Out of Chaos: Hidden Children Remember the Holocaust

Historical and Personal Timeline of the Holocaust

253 Historical and Personal Timeline of the Holocaust The following chronology is adapted from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Teaching About the Holocaust: A Resource Book for Educators (Washington , D.C.: Diane Publishing, 2004) and from Elliot Lefkovitz, Ph.D., with additions (shown in italics) from the lives of those whose stories appear in this anthology. 1933 January 30 German President Paul von Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler chancellor of Germany . Within a month, freedom of assembly is restricted, freedom of speech is suspended, and freedom of the press is curtailed. April 1 Hitler proclaims a boycott of Jewish businesses. Leah Molton-Motulsky Kadden’s family’s store windows are smeared with swastikas. April 7 Germans expel Jews from civil service positions. Judith Levy Straus’s father is dismissed from his position as an electrical engineer at a government agency. The family moves to Holland. 1935 September 15 The Nuremberg Laws are passed. Under these laws, Germany defines Jews on the basis of “race” instead of religion and according to the affiliation of grandparents. Jews are no longer considered citizens of Germany and are deprived of civil and political rights. Jews and non-Jews cannot marry each other or have sexual intercourse outside of marriage. Germany prohibits social intercourse between Jews and non-Jews. 1936 July The Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp is established near Berlin. October 25 Hitler and the Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini sign the Rome-Berlin Axis agreement. 254 Historical and Personal Timeline of the Holocaust More than one hundred thousand refugees begin to flee Nazi Germany to other countries. 1937 The Germans confiscate Leah Molton-Motulsky Kadden’s family business and property and transfer it to a German Christian. 1938 March 12 Germany annexes Austria in an action called the Anschluss. All German antisemitic decrees immediately apply to Austrian Jews as well. Kurt Gutfreund is born in Vienna, Austria, two months before the Anschluss. July 6–15 The Évian Conference, attended by thirty-two countries and convened by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, fails to find a way to help Jewish refugees. Only the Dominican Republic will accept them. The Nazis conclude that the world is indifferent to the plight of the Jews. August The Germans arrest Leah Molton-Motulsky Kadden’s father and deport him to Sachsenhausen. Leonie Taffel Bergman arrives in Belgium from Germany. August 1 Germany establishes the Office of Jewish Emigration to facilitate forced expulsion of Jews. August 17 Jews residing in Germany and Austria are compelled to add “Israel” and “Sarah” to their existing names on identity papers to identify them as Jewish. October 5 The Swiss government requests that all Jewish passports be marked with a large red J. Switzerland can then decide whether to admit the holders of the passports. German passports issued to Jews become invalid unless stamped with a J. October 28 Germany expels Jews with Polish citizenship living in Germany to the Polish border . Poland refuses to admit them. Historical and Personal Timeline of the Holocaust 255 November Leah Molton-Motulsky Kadden’s father arrives in Havana, Cuba. He is able to leave Germany due to Adolf Eichmann’s Office of Jewish Emigration, which enforces the expulsion of Jews. November 9–10 Kristallnacht: the first Nazi government-organized mass pogrom is launched against Jews throughout Germany and Austria. Ninety-one Jews are killed; thousands are beaten; hundreds of synagogues are burned and destroyed. The Germans arrest thirty thousand Jewish men and send most to concentration camps. Fourteen-year-old Werner Rindsberg, later called Walter Reed, and his father, Siegfried Rindsberg, are rounded up by SA brownshirts and driven to the county jail in Kitzingen , Germany. Werner is released three days later, but Siegfried is transferred to the Dachau Concentration Camp and held for about five weeks. November 12 A decree is issued forcing all Jews to transfer retail businesses to “Aryans.” November 15 All Jewish children are expelled from German schools. Germany forbids Jews to attend theaters, concerts, and exhibitions; to drive; to own jewelry; and to have financial investments. 1939 January 30 In a speech at the Reichstag, Hitler proclaims that the next war will see the “annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.” February The Wagner-Rogers Bill, which would admit twenty thousand Jewish refugee children to the United States, dies in Congress. Amos Turner celebrates his bar mitzvah in Zawiercie, Poland. May 13–June 17 The United States refuses safe...