewish age" and he also writes that Europe's social problems are the result of its domination by the Jews. The book eventually influences the Nazi Party. [Wikipedia]

1900
The Boxer Rebellion in China. The Russians and the Japanese both contribute troops to the eight-member international force sent in 1900 to quell the Boxer Rebellion and to relieve the international legations under siege in the Chinese capital, Beijing. Russia had already sent 177,000 soldiers to Manchuria, nominally to protect its railways under construction. [Wikipedia]

1901
Poale Zion ("Workers of Zion") is a movement of Marxist–Zionist Jewish workers founded in various cities of Poland, Europe and the Russian Empire in about the turn of the 20th century after the Bund rejected Zionism in 1901. [Wikipedia]

1903
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a document forged by the Okhrana purporting to reveal the secret plans of a conspiracy of Jewish religious leaders for world conquest through the imposition of liberal democracy, is published in Znamya in the Russian Empire. It is later distributed across the world after 1917 by white Russian émigrés and becomes a popular anti-Semitic tract even after it was proved to have been forged and plagiarized. [Wikipedia]

April 19-21, 1903
The Kishinev pogroms an anti-Jewish riot takes place on Easter Day in Kishinev (modern Chișinău, Moldova) 49 Jews are murdered.

October 19-20, 1905
A second pogrom takes place in Kishinev. The riots began as political protests against the Tsar but turn into an attack on Jews. More than,19 Jews are killed and 56 injured.

1904-1905
The Russo-Japanese War is fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1905 over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and Korea. The major theatres of military operations were the Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden in Southern Manchuria, and the seas around Korea, Japan, and the Yellow Sea. Many Jews leave Russia to avoid conscription.

1905
The Russian Revolution of 1905, also known as the First Russian Revolution, is a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire, some of which was directed at the government. It included worker strikes, peasant unrest, and military mutinies. It led to constitutional reform (namely the "October Manifesto"), including the establishment of the State Duma, the multi-party system, and the Russian Constitution of 1906. [Wikipedia]

June 14-16, 1906
The Białystok pogrom in Poland (then part of the Russian Empire). Between 81 and 88 Jews are killed by soldiers of the Russian Army, the Black Hundreds and the Chernoe Znamia, and about 80 Jews are wounded.

August 1914-November 1918
World War I. Millions of soldiers die. At the conclusion of World War I, many of the royal families of Europe are deposed. First of many European oligarchies and “undemocratic democracies” are formed.

Poland regains its independence in the aftermath of World War I. It is the center of the European Jewish world with one of the world's largest Jewish communities of over 3 million. Antisemitism is a growing problem throughout Europe in those years, from both the political establishments and the general population. Throughout the interwar period, Poland actively supports Jewish emigration from Poland and, the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. [Wikipedia]

While most Polish Jews are neutral to the idea of a Polish state, many play a significant role in the fight for Poland's independence during World War I; around 650 Jews joined the Legiony Polskie formed by Józef Piłsudski, more than all other minorities combined. Prominent Jews were among the members of KTSSN, the nucleus of the interim government of re-emerging sovereign Poland including Herman Feldstein, Henryk Eile, Porucznik Samuel Herschthal, Dr. Zygmunt Leser, Henryk Orlean, Wiktor Chajes and others. [Wikipedia]

After the 1918 reconstitution of an independent Polish state, about 500,000 refugees from the Soviet republics come to Poland in the first spontaneous flight from persecution especially in Ukraine where up to 2,000 pogroms take place during the Civil War. [Wikipedia]

November 1914
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee is founded to distribute funds to aid Jews in the Middle East and elsewhere.

1915
The Jewish Labor Committee is founded to help Jews in the Middle East. It soon joins the Jewish Joint.

The Leo Frank trial and lynching in Atlanta, Georgia turns attention to antisemitism in the United States and leads to the founding of the Anti-Defamation League.

November 6, 1916
The Act of 5th November of 1916 was a declaration by Emperors Wilhelm II of Germany and Franz Joseph of Austria. The act promises to create a Kingdom of Poland out of territory of Congress Poland. The had an important impact among the Allies of World War I. In December 1916, the Italian Parliament supported the independence of Poland. In early 1917, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia returned to an earlier proposal of an independent Poland, tied with the Russian Empire that Russian officials had proposed in 1914. At the same time, US President Woodrow Wilson also publicly expressed his support of a free Polish state. [Wikipedia]

March 3, 1917
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk is signed. It is a separate peace treaty signed on March 3, 1918, between the new Bolshevik government of Russia and the Central Powers (German Empire, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire), that ends Russia's participation in World War I.

October 24, 1917
Russian Revolution, led by Vladimir Lenin. Czar Nicholas II is swept from power. The Russian Revolution inspires Communist movements throughout Western Europe, including Germany, Italy, France, Austria, and Hungary. In response, extreme right wing, and nationalistic movements, many of a fascist nature, are created.

1918-1919
Many attacks are launched against Jews during the Russian Civil War, the Polish-Ukrainian War, and the Polish–Soviet War ending with the Treaty of Riga. Almost half of the Jewish men thought to have supported the Bolshevik Russia in these incidents were in their 20s. Just after the end of World War I, the West became alarmed by reports about alleged massive pogroms in Poland against Jews. Pressure for government action reaches the point where U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sends an official commission to investigate the matter. The commission, led by Henry Morgenthau, Sr., concludes in its Morgenthau Report that allegations of pogroms are exaggerated. It identifies eight incidents in the years 1918–1919 out of 37 claims for damages, and estimated the number of victims at 280. [Wikipedia]

Many other events in Poland are found to have been exaggerated, especially by contemporary newspapers such as although serious abuses against the Jews, including pogroms, continue elsewhere, especially in Ukraine. Atrocities committed by the young Polish army and its allies in 1919 during their Kiev operation against the Bolsheviks has a profound impact on the foreign perception of the re-emerging Polish state. The result of the concerns over the fate of Poland's Jews is a series of explicit clauses in the Versailles Treaty signed by the Western powers, and President Paderewski, protecting the rights of minorities in new Poland including Germans. [Wikipedia]

November 1918
The American Jewish Congress (AJCongress) is founded in the US. It later protests
The Nazi regime in Europe. Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise, Felix Frankfurter, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, and others join to lay the groundwork for a national democratic organization of Jewish leaders from all over the country, to rally for equal rights for all Americans regardless of race, religion, or national ancestry. [Wikipedia]

November 1, 1918
Polish-Ukrainian War Begins. It is a conflict between the Second Polish Republic and Ukrainian forces (both the West Ukrainian People's Republic and Ukrainian People's Republic).

November 11, 1918
Polish Independence Day. (Polish: Narodowe Święto Niepodległości). It commemorates the restoration of Poland's sovereignty as the Second Polish Republic in 1918 from the German, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian Empires. Marshall Józef Piłsudski becomes “head of the state”.

November 21-23, 1918
The Lwów pogrom of 1918 an attack on the Jewish population of Lwów takes place during the Polish–Ukrainian War. After the pogrom is over, an estimated 52–150 Jewish residents are killed, and hundreds are injured.

1918-1939
The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, is an independent republic, that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established in 1918, after of the end of World War I. It ceased to exist in 1939, when Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and the Slovak Republic, marking the beginning of the World War II in Europe. [Wikipedia]

December 27, 1918
The Greater Poland uprising of 1918–1919, or Wielkopolska uprising of 1918–1919 or Posnanian War begins. It is a military insurrection of Poles in the Greater Poland region (German: Grand Duchy of Posen or Provinz Posen) against German rule.

1919
The Kyiv (Ukraine) pogroms of 1919 a series of anti-Jewish pogroms in various places around Kyiv carried out by White Volunteer Army troops.

There are a total of 1,326 pogroms across Ukraine around that time, in which between 30,000 and 70,000 Jews are massacred. Thousands of women are raped. Hundreds of shtetlekh (small Towns) are pillaged, and Jewish neighborhoods are destroyed. The pogroms of 1918-1921, leave half a million Jews homeless.

January 5, 1919
The German Workers’ Party (DAP) is founded. It is a small, right-wing political group based on German ultra-nationalism. Hitler joins the party on September 12.

January 23-30, 1919
The Poland–Czechoslovakia War, also known in Czech as the Seven-day war is fought. It is a military dispute between Czechoslovakia and Poland over the territory of Cieszyn Silesia.

January 18, 1919
Opening of the Paris Peace Conference to negotiate peace treaties between the belligerents of World War I. Dominated by Britain, France, the United States, and Italy, it resulted in five treaties that rearranged the map of Europe and parts of Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands and imposed financial penalties. Germany and the other defeated nations had no say.

January 26, 1919
Parliamentary elections are held in Poland, electing the first Sejm of the Second Polish Republic. The elections, based on universal suffrage and proportional representation, was the first free election in Poland’s history. It produces a parliament balanced between the right, left and center. The elections are boycotted by the Polish communists and the Jewish Bund. [Wikipedia]

February 14, 1919
The Polish–Soviet War (late autumn 1918 – 18 March 1921) begins. It is fought between the Second Polish Republic and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic after World War I.

Feb 20, 1919
Small Constitution is adopted in Poland. It is the first constitution of the Second Polish Republic. It was formally called the "Legislative Sejm's ordinance of 20 February 1919. Józef Piłsudski is “Chief of State"

March 2, 1919
Foundation of the Third International, or Comintern in Moscow. Comintern's stated aim is to create a global Soviet republic.

May 7, 1919
The Treaty of Versailles is presented to the German delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. Most Germans disapprove of the reparation’s payments and the forced acceptance of German war guilt entailed in Article 231.

June 28, 1919
Signing of the Treaty of Versailles. Under the provisions of the Little Treaty of Versailles or the Polish Minority Treaty, Poland is declared a sovereign state and gains access to the Baltic Sea.

September 10, 1919
German Austria signs the Treaty of Saint-Germain. The peace treaty with the Allies regulates the borders of Austria, forbids union with Germany and German Austria has to change its name to Austria. The United States did not ratify the treaty and later makes a separate peace treaty with Austria. [Wikipedia]

September 16, 1919
Adolf Hitler, after joining the German Workers' Party, makes his first endorsement of racial anti-Semitism.

November 1919
Between November 1919 and June 1924, 1,200,000 people leave the territory of the USSR for new Poland. It is estimated that some 460,000 refugees speak Polish as their first language. [Wikipedia]

November 1, 1919
The Polish–Ukrainian War begins. It lasts from November 1918 to July 1919. It was a conflict between the Second Polish Republic and Ukrainian forces (both the West Ukrainian People's Republic and Ukrainian People's Republic).

November 18, 1919
Paul von Hindenburg gives testimony to the Weimar National Assembly blaming the loss of World War I on "the secret intentional mutilation of the fleet and the army" and made misleading claims that a British general admitted that the German Army was "stabbed in the back", giving rise to the popular stab-in-the-back conspiracy theory. He is elected President of Germany in the 1925 presidential election. [Wikipedia]

1920
League of Nations is founded.

February 24, 1920
The German Workers’ Party becomes the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP). It is known as the Nazi Party.

The Nazi Party platform is written. It expresses ultra-right views on German nationalism and antisemitism. It proposes to exclude Jews from German life by revoking their citizenship.

April 21, 1920
Treaty of Warsaw, also known as the Polish-Ukrainian Alliance, is signed during the Polish-Soviet War.

1921
Adoption of the modern Polish constitution known as the March Constitution.
According to the Polish national census of 1921, there are 2,845,364 Jews living in the Second Polish Republic. 74.2% of Polish Jews list Yiddish or Hebrew as their native language; the number rises to 87% by 1931, contributing to growing tensions between Jews and Poles. Jews are often not identified as Polish nationals, a problem caused not only by the reversal of assimilation shown in national censuses between 1921 and 1931, but also by the influx of Russian Jews escaping persecution—especially in Ukraine, where up to 2,000 pogroms took place during the Civil War, an estimated 30,000 Jews were massacred directly, and a total of 150,000 died. A large number of Russian Jews emigrated to Poland, as they were entitled by the Peace treaty of Riga to choose the country, they preferred Several hundred thousand refugees joined the already numerous Jewish minority of the Polish Second Republic. [Wikipedia]

The Nazi Party creates the Sturmabteilung (SA) under the Division for Propaganda.

April 21, 1920
Signing of Treaty of Warsaw. It is a military-economical alliance between the Second Polish Republic, by Józef Piłsudski, and the Ukrainian People's Republic, by Symon Petliura, against Bolshevik Russia.

September 1, 1920
Polish–Lithuanian War continues over the Vilnius and Suwałki Regions

February 19, 1921
The Franco-Polish alliance is signed It is the military alliance between Poland and France that was active between the early 1920s and the outbreak of the Second World War. The initial agreements were signed in February 1921 and formally takes effect in 1923.

March 17, 1921
The Second Polish Republic adopts the March Constitution, after ousting the occupation of the German/Prussian forces in the 1918 Greater Poland Uprising and avoiding conquest by the Soviets in the 1920 Polish-Soviet War. The Constitution, based on the Constitution of the Third French Republic, was regarded as very democratic. Among others, it expressly ruled out discrimination on racial or religious grounds. It also abolished all royal titles It is superseded by the Polish Constitution of 1935 (April Constitution). [Wikipedia]

March 18, 1921
The Peace of Riga, also known as the Treaty of Riga, is signed in Riga between Poland, Soviet Russia (acting also on behalf of Soviet Belarus) and Soviet Ukraine. The treaty ended the Polish–Soviet War. The Soviet-Polish borders established by the treaty remained in force until World War II. [Wikipedia]

November 1921
Hitler becomes head of the National Socialist German Workers’ party (Nazi).

The Munich Post opposes Hitler and the Nazi Party in numerous articles and editorials. The articles accuse Hitler of being a political criminal. They characterize the Nazi Party as gangsters. These articles appear until Hitler comes to power in 1933. Often intimidated and threatened, these editors and journalists continue their crusade against Hitler. They are Martin Gruber, Edmund Goldschagg, Erhard Aurer and Julius Zerfass.

1922
Josef Stalin becomes Secretary General of the Communist Party in Russia.

February 6, 1922
The Washington Naval Conference ends and results with the signing of the Washington Naval Treaty by the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, France, and Italy. The signing parties agree to limit the size of their naval forces.

Cardinal Achille Ratti of Milan is elected Pope, takes the name Pius XI. He serves until his death in 1939.

April 16, 1922
Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Treaty of Rapallo. It re-establishes diplomatic relations, renounces financial claims on each other and pledge future cooperation.

October 29-31, 1922
Italian Fascist party, under Benito Mussolini, takes control of the Italian government.

November 5-12, 1922
Legislative election in Poland Gabriel Narutowicz becomes President of Poland on December 9.

December 16, 1922
President of Poland Gabriel Narutowicz is assassinated and Stanisław Wojciechowski becomes President on December 22.

1922-1923
High inflation devalues the German Mark, devastating the German economy. The Weimar government is blamed.

January 11, 1923
France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr in an effort to force Germany to speed up its war reparations payments.

March 1923
The Schutzstaffel (SS) is formed as a part of the Nazi Party. Originally it was designed to be Hitler’s bodyguards. It will become the organization responsible for carrying out the murder of millions of Jews and others during World War II.

April 20, 1923
The first issue of Der Stürmer, a highly anti-Semitic newspaper published by Nazi party editor Julius Streicher, is released.

June 1923
The great inflation of 1923, the value of the German mark is ruined.

August 2, 1923
President of the United States Warren G. Harding dies in office and is succeeded by his Vice President, Calvin Coolidge.

November 9, 1923
In the so-called beer hall putsch, Adolf Hitler and the Nazis fail in their attempt to overthrow the Bavarian government in Munich. Hitler is arrested, convicted, and imprisoned. He serves only nine months of a five-year sentence.

1924
US Congress passes Immigration Restriction Act. It severely limits immigration for Asians and Eastern Europeans.

January 21, 1924
Leader of the Soviet Union Vladimir Lenin dies, and Joseph Stalin begins purging rivals to clear the way for his complete dictatorship.

February 1, 1924
The United Kingdom extends diplomatic recognition to the Soviet Union (USSR).

April 1, 1924
For his participation in the Beer Hall Putsch Adolf Hitler is sentenced to 5 years in Landsberg prison (he serves only 8 months).

April 6, 1924
Fascist Party in Italy win elections with a 2/3 majority.

August 16, 1924
Allied occupation of the German Ruhr ends and establishes a staggered payment plan for Germany's payment of war reparations.

August 18, 1924
France begins withdrawing its forces from the Ruhr in Germany.

1925
Hitler writes and publishes his manifesto entitled Mein Kampf (My Struggle). In it, he outlines his antisemitic views on racial purity and social Darwinism. By 1939, it will have 500 printings and more than six million books printed.

Geneva Convention of 1925 outlaws the use of poison gas in war. It also establishes rules for humane treatment of prisoners of war, sick, wounded, and dead.

May 12, 1925
Retired Field Marshal Paul Von Hindenburg is elected President of Germany.

December 1, 1925
The Locarno Treaties are signed. Negotiated in Locarno, Switzerland, in October 1925 and formally signed in London on December 1. First World War Western European Allied powers and the new states of Central and Eastern Europe seek to secure the post-war territorial settlement, in return for normalizing relations with the defeated Germany (the Weimar Republic). It also states that Germany would never go to war with the other countries. Locarno divided borders in Europe into two categories: western, which are guaranteed by the Locarno treaties, and eastern borders of Germany with Poland. [Wikipedia]

1926
Administration of Józef Piłsudski (1926–1935). Piłsudski counters Endecja's 'ethnic assimilation' with the 'state assimilation' policy: citizens are judged by their loyalty to the state, not by their nationality. The years 1926–1935 are favorably viewed by many Polish Jews, whose situation improved especially under the cabinet of Pilsudski’s appointee Kazimierz Bartel. [Wikipedia]

Hitler publishes second volume of his manifesto Mein Kampf.

April 24, 1926
The Treaty of Berlin is signed by Germany and the Soviet Union, it declares neutrality if either country is attacked within five years.

May 12-14, 1926
In a coups Marshal Józef Piłsudski, overthrows the government of Polish President Stanisław Wojciechowski and Prime Minister Wincenty Witos. A new government is installed, and Ignacy Mościcki becomes President on June 4.

September 8, 1926
Germany joins the League of Nations.

December 25, 1926
Japanese Emperor Taishō dies, and his son Hirohito becomes the Emperor of Japan.

November 12, 1927
Josef Stalin ousts Trotsky from power in the USSR and becomes the absolute dictator. The Communist government consolidates its hold on the Russian Confederation of States.

1928
Hitler writes his third book, detailing his race theory. He promotes antisemitism as a central aspect of his personal and political career. The book is not published until 1961.

March 4-11, 1928
In Poland Józef Piłsudski's Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government, a coalition of the Sanation faction, is elected. It is considered the last free election in Poland until 1989.

August 2, 1928
Italy and Ethiopia sign the Italo-Ethiopian Treaty, pledging cooperation and friendship.

August 27, 1928
In Paris the major powers of the world sign the Kellogg-Briand Pact or Pact of Paris, the treaty sought to outlaw aggressive warfare. It was the basis for trial and execution of Nazi leaders at Nuremberg in 1946.

October 1, 1928
The Soviet Union launches its first five-year plan, an economic effort to increase industrialization.

November 6, 1928
Herbert Hoover is elected the 1928 US president defeating Democratic Governor of New York Al Smith.

1929
British diplomat Frank Foley is stationed in Berlin. After 1933, he issues thousands of destination visas to England for German Jews. He is responsible for saving more than 10,000 Jewish refugees.

Germany signs Geneva Convention of 1925.

January 20, 1929
Heinrich Himmler is appointed head of the SS (Reichsführer SS).

February 11, 1929
Holy See and Italy sign the Lateran Treaty, normalizing relations between the Vatican and Italy. The Treaty is ratified on June 7 making the Vatican City a sovereign state.

August 31, 1929
The Young Plan, which sets the total World War I reparations owed by Germany at US $26,350,000,000 to be paid over a period of 58½ years, is finalized. It replaces the earlier Dawes Plan.

October 1929
New York Stock Exchange fails. Stock values dissolve overnight. This event initiates a worldwide economic depression. It will not end until 1939. The depression hits Germany extremely hard.

April 22, 1930
The United Kingdom, United States, France, Italy, and Japan sign the London Naval Treaty regulating submarine warfare and limiting naval shipbuilding. It addresses issued not covered in the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty.

June 30, 1930
France withdraws all of its troops from the Rhineland ending the occupation of the Rhineland.

September 30, 1930
The Nazi party gets 18% of the popular vote in the German Reichstag election. The Nazis becoming the second-largest party in the Reichstag.

US Immigration Law of 1917 is enforced by the Hoover administration to limit US immigration. This action is a result of the worldwide depression.

1931
According to the 1931 Polish National Census there were 3,130,581 Polish Jews measured by the declaration of religion. The Polish language, rather than Yiddish, is increasingly used by the young Warsaw Jews who do not have a problem in identifying themselves fully as Jews, Varsovians and Poles. Jews such as Bruno Schulz were entering the mainstream of Polish society, though many thought of themselves as a separate nationality within Poland. Most children were enrolled in Jewish religious schools, which limit their ability to speak Polish. As a result, according to the 1931 census, 79% of the Jews declare Yiddish as their first language, and only 12% listed Polish, with the remaining 9% being Hebrew. In contrast, the overwhelming majority of German-born Jews of this period spoke German as their first language. [Wikipedia]

The Race and Resettlement Main Office (RuSHA) is established by SS chief Himmler.

President von Hindenburg decrees a 25 percent emigration tax, the Reich Flight Tax. It is enacted to prevent the transfer of currency out of the country. The Tax later becomes a impediment to Jews attempting to emigrate out of Germany.

Pope Pius XI launches Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli on a Vatican diplomatic career as a Nuncio (Vatican diplomat). Roncalli is appointed Archbishop of Areopolis and Apostolic Visitor to Greece. Archbishop Roncalli appointed Apostolic Delegate (nuncio) to Bulgaria. He serves there until 1934.

Irgun Zvai Leumi (National Military Organization) is founded in Palestine. It founds the Af-Al-Pi rescue operation in 1937.

September 18-19, 1931
Japan invades Manchuria and installs puppet Manchukuo regime. It is called the Mukden Incident. The Japanese Military stage a false flag bombing against a Japanese-owned railroad in the Chinese region of Manchuria, blaming Chinese dissidents for the attack, an event that some claim is the official start of the Second World War.

October 30, 1931
Hitler Youth (Hitler Jugend) is established.

December 9, 1931
The Munich Post publishes a major article revealing Hitler’s and the Nazi Party’s plans to eventually remove Jews from German society and enslave them.

1932
The Soviet famine of 1932–33, also known as the Holodomor (Terror Famine) begins. It is caused in part by the collectivization of agriculture of the first five-year plan. It has been estimated that between 3.3 and 3.9 million die in Ukraine, between 2 and 3 million die in Russia, and 1.5–2 million (1.3 million of whom were ethnic Kazakhs) die in Kazakhstan. [Wikipedia]

The Faith Movement of German Christians is established by the Nazi Party. It fosters ultra-nationalism and antisemitism.

American journalist Dorothy Thompson publishes major anti-Nazi book entitled I saw Hitler!

Youth Aliyah (Youth Immigration) is founded in Germany by Recha Freier. It brings thousands of Jews from Nazi Europe to Palestine.

January 7, 1932
The Stimson Doctrine is announced by United States Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson in response to Japan invading Manchuria. It declares that the United States government will not recognize border changes that are made by force.

January 28, 1932
The Japanese military attack Shanghai, China. Fighting ends on March 6, and on May 5 a ceasefire agreement is signed, and Shanghai is declared a demilitarized zone.

February 27, 1932
Cease fire between China and Japan in Manchuria ends fighting leaving Japan in control of Manchuria.

March 1, 1932
Empire of Japan establishes the puppet state Manchukuo (1932-1945) out of occupied Manchuria in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia.

April 10, 1932
Paul von Hindenburg is reelected President of Germany. He defeats Adolf Hitler in a run-off.

June 14, 1932
German law prohibiting activities of Nazi Storm Troopers is lifted.

July 5, 1932
Oliviera Salazar elected Premier of Portugal. He establishes his leadership as a fascist dictatorship.

July 25, 1932
The Soviet–Polish Non-Aggression Pact is signed. The pact is broken by the Soviet Union on September 17, 1939, during the Soviet invasion of Poland.

July 31, 1932
The Nazis win more than 37% of the vote in a Reichstag election. Nazis became the largest political party in Germany, winning 230 of the 608 seats in the German federal election of July 1932.

August 30, 1932
Hermann Göring is elected chairman of the German Senate.

November 8, 1932
Franklin Delano Roosevelt elected President of the US by a landslide.

1933
More than 52,000 Jews leave Germany in the first year of the Nazi government. There are 37,000 German Jews traveling who remain abroad.

The French Jewish Aid Society, the Comité d’Assistance aux Réfugiés (CAR), is founded to help German Jews emigrate to safety in France.

Jewish organizations worldwide attempt to have the Assembly of the League of Nations adopt measures to protect the rights of minorities being persecuted in Germany. This effort is largely unsuccessful. Later, the League initiates the Bernheim Petition, which partially protects the rights of German minorities in Upper Silesia.

German labor unions are dissolved.

Fifty concentration camps are built throughout Germany. They include Dachau, Oranienburg, Esterwegen and Sachsenburg (Sachsenhausen). These brutal camps are designed to house enemies of Nazism, Socialists and Jews. In 1933, 25,000 people are sent to these camps.

The Faith Movement of German Christians becomes an official state-sanctioned organization.

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee involves itself in refugee issues of the League of Nations.

January 1, 1933
Japan attacks the fortified eastern end of the Great Wall of China in Rehe Province in Inner Mongolia. Fighting commences between the armies of Republic of China and Empire of Japan.

January 30, 1933
Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany by German President Paul von Hindenburg.

The Nazi party becomes the ruling party in Germany.

There is 525,000 German Jews, including those living in the Saar District. German law defines Jews by race. Under German law, there are 566,000 Jews. Jews comprise less than one percent of the German population.

Voluntary Aryanization of Jewish businesses begins. Under pressure to leave Germany, many Jews turn over their businesses to Nazi administrators or sell their businesses at a greatly reduced rate.

February 1933
Lebensraum became an ideological principle of the Nazi party and provides the justification for the German territorial expansion into Central and Eastern Europe. The Nazi Generalplan Ost policy ('Master Plan for the East') is based on its tenets.

February 2, 1933
All political demonstrations are forbidden in Germany.

February 20, 1933
Hitler gains support of many leading German businessmen and industrialists.

February 27-28, 1933
The German Reichstag [Parliament] is burned down under mysterious circumstances. As a result, a state of emergency is declared. Hitler receives emergency powers from German President Paul von Hindenburg. Nazi storm troopers arrest ten thousand opponents of the Nazi party. Many of these are executed or “disappear.”

February 28, 1933
The Reichstag Fire Decree issued by German President Paul von Hindenburg on the advice of Chancellor Adolf Hitler in immediate response to the Reichstag fire. The decree nullifies many of the key civil liberties of German citizens. The decree was used as the legal basis for the imprisonment of anyone considered to be opponents of the Nazis, and to suppress publications not considered "friendly" to the Nazi cause. [Wikipedia]

March 4, 1933
Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurated as 32nd President of the United States. Roosevelt appoints Cordell Hull as Secretary of State and Sumner Wells as Assistant Secretary of State.

March 5, 1933
Individual German states no longer have power.

Nazi party wins 288 seats in the Reichstag.

March 9, 1933
Dachau concentration camp opens near Munich, Germany. Dachau is used to imprison enemies of the Nazi party. It becomes the training camp and prototype for Nazi concentration camps under the SS. By the end of the war, there will be more than one thousand of these camps and thousands more slave labor camps established throughout the Nazi Empire.

March 9-10, 1933
Anti-Jewish riots, organized by the Nazi Party, are carried out by the SA Storm Troopers.

March 13, 1933
The Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda is created under the leadership of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.

March 21, 1933
Nazis set up special courts to prosecute anti-Nazi dissidents.

Oranienburg concentration camp is opened in Oranienburg by an SA brigade near Berlin.

March 23, 1933
Passage of the Enabling Act by the Nazi-controlled Reichstag suspends and thereby destroys all civil liberties in Germany. It establishes a completely totalitarian system with only one leader and one political party, which controls all communication.

March 24, 1933
The anti-Nazi boycott is an international boycott of German products in response to violence and harassment by members of Nazi Party against Jews following his appointment as Chancellor on January 30, 1933.

March 27, 1933
The American Jewish Congress (AJC) organizes an anti-Nazi rally in New York City. It protests the Nazi boycott of Jewish-owned businesses in Germany.

Japan announces it will leave the League of Nations in response to efforts by the League to curb Japan’s expansion in China.

March 30, 1933
The American Committee in Religious Rights and Minorities sends a delegation to Germany to investigate the actions against Jews. The committee consists of Catholic, Protestant and Jewish clergymen.

March 31, 1933
Nazi leaders Hanns Kerrl and Hans Frank issue legislation in the German states of Prussia and Bavaria dismissing Jewish judges and prosecutors and imposing quotas for lawyers.

April 1933
All Jewish welfare and social institutions in Germany are united in a single organization. It is the Zentralausschuss für Hilfe und Aufbau (ZA).

April 1, 1933
Nationwide boycott of Jewish shops and businesses in Germany. It is unsuccessful.

April 4, 1933
Jews are barred from German civil service and public employment (Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service). Soon a similar law affects lawyers, doctors, musicians, and notaries.

April 6, 1933
The Belgian Federation of Protestant Churches protests the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany.

April 7, 1933
Nazi government defines non-Aryan descent.

April 11, 1933
Economic sanctions are implemented against Jews.

The Lutheran Church in Germany actively protests recently enacted antisemitic laws.

April 13, 1933
The British House of Commons condemns Nazi policy against Jews.

April 22, 1933
The Nazi Decree Licensing Physicians from the National Health Service passed under Dr. Gerhard Wagner. It excludes Jewish doctors from medical pratice.

April 25, 1933
A law restricting Jews from schools and universities is enforced (the Law for Preventing Overcrowding in Schools and Schools of Higher Education).

April 29, 1933
The establishment of the Gestapo (Secret State Police) under Nazi party rule by Hermann Göring.

May 2, 1933
Under the leadership of Nazi Robert Ley German trade unions are banned and replaced by the German Labor Front.

May 10, 1933
Nazis begin public burning of books by Jewish authors and others opposed to Nazism. Nazi government imposes censorship of newspapers and publishing houses throughout Germany.

May 15, 1933
The establishment of the German air force (Luftwaffe) built in secret in violation of the Treaty of Versailles

May 17, 1933
The Bernheim Petition, protesting Nazi anti-Jewish legislation in German Upper Silesia, is submitted to the League of Nations headquarters in Geneva. The petition is granted June 1, 1933.

May 23, 1933
Prominent Dutch church leaders protest Nazi treatment of German Jews.

May 26, 1933
1,200 US Protestant clergymen sign a manifesto protesting Nazi treatment of German Jews.

Spring 1933
King Gustav V of Sweden and other prominent Swedes warn Hitler that continued persecution of Jews would erode sympathy for Germany.

René de Weck is appointed Plenipotentiary Minister for Switzerland in Romania, Yugoslavia, and Greece, stationed in Bucharest, Romania. From this post, de Weck is eventually instrumental in helping to save thousands of Jews.

June 21, 1933
All non-Nazi parties are officially banned in Germany.

June 26, 1933
The Nazis establish the Academy for German Law. The Academy rewrites German law to conform to Nazi ideals and policies.

June 27, 1933
A major rally in London protests Nazi persecution of Jews.

June 29, 1933
A call for a worldwide action to help German Jewry is issued and published by former British Prime Minister David Lloyd George and other prominent individuals.

July 6, 1933
The British House of Commons issues a statement of sympathy for persecuted Jews in Nazi Germany.

July 14, 1933
Nazi party becomes the only legal party in Germany. Any form of opposition becomes a criminal offense, punishable by law.

The Law Regarding Revocation of Naturalization and the Annulment of German Citizenship is enacted. This law is intended to strip Eastern European Jews residing in Germany of their citizenship and rights.

Germany enacts Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases. This law allows for involuntary sterilization of potential parents and for the euthanization of disabled and handicapped persons. The Nazis label people with disabilities as “defective” and “useless eaters.” They are declared Lebensunwertes Leben (life unworthy of life). By 1937, 200,000 persons are involuntarily sterilized.

July 20, 1933
The Vatican signs Reich Concordat with Nazi Germany, which gives Hitler’s regime legitimacy. This concordat purports to protect church rights and property; in fact, it closes Germany’s center party and withdraws the Catholic Church from German political organizations.

30,000 Londoners protest Nazi persecution of German Jews.

August 25, 1933
Ha’avarah (transfer) agreement between the German foreign office and the Jewish community in Palestine is implemented. It allows Jews who are emigrating to Palestine to transfer their assets there. In turn, the German foreign office receives goods or funds from Palestine. This agreement is facilitated by sympathetic German diplomats in the Germany foreign ministry. Eventually, more than 40,000 German Jews emigrate to Palestine under this agreement.

September 1933
Dr. Leo Baeck elected to a new Jewish organization called Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden (Representative Council of Jews in Germany). This organization is established in Berlin.

German Jews are banned from journalism and all cultural endeavors, including art, music, literature, theater, and broadcasting.

Himmler is appointed head of all police units in Germany except in Prussia.

September 22, 1933
The Reich Chamber of Culture is established, it bars Jews from the arts in Germany.

September 29, 1933
Under the Reichserbhofgesetz German Jews and Germans with any Jewish ancestry dating to 1800 are prohibited from agriculture, and their land is redistributed to ethnic Germans.

October 1933
In response to Nazi persecution of Jews and their exodus from Germany, the League of Nations establishes the High Commission for Refugees. US diplomat James Grover MacDonald is appointed its head. MacDonald will become a vigorous advocate on behalf of Jewish refugees throughout the war.

The American Jewish Joint works with the League of Nations to try to help resolve Jewish refugee issues.

October 4, 1933
Under the German Editor Law all Jews are prohibited from journalism.

October 21, 1933
Germany withdraws from the League of Nations.

October 29, 1933
Jewish organizations meet in London to prepare to work with the League of Nations High Commissioner of Refugees.

November 12, 1933
In a German general election, 92% of the electoral vote is for Nazi candidates.

November 17, 1933
The United States recognizes the USSR and resumes trade.

December 1933
The Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden, which was originally founded in 1901, becomes the Emigration Section of the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland (RVE).

1934
Aliyah Bet begins operation to bring Jews from Europe into Palestine. From 1934 to 1939, 17,240 Jews illegally immigrate to Palestine.

Angelo Roncalli appointed Apostolic Delegate (nuncio) to Turkey and Greece (1934-1944). He establishes friendly relations with the governments and Eastern Orthodox clergy.

Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara resigns from position as Deputy Consul General in Manchuria in protest of the inhumane treatment of the Chinese.

The Dutch Catholic Church prohibits Dutch Catholics from joining the Dutch Nazi party.

Dachau and other Nazi concentration camps come under the administration and control of the SS.

Worldwide boycott of German goods is established in Geneva.

January 1, 1934
All Jewish holidays are removed from the official German calendar.

January 26, 1934
Germany and Poland sign non-aggression agreement. Both countries pledge to resolve their problems by bilateral negotiations and to forgo armed conflict for a period of 10 years. The agreement effectively normalizes relations between Poland and Germany, which had been strained by border disputes arising from the territorial settlement in the Treaty of Versailles. Germany effectively recognizes Poland's borders and moved to end an economically damaging customs war between the two countries that had taken place over the previous decade. [Wikipedia]

February 17, 1934
Great Britain, France and Italy declare that Austria must remain an independent nation.

March 23, 1934
Law Regarding Expulsion from the Reich enacted. This law paves the way for deporting Eastern European Jews from Germany.

April 1934
Peoples’ Court (Volksgericht) is established in Germany. It is designed to suppress anti-Nazi activities. Under this law there is no right to trial by jury or appeal.
Heinrich Himmler, who had become the leader of the entire German police force outside of Prussia the in 1933, is appointed Reichsführer-SS. The Volksgericht is established to prosecute political dissidents.

June 30, 1934
Hitler orders SS leader Heinrich Himmler to organize the murder of the SA (Brownshirt) leadership. More than 100 of Hitler’s rivals are murdered. Among them are Ernst Röhm and former German Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher. This action becomes known as the Night of the Long Knives.

May 1, 1934
The Office of Racial Policy is established within the Nazi Party.

June 9, 1934
The Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service), SD is established as the Nazi Party's intelligence agency. Following Germany's defeat in World War II, the tribunal at the Nuremberg trials officially declared the SD a criminal organization.

July 4, 1934
The Concentration Camps Inspectorate (IKL) is established under SS officer Theodor Eicke.

July 20, 1934
The SS becomes an independent organization of the Nazi Party, directly responsible to Hitler.

July 25, 1934
Chancellor Dollfüss of Austria is assassinated by Austrian Nazis.

Hehalutz and the Revisionist Zionist Movement begin to organize illegal immigration of Jews from Central and Eastern Europe.

August 2, 1934
German President Paul von Hindenburg dies. Hitler proclaims himself Führer und Reichskanzler (Leader and Reich Chancellor). As of August 8 German armed forces must swear personal allegiance to Hitler as Führer (leader).

August 19, 1934
Ninety-eight percent of German voters approve of the merger of the offices of President and Chancellor.

September 27, 1934
Great Britain, France and Italy again reaffirm their support for an independent Austria.

October 1, 1934
In violation of the Versailles Treaty of 1919, Germany begins the buildup of its army, navy, and air force with over a half million soldiers.

December 1934
The US Attorney General issues ruling that Secretary of Labor can issue a visa if immigrants post a financial bond in advance.

SS commander Himmler becomes head of the Gestapo through his subordinate Reinhard Heydrich.

December 29, 1934
Japan rejects the Washington Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930, which impose limits on the size of its navy operating in the Pacific.

1935
Anti-Jewish sentiment in Poland had reaches its zenith in the years leading to the Second World War. Between 1935 and 1937 seventy-nine Jews were killed and 500 injured in anti-Jewish incidents. After the death of Józef Piłsudski in 1935, the Sanation government of his political followers, along with President Ignacy Mościcki, embark on a military reform and rearmament of the Polish Army in the face of the changing political climate in Europe. [Wikipedia]

Holland takes in 34,000 German Jewish refugees. 15,000 Jews become permanent residents.

62,000 Jews immigrate to Palestine.

Violent attacks against Jews in Poland cause many Jews to emigrate to Palestine.

The German military Reichswehr is renamed Wehrmacht (Army). Hitler continues to rebuild and enlarge its armies. This contrary to the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles – the foundation of the post-World War I international order.

The National Coordinating Committee (predecessor to the National Refugee Service) is founded to coordinate private rescue agencies. It is created at the instigation of the US State Department.

The antisemitic Union of Protestant Churches is created and controlled by the Nazi government to disseminate its ideas.

The SA (Sturmabteilung) is incorporated into the SS.

The Gestapo enacts regulations threatening to arrest and intern in a concentration camp any refugee who returns to Germany.

1935-1941
Carl Lutz is named Vice-Consul at Swiss General Consulate, Jaffa; he is also responsible for the German interests and the Swiss Consulate, Tel Aviv.

January 5, 1935
Archbishop Angelo Roncalli is transferred as Papal Nuncio to Ankara, Turkey.

January 7, 1935
Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval sign agreement between Italy and France.
The League of Nations approves the results of the Saar plebiscite, which allows Saarland to be incorporated into Germany.

January 13, 1935
Germany retakes Saarland from France.

March 16, 1935
Germany reinstates conscription to the German Wehrmacht in direct violation of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles.

March 17, 1935
The German Confessing Church protests persecution of Jews. It maintains its protests throughout the war. As a result, seven hundred clergymen are arrested. Some are sent to concentration camps.

April 23, 1935
The April Constitution of Poland is passed. It is a general law passed by the act of the Polish Sejm. It limits the powers of the Sejm and Senate while strengthening the authority of the President. It introduces into Second Polish Republic a presidential system with have some elements of executive authoritarianism.

May 12, 1935
Polish President Józef Pilsudski dies. Pilsudski has protected Jews against antisemitism in Poland. After his death, antisemitism spreads widely throughout Poland.

May 21, 1935
Law in Germany forbids non-Aryans from joining German armed forces.

August 31, 1935
In the United States The Neutrality Act of 1935 is passed imposing a general embargo on trading in arms and war materials with all parties at war It also declares that American citizens traveling on ships of belligerent nations do so at their own risk.

September 8, 1935
Parliamentary elections are held in Poland with Senate elections held a week later on September 15. They were held under the April Constitution, drawn up earlier in 1935 by the Sanation movement.

September 15, 1935
Anti-Jewish laws known as “Nuremberg Laws” are enacted in Germany. These include the Law Respecting Reich Citizenship and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor. Jews are no longer considered German citizens. Soon, hundreds of additional edicts are enacted.

International reaction to the Nuremberg Laws is almost universally negative.

October 3, 1935
Italian army attacks and invades Ethiopia. It is the beginning the of the Second Italo–Abyssinian War. The League of Nations denounces Italy and calls for an oil embargo.

November 14, 1935
The First Ordinance to the Reich Citizenship Law institutes a system to categorize and define degrees of Jewishness. It specifies that “a Jew cannot be a Reich citizen.”

In a General Election Stanley Baldwin replaces Ramsay MacDonald as Prime Minister of Great Britain.

December 1935
The SS Race and Settlement Main Office establishes the Lebensborn program.

December 20, 1935
The Church of England condemns Nazi persecution of Jews in Germany.

December 27, 1935
James MacDonald, High Commissioner for Refugees of the League of Nations, issues a scathing report and resigns in protest over the failure of the League to help Jews and in response to world indifference to the refugee crisis.

December 31, 1935
Jews removed from civil service positions in Germany.

1936
Italy strengthens ties with Nazi Germany. Italian fascism turns increasingly to militant anti-Semitism. Escalating Italian anti-Semitic press campaigns, talks of "Jewish and Zionist danger."

Due in part to a financial loan from France, Poland's new Central Industrial Region participates in a rearmament project in an attempt to catch-up with the advanced weapons development by Poland's neighbors. Foreign Minister Józef Beck continues to resist the growing pressure on Poland from the West to cooperate with the Soviet Union in order to contain Nazi Germany. [Wikipedia]

Council for German Jewry (CFGJ) is established in London, England. It helps more than 100,000 Jews to emigrate from Germany.

The US State Department is ordered to revoke the Hoover Executive Order of 1930 and institute a more liberal version of the “likely to become a public charge” (LPC) clause.
January 26, 1936
George V, King of the United Kingdom, dies. He is succeeded by King Edward VII.

March 7, 1936
German’s march into the Rhineland, previously demilitarized by the Versailles Treaty. The United States, Great Britain and France denounce the invasion.

March 9, 1936
Jews of Przytyk, Poland, are attacked by local citizens.

March 17, 1936
Jews and Poles protest pogroms against Jews in Poland.

April 1, 1936
The Arab High Committee is formed to unite against Jewish territorial claims in or immigration to Palestine.

April 19, 1936
Arab Revolt (1936-1939) begins in Palestine. This leads to substantial cuts in Jewish immigration by British authorities.

May 5, 1936
Ethiopia falls to Italy. Italian troops occupy the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, it is the end of the Second Italo–Abyssinian War.

June 1936
Léon Blum, a Jew, is elected Premier of France.

June 17, 1936
Heinrich Himmler, SS Chief, appointed to head all German police, and establishes the Orpo, the Sipo, and the Kripo under SS control.

The failed Spanish coup of July 1936, designed to overthrow the Spanish Second Republic by Nationalist forces signals the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.

June 30, 1936
Jews in Poland organize general strike to protest recent pogroms.

July 12, 1936
Sachsenhausen concentration camp opens.

July 16-18, 1936
The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. In Spain, right wing general Francisco Franco leads a mutiny against the Spanish Republican government. Hitler sends thousands of German troops to support Franco’s forces. The Germans use the Spanish Civil War to test new weapons and tactics, especially the Luftwaffe (air force), which perfects the technique of dive bombing. Hitler also perfects the Blitzkrieg (lightening war). Mussolini sends his Italian soldiers to fight for the Republican side. The war will last until 1939 with Franco’s victory over the legal Spanish Republican Government.

8,000 Jews go to Spain as volunteers in the International Brigade. They comprise an estimated 30% of the total volunteers who fight against the Nationalist forces.

August 1936
The World Jewish Congress (WJC) is founded in Geneva, Switzerland as an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations. It is created in reaction to the rise of Nazism and the growing wave of European anti-Semitism. The main aims of the organization were "to mobilize the Jewish people and the democratic forces against the Nazi onslaught", to "fight for equal political and economic rights everywhere, and particularly for the Jewish minorities in Central and Eastern Europe" According to its mission statement, the World Jewish Congress' main purpose is to act as "the diplomatic arm of the Jewish people."

August 1-16, 1936
The International Olympic Games are held in Berlin. Persecution of Jews is temporarily suspended by Hitler and the Nazis.

September 7, 1936
25% tax is levied on all Jewish property in Germany.

September 23, 1936
Sachsenhausen concentration camp is opened in Oranienberg, 15 miles northeast of Berlin. Initially, it imprisons opponents of the Nazi regime. More than 100,000 people will die there.

October
The Great Purge or the Great Terror, Joseph Stalin's campaign of political repression in the Soviet Union from 1936 to 1938. It involved large-scale repression of the peasantry; ethnic cleansing; purges of the Communist Party, government officials, and the Soviet Army; widespread police surveillance, and counter-revolutionaries, imprisonment, and arbitrary executions. The estimated total number of deaths due to Stalin’s repression in 1937–38 to be between 950,000 and 1.2 million. [Wikipedia]

October 1, 1936
Criminal court judges in Berlin swear a personal oath to Adolph Hitler.

The Nationalist Rebellion appoints General Franco as Chief of State in its provisional government.

October 7, 1936
Germany imposes a 25 percent tax is imposed on all Jewish assets and property.

October 25, 1936
Hitler and Mussolini form Rome-Berlin Axis. This is a formal alliance between fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.

November 3, 1936
Franklin D. Roosevelt wins reelection as president of the U.S.

November 6, 1936
The Spanish Nationalists seize Madrid and begin the Spanish Nationalist government in Valencia, Spain.

November 18, 1936
Germany and Italy formally recognize Franco’s Nationalist government in Spain. Germany sends volunteer soldiers (Condor Legion) to fight on behalf of Franco’s fascist Nationalist army.

November 25, 1936
Germany and Japan sign Anti-Cominturn Pact against the Soviet Union. This pact attempts to thwart Soviet territorial aspirations in Europe.

Germany recognizes Japan’s puppet regime in Manchuria, China.

December 27, 1936
Great Britain and France agree to non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War.

1937
In Poland anti-Jewish riots, and semi-official or unofficial quotas (Numerus clausus) are introduced in some universities, halves the number of Jews in universities between independence (1918) and the late 1930s. The restrictions are so inclusive that – while the Jews make up 20.4% of the student body in 1928 – by 1937 their share is down to only 7.5%, out of the total population of 9.75% Jews in the country according to the 1931 census. Catholic trade unions of Polish doctors and lawyers restrict their new members to Christian Poles. In January 1937 Foreign Minister Józef Beck declares that Poland could house 500,000 Jews and hopes that over the next 30 years 80,000-100,000 Jews a year would leave Poland. Beck declares in the League of Nations his support for the creation of a Jewish state and for an international conference to enable Jewish emigration. The common goals of the Polish state and of the Zionist movement, of increased Jewish population flow to Palestine, results in overt and covert cooperation. Poland helps by organizing passports and facilitating illegal immigration. [Wikipedia]

At the annual Nuremberg meeting of the Nazi Party, Hitler declares the Reich will last a thousand years.

Beginning of the Nazis' policy of seizure of Jewish property through the policy of "Aryanization". Before Hitler came to power, Jews owned 100,000 businesses in Germany. By 1938, boycotts, intimidation, forced sales, and restrictions on professions had largely forced Jews out of economic life. According to Yad Vashem, "Of the 50,000 Jewish-owned stores that existed in 1933, only 9,000 remained in 1938." Between $230 and $320 billion (in 2005 [US] dollars) was stolen from Jews across Europe, with hundreds of thousands of businesses Aryanized. [Wikipedia]

The right-wing, antisemitic Hungarian fascist party, called the Arrow Cross, is formed.

Adolph Eichmann visits Palestine to explore possible Jewish immigration from Germany.

The chief rabbi of Milan, an old friend of the Pope from when he was the cardinal of Milan, meets with Pope Pius XI. The rabbi asks the Pope to intervene on behalf of persecuted German Jews.

Paul Baerwald becomes head of the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

January 1, 1937
The Archbishop of Canterbury attacks antisemitism.

January 6, 1937
Roosevelt renews US Neutrality Act. It specifically forbids the shipment of arms for use in the Civil War in Spain.

January 20, 1937
Roosevelt is inaugurated for a second term as US President.

January 21, 1937
The Nansen Assistance Organization is established in Oslo, Norway. Its goal is to aid refugees and victims of Nazism to protect the rights of stateless people.

February 27, 1937
In Germany the Kripo (criminal police) begins the first mass roundup of political opponents of Nazi Party.

March 14, 1937
In Germany, Catholic nuns and priests are arrested, and Catholic schools, convents and monasteries are closed, due to their anti-Nazi activities.

Pope Pius XI issues a Papal encyclical, Mit Brennender Sorge [With Burning Anxiety]. Although it does not mention Hitler or Nazism, it comes out strongly against racism, extreme nationalism, and totalitarianism. The encyclical is smuggled into Germany and read on Palm Sunday in all Catholic churches.

May 28, 1937
Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Spring 1937
Dr. Feng Shan Ho posted as First Secretary to Chinese Legation in Vienna.

Jun 11, 1937
Jews are forbidden to give testimony in German courts.

July 7, 1937
Japan invades northeast China. Japan practices genocidal policies against the Chinese population. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese will be brutally murdered.

July 15, 1937
Buchenwald concentration camp opens near Weimar, Germany. Tens of thousands of prisoners will be murdered there. Ten thousand Jews will be taken to Buchenwald after Kristallnacht.

July 19, 1937
Nazis sponsor a major exhibition called “Degenerate Art” (Entartete Kunst) in Munich. It denigrates modern art and works by Jewish artists.

August 28, 1937
Japanese forces occupy Beijing [Peking] and Tianjin, China.

September 7, 1937
Hitler declares the Treaty of Versailles invalid.

A World Conference of the Society of Friends (Quakers) condemns Nazi antisemitism.

November 5, 1937
The Hossback Protokol is written. These are the minutes from the meeting where Hitler outlines his war aims against Austria and Czechoslovakia.

November 6, 1937
Italy joins German-Japanese Anti-Comminturn Pact.

November 8, 1937
Nazi-sponsored antisemitic exhibit called “The Eternal Jew” opens in Munich.

November 9, 1937
Japanese military forces capture and occupy Shanghai, China. Shanghai eventually becomes a major safe haven for 18,000 Jewish refugees from Europe.

November 25, 1937
Germany and Japan sign a military and political treaty.

December 5-13, 1937
Japanese troops conquer Nanjing [Nanking], China. 250,000 Chinese are killed by the Japanese army. It is called the Rape of Nanjing.

December 11, 1937
Italy resigns from the League of Nations.

December 11, 1937
Second Sino-Japanese War: start of the Rape of Nanking following Japanese victory in the Battle of Nanking. An estimated 40,000 to over 300,000 Chinese are murdered. Japanese military records on the killings were kept secret or destroyed shortly after the surrender of Japan in 1945. In 1946, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo estimated that over 200,000 Chinese were killed in the massacre. China's official estimate is "more than 300,000" dead.

December 14, 1937
SS chief Himmler issues a decree that the German Criminal Police (Kripo) do not have to have evidence of a specific criminal act to detain persons indefinitely.

1938
By late 1938 approximately 3,310,000 Jews live in Poland. The average rate of permanent settlement is about 30,000 per annum. At the same time, every year around 100,000 Jews are passing through Poland in unofficial emigration overseas. Between the end of the Polish–Soviet War and late 1938, the Jewish population of the Republic had grown by over 464,000. [Wikipedia]

Japanese and German aggression cause Roosevelt and the US to review its position on neutrality and isolation.

Between 1938 and 1939, 17,000 Jews illegally enter Palestine. Most of them are from Central Europe.

Between 1938 and 1941, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) helps rescue 30,000 European Jews. Most of them are brought to the port cities of Lisbon and Milan.

The National Refugee Service is created in the United States to help refugees immigrate to the United States.

The Jewish community initiates a worldwide boycott of German products and services to protest the treatment of German and Austrian Jews.

US Ambassador to Germany William E. Dodd protests the treatment of Jews and in particular the confiscation of Jewish property in Germany. Dodd sends numerous reports regarding this to the State Department. He recommends formal protests.

The Union des Sociétés Juives (USJ) is founded in France.

The Schweizerischer Israelitischer Gemeindebund (SIG; the Federation of Jewish Communities in Switzerland), headed by Saly Mayer, takes care of refugees coming from Germany and Austria. Mayer negotiates with Swiss immigration officials to liberalize immigration laws and procedures.

US Congressman Charles A. Buckley writes FDR with a plan to resettle European Jews in the territory of Alaska. His proposal is rejected.

Swiss Minister Maximilian Jaeger is sent to Budapest, Hungary.

By late 1938, more than 25% of Germany’s 525,000 Jews (150,000) have emigrated.

Between April and December 1938, 30% of Austrian Jews (50,000 individuals) escape.

In 1938, there are 57,000 Italian Jews out of a total Italian population of 45,600,000. As a result of continuing anti-Semitic policy, 5,000 Italian Jews emigrate and more than 4,000 convert to Christianity. After emigration and conversion, the Jewish population of Italy is reduced to 35,156.

Bernhard Kahn, head of the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) in Europe, retires. To European Jews, he is known as “Mr. Joint.”

January 1938
Swedish government institutes strict immigration standards.

Dachau concentration camp is expanded.

January 1, 1938
Sweden passes a law severely limiting immigration.

January 21, 1938
Romania revokes laws protecting its Jewish citizens. Some Romanian Jews lose their citizenship.

February 1938
Hitler removes key generals from the German Wehrmacht (Army). These generals opposed Hitler’s war aims.

Joachim von Ribbentrop becomes German foreign minister.

February 4, 1938
Hitler declares himself Commander of the Wehrmacht. He appoints General Wilhelm Keitel as Chief of Staff. Joachim von Ribbentrop is appointed German Foreign Minister.

February 11, 1938
Hitler invites Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg to Berchtesgaden. Hitler demands that the Austrian Nazi party be incorporated into the Austrian government. He demands that Artur von Seyss-Inquart be made Austrian Minister of the Interior. Schuschnigg understands that this ultimatum will inevitably lead to the end of Austrian independence.

February 16, 1938
Under pressure, Schuschnigg appoints Seyss-Inquart as Minister of Security. Schuschnigg declares a general amnesty for all Austrian Nazi party members, including those who were responsible for the murder of Dollfuss.

February 20, 1938
British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden resigns in protest of British Prime Minister Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement of Hitler and Nazi Germany.

February 21-22, 1938
Winston Churchill leads a vote of censure against Chamberlain and his appeasement policy.

March 9, 1938
Schuschnigg calls for a popular vote on Austrian independence. Hitler demands that the vote be postponed and demands Schuschnigg’s resignation.

March 12, 1938
German troops cross into Austria.

March 13, 1938
Anschluss (annexation of Austria). Austria becomes a province of the German Greater Reich and is renamed Austmark. Vienna loses its status as a capital and becomes a provincial administrative seat. All antisemitic decrees imposed on German Jews are immediately applied in Austria. Nearly 200,000 more Jews come under Hitler’s control.

As a result, the Roosevelt administration combines both the German and Austrian immigration quotas together.

The Israelitische Kulturgemeinde (IKG; Israeli Cultural Society) in Vienna is the main organization representing the Jewish community, both in the city and provinces. Dr. Joseph Löwenherz becomes head of the IKG.

March 14, 1938
Cheering crowds greet Hitler as he parades triumphantly through Vienna.

March 18, 1938
SS Chief Heinrich Himmler given power to operate in Austria. The offices of Vienna’s Jewish community and Zionist organizations are closed, and their leaders jailed. All Jewish organizations and congregations are forbidden. One hundred ten prominent Jewish leaders are arrested and deported to Dachau. Jews are banned from any public activity.

March 23, 1938
Nazi occupying forces in Austria withdraw legal recognition and tax-exempt status from Jewish organizations.

March 24, 1938
Nazi concentration camp Flossenbürg is opened in Flossenbürg, Bavaria, ten miles from the border of Czechoslovakia. 89,964 to 100,000 prisoners passed through Flossenbürg and its subcamps. Around 30,000 died from malnutrition, overwork, executions, or during the death marches.

April 1938
The Nazi government in Austria prepares a list of wealthy Jews in preparation for large scale confiscation of Jewish property and assets.

April 1, 1938
Borders of several western and central Voivodeships (provinces) of the Second Polish Republic are changed. This included the Voivodeships of Pomerania, Poznan, Warsaw, Lodz, Bialystok, Lublin, and Kielce. Pomerania gained most, while Bialystok lost most. [Wikipedia]

April 5, 1938
New anti-Jewish riots break out in Poland.

April 10, 1938
99.73% of Austrians vote in favor of annexation to Germany.

April 14, 1938
Rescue and relief groups meet at the White House “to undertake a preliminary consideration of the most effective manner in which private individuals and organizations within the United States can cooperate with the government in the work to be undertaken by the International Committee which will be created to facilitate the immigration of political refugees from Austria and Germany.” It becomes the Presidential Advisory Committee on Political Refugees (PACPR).

April 26, 1938
An order calling for registration of all Jewish property is enacted in Nazi Germany. This is a first step toward confiscation.

May 1938
The German Nuremberg Laws, which forcibly segregate Jews in Germany and deprive them of citizenship and the means of livelihood, are officially enforced in Austria. More than 200,000 Austrian Jews would be persecuted under these laws, according to German records.

2,000 Jewish leaders in Austria are arrested from a pre-prepared list and are sent to Dachau in four transports.

To force emigration, the families of Jews arrested and deported to concentration camps are told that proof of immediate emigration would secure their release. German Property Transfer Office actively confiscates Jewish property, businesses and bank accounts.

The methods used in Austria combining economic expropriation and expulsion of Jews become the model in future Nazi-conquered territories.

Vienna becomes the center of emigration. All foreign consulates are besieged by Jewish refugees desperate for visas. Most refuse to help.

Dr. Ho appointed Chinese Consul General in Vienna, reporting to the Chinese Embassy in Berlin. Ho issues end destination Shanghai visas to Austrian Jews who are being forced to emigrate. Visas are issued on his own authority, without permission from his government, enabling thousands of Austrian Jews to escape. Ho is ordered to desist by the Chinese Ambassador in Berlin, but ignores the order.

May 16, 1938
PACPR meets at the State Department and appoints James G. McDonald as Chairman and Samuel Cavert as its Secretary.

May 29, 1938
Anti-Jewish laws are enacted in Hungary.

June 9, 1938
The “June Action” (Juniaktion). Hitler orders the destruction of the Great Synagogue of Munich, followed by the destruction of the Nuremberg and Dortmund synagogues on June 15.

June 13-18, 193’
In Germany the first mass arrests of Jews begin through Aktion Arbeitsscheu Reich. "Reich compulsory labor prisoners". They are deported to concentration camps.

June 15, 1938
Fifteen hundred Jews are arrested and taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany.

June 22, 1938
Pope Pius XI orders the drafting of an important encyclical letter denouncing racism and anti-Semitism, entitled Humani Generis Unitas [The Unity of the Human Race]. It denounces racism and specifically mentions the persecution of Jews. It is more than 100 pages long. Due to the death of Pius XI, it is never published.

July 14, 1938
Major anti-Semitic “Manifesto of Race”, publication in Italy declares the existence of a "pure Italian race of Aryan stock," in which Jews had never belonged. It soon leads to stripping the Jews of Italian citizenship and governmental and professional positions.

July 6-15, 1938
Representatives from 34 countries meet at Evian, France, to discuss refugee policies. All of the countries refuse to help or let in more Jewish refugees. Australia’s response to accepting Jewish refugees states: “As we have no real racial problem, we are not desirous of importing one.” The lack of support for Jewish refugees signals to Hitler that the world is unconcerned with Jewish refugees.

The US State Department declares, “No country would be expected to make any changes in its immigration legislation.”

As an outcome of the Evian Conference, an Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees is established to help refugees. It is headed by Lord Winterton and George Rublee. It is, however, highly ineffectual and fails to help Jews who are leaving Germany to take their assets with them.

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee attends the Evian Conference and is disappointed with the outcome.

Dr. Heinrich Neumann, a Viennese Jew, is released from a concentration camp and sent to the Evian Conference with a secret proposal by the Nazis. The proposal states that the Nazis will allow Jews to leave Austria and Germany for $250 each or $1,000 per family. The delegates were indifferent to this proposal.

Ira Hirschmann, an American Jew acting as a private citizen, attends the Evian conference and witnesses its futility. He travels to Vienna and underwrites many dozens of affidavits for Jewish refugees. After returning to the United States, he becomes Chairman of the Board of the University in Exile.

Dr. Heinrich Rothmund, former Chief of the Swiss Federal Police, objects to Jewish refugees coming to Switzerland: “Switzerland, which has as little use for these Jews as has Germany, will herself take measures to protect Switzerland from being swamped by the Jews with the connivance of the Viennese police.”

August 8, 1938
The first concentration camp in Austria, Mauthausen-Gusen, opens near Linz. Between 1938 and 1945, 200,000 persons will be imprisoned there and more than 120,000 will be murdered.

August 13, 1938
On his own authority, Kauko Supanen, Vice Consul for Finland in Vienna, Austria, grants provisional visas to Jewish applicants. Fifty Jews bearing his visa arrive in Helsinki on this day. Soon, the Finnish Foreign Ministry rebukes the Consul and orders him not to issue visas to Jews.

August 17, 1938
A Nazi decree forces Jews who do not have names that are recognized as Jewish to add the names “Israel” for males and “Sarah” for females as middle names.

August 20, 1938
Reichszentrale für Jüdische Auswanderung [Central Office of Jewish Emigration] is established by SS officer Adolph Eichmann in Austria. This office is to force Jews to emigrate by expropriating their assets and removing all of their civil rights. This model system is soon adopted in Germany and Czechoslovakia.

August - December 1938
Police captain Paul Grüninger, in the Swiss town of St. Gallen, allows 3,600 Austrian Jewish refugees entry into Switzerland, against the policy of the Swiss government. Many of these refugees had Chinese visas issued by Ho and other diplomats.

Swiss diplomat Ernst Prodolliet, stationed in Bregenz, Austria, works with Grüninger. On his own authority, Prodolliet issues visas and accompanies Jews to the Swiss border.

September 1938
First anti-Semitic laws are passed in Italy. Forbids Jews from teaching in colleges. Orders the deportation of all Jewish aliens residing in Italy who had immigrated after 1919. A department for demography and race is established in the Italian government. This agency establishes a racial policy against Jews in government and civil life.

Concentration camp Neuengamme is established near Hamburg, Germany. More than 10,000 prisoners are sent there. 50,000 will perish.

Berlin Putsch fails. This is a plan by the German general staff to arrest Hitler and have him committed to a mental institution.

September 1-3, 1938
The Italian government enacts a law that foreign Jews can no longer reside in Italy. Jews who have been naturalized after January 1, 1919, lose their citizenship and are treated as foreigners.

September 7, 1938
Pope Pius XI condemns Catholic participation in anti-Semitic activities. He declares, “Christians are the spiritual descendants of the patriarch Abraham; we are all spiritual Semites.”

September 15 and September 22, 1938
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain meets with Hitler in Germany to discuss the Sudetenland crisis. Hitler demands Czechoslovakia return Sudeten territories to Germany. Hitler states that this will be his last territorial demand in Europe. Chamberlain has agreed to Hitler’s demands to annex the Sudetenland. Chamberlain signs Friendship Treaty with Germany. Chamberlain returns to England bearing an agreement he signed with Hitler and states that there would be “peace in our time.”

September 26, 1938
France partially mobilizes its army in the wake of the Sudeten Czechoslovakia crisis.

September 27, 1938
The League of Nations declares Japan the aggressor in China.

The Nazi German government completely prohibits Jews from practicing law.

U.S. President Roosevelt sends a letter to Adolf Hitler seeking peace.

September 29-30, 1938
The Munich Conference is held. It is attended by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, French President Daladier, Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini, and Hitler. Great Britain, France and Italy agree to allow the Nazis to annex the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia despite the existence of the 1924 alliance agreement and 1925 military pact between France and the Czechoslovak Republic. Czechoslovakia is not allowed to participate in the conference. It is also known as the Munich Betrayal. Most of Europe celebrates the Munich agreement, which is presented as a way to prevent a major war. Hitler announces it is his last territorial claim in Europe.

Poland seeks great power status but is not invited to participate in the Munich conference. Minister Beck, disappointed with the lack of recognition, issues an ultimatum on the day of the Munich Agreement to the government of Czechoslovakia, demanding an immediate return to Poland of the contested Zaolzie border region. The Czechoslovak government complies, and Polish military units take over the area. The move is negatively received in both the West and the Soviet Union, and it contributes to the worsening of the geopolitical situation of Poland. [Wikipedia]

The General Assembly of the League of Nations merges the Nansen Office for Refugees with the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees.

September 30, 1938
The Nazi German government completely prohibits Jewish doctors from practicing medicine.

October 1938
The Polish Consul in Lipsk, Germany, whose name is Feliks Chiczewski, prevents Polish Jews from being expelled from Germany by allowing them to seek refuge in the Polish consulate building and garden.

The Nazis expel 18,000 Jews of Polish ancestry living in Germany. Five thousand of these are sent to a Polish border village named Zbaszyn. The Jewish Joint helps these refugees.

October 2, 1938
In response to its censure, Japan withdraws from the League of Nations.

October 4, 1938
On the eve of the Jewish High Holiday, a pogrom is enacted against the Viennese Jewish community. Many Jews are thrown out of their apartments and homes.

October 5, 1938
Following request by Swiss and Swedish authorities, Germans mark all Jewish passports with a large letter “J” to restrict Jews from crossing the border into Switzerland.

October 6, 1938
The Czech Sudetenland is annexed and occupied by the German Army. Soon, 200,000 Czechs are expelled or flee the territory. Czech President Eduard Benes resigns as a result of the annexation.

Italy’s Grand Fascist Council passes antisemitic laws. Jews are to be excluded from public professions.

Polish Ministry of the Interior issues edict requiring Polish citizens to have their passports revalidated by October 29, 1938, or they cannot return to Poland. This affects many Polish Jewish refugees.

October 7, 1938
Supreme Council of the Italian Fascist Party establishes policy and principles for anti-Semitic legislation.

October 28-29, 1938
61,000 Polish Jews are expelled from Germany to the Polish town of Zbasyn, on the German border.

October 29, 1938
Nazis make a list of Jews who did not comply with the regulation to have their passports marked with a “J.”

November 1938
Pio Perucchi and Candido Porta, Swiss Consular Officers in Milan, Italy, issue more than 1,600 illegal and unauthorized visas to Jews who had fled Austria to Italy after the Anschluss. Many refugees enter Switzerland. Perucchi and Porta are demoted and transferred for their illegal and unauthorized activities.

William Pearl begins an illegal operation to transport Jews out of Germany and Austria. It is called Aliah AF-AL-PI.

Chinese Consul in Milan, Italy, issues visas for Jews to leave Italy for China.

November 2, 1938
The First Vienna Award. It separates largely Hungarian inhabited territories in southern Slovakia and southern Subcarpathian Rus' from Czechoslovakia while Poland annexes territories from Czechoslovakia in the North.

November 7, 1938
Jewish Polish German, communist, Herschel Grynszpan murders moderate German consular aide Ernst vom Rath in Paris. It provides a pretext for the Kristallnacht pogrom against Jews.

November 9-10, 1938
Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass): anti-Jewish pogrom in Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland. Thousands of Jews are beaten, hundreds killed; 200 synagogues set fire and destroyed; 7,500 Jewish shops looted; 171 Jewish homes destroyed; 30,000 German, Austrian and Sudeten Jews sent to concentration camps (Dachau, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen), 15,000 from Austria. 680 men and women commit suicide in Austria.

80,000 Jews are allowed to emigrate to England. The Central British Fund, a relief agency, is very helpful.

The US consuls in Berlin send an extensive report about the Kristallnacht pogrom. They recommend diplomatic action be taken against Germany.

President Roosevelt temporarily withdraws the US Ambassador from Germany.

Eventually, many Jews are released from the Dachau, Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen concentration camps with proof of emigration, diplomatic exit visas and promises to leave Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. Many diplomats work to help Jews gain release from the German and Austrian camps. Among the more notable diplomats are: Alexander Kirk and Raymond Geist of the US consulate in Berlin; Gilberto Bosques of the Mexican legation in Vichy; Dr. Feng Shan Ho of the Chinese consulate in Vienna; Frank Foley of the British legation in Berlin; and R.T. Smallbones of the British consulate in Frankfurt.

The American Friends’ Service Committee (AFSC), founded by the Society of Friends, or Quakers, establishes a refugee division in New York City. Its purpose is to help German and Austrian Jewish refugees. The AFSC works closely with the Jewish relief agencies, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), the Hebrew Immigration Aid and Sheltering Society (HIAS). It will also work with the Oeuvre de Secours Aux Enfants (children’s rescue mission) in the rescue of Jews and Jewish children in Paris, Marseilles, Lisbon and Madrid.

November 11, 1938
The Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden (Representative Council of Jews in Germany) is closed down by the SS.

Werner Otto von Hentig, head of the Oriental Department of the German Foreign Ministry, tries to intervene on behalf of the Jewish community to prevent further actions against Jews. He intercedes with Ernst von Weizsäcker, Undersecretary of State of the German Foreign Ministry. Hentig obtains the release of Jews from concentration camps. Von Hentig submits a report to Hitler and the German Foreign Ministry advocating the creation of a Jewish state.

November 12, 1938
Jews are banned from buying and selling goods under Decree on the Elimination of the Jews from Economic Life. The decree forces all Austrian and German Jews to transfer retail businesses to the government or to Aryan ownership.

German Jews are fined one billion Reichsmarks ($400 million) for damages inflicted on them during Kristallnacht.

November 14, 1938
Assistant Secretary of State George Messersmith suggests to Secretary of State Hull that the US recall Hugh Wilson, Ambassador to Germany, as a response to “this wholesale inhumanity.”

November 15, 1938
Roosevelt orders labor department to extend visitors’ visas to the US by six months.

Jewish students are expelled from all German public schools.

November 17, 1938
The British ambassador to the United States in Washington meets with the Undersecretary of State, Sumner Wells, and offers to allow 32,500 German Jews to come to Great Britain. Wells refuses the offer.

Anti-Semitic legislation in Italy is implemented. It forbids Jewish/non-Jewish marriages, excludes Jews from serving in the armed forces, government or municipal services. Jews are defined as having one Jewish parent. Other restrictions include not allowing Jews to own radios, visit resort areas or publish newspapers. Jewish businessmen are forbidden to have Aryan business partners.

November 18, 1938
In response to the Kristallnacht persecution of Jews, Roosevelt recalls the US Ambassador to Germany, High Wilson, back to Washington “for consultation.”

President Roosevelt announces visitors’ visas for approximately 15,000 refugees will be extended. This is in response to the Kristallnacht pogroms.

November 21, 1938
British House of Commons strongly objects to the persecution of Jews in Germany.

December 1938
The Mossad for Aliyah Bet [Committee for Illegal Immigration] is established to smuggle Jews out of Europe and illegally into Palestine. This organization was made up of Palestinian Jews. They are successful in helping tens of thousands of Jews escape the Holocaust.

Mossad agents Moshe Auerbach, in Vienna, and Pino Ginsberg, in Berlin, organize the escape of thousands of Jews. Moshe Auerbach gets 20,000 transit visas from an engineer named Karthaus to allow Jews to escape through Yugoslavia. Karthaus also obtains Mexican visas from Consul General Gilberto Bosques. Ginsberg is able to save hundreds of Jewish boys and girls from concentration camps with a certificate, signed by him, stating that they would leave Germany.

Every German, Austrian and Czech Jew must carry an identification card.

The Australian government announces it will admit 15,000 Jewish refugees to the country during the next three years.

American consul general in Berlin, Raymond Hermann Geist, warns the Assistant Secretary of State that the US should take measures to rescue Jews who will be condemned to death by the Nazis.

The United States Committee for the Care of European Children (USC), led by Clarence Pickett, of the American Friends’ Service Committee (Quakers), organizes a drive to save the Jewish children in Europe.

December 6, 1938
France and Germany sign nonaggression pact.

In a special conference, Japanese ministers decide Jews residing in Japanese controlled territories would not be discriminated against or molested; they could freely emigrate to these territories if they wished. This decision officially protects Jews in the Japanese occupied zone in Shanghai.

December 16, 1938
US Commissioner of the Philippines Paul V. McNutt submits proposal to FDR to resettle between 2,000 and 5,000 European refugees in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.

December 24, 1938
American Catholic and Protestant leaders sign a Christmas Resolution expressing “horror and shame” regarding the Kristallnacht persecutions of Jews.

Late 1938
US Vice Consul Stephen B. Vaughan stationed in Breslau, Germany, issues more than 700 visas to German Jews who escape to the Philippines for the duration of the war. Philippine President Emanuel Quezon agrees to grant Jews asylum in the Philippine commonwealth.

Pio Perucchi and Candido Porta, Swiss Consular Officers in Milan, Italy, issue more than 1,600 illegal and unauthorized visas to Jews who had fled Austria to Italy after the Anschluss. Some of these Jewish refugees had left Austria with a Chinese visa. The refugees then enter Switzerland. Perucchi and Porta are demoted and transferred for their illegal and unauthorized activities.

Chinese Consul in Milan, Italy, issues visas for Jews to leave Italy for China.

18,000 German, Austrian and Polish Jews flood into Japanese-occupied Shanghai, China. Paul Komor, a former Hungarian Jew, forms relief agency, the International Committee for Granting Relief to European Refugees (IC); helps immigrants with food, housing, clothing, and funds. He issues passports that allow many Shanghai refugees to escape China.

Polish Consul General Alexander Lados and Polish diplomat Dr. Julius Kuhl, stationed in Bern, Switzerland, issue Polish visas to Jewish refugees in Austria persecuted after the Nazi Anschluss.

Updated October 10, 2021