1933
March 22
Nazis establish the first
concentration camp in Dachau,
Germany to detain political prisoners
and later Jews and others. Between
1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany and
its collaborators established more
than 44,000 sites to detain, facilitate
forced labor, and commit mass
murder of Jews and others.
July 14
Law on the Revocation of
Naturalization and Deprivation
of German Citizenship strips
citizenship from German naturalized
citizens and German citizens
residing abroad who are considered
“undesirable,” including Jews.
1935
Holocaust
January 30
Adolf Hitler appointed
German chancellor
April
Nazis promote a nationwide
boycott of Jewish-owned
businesses. Law for
the Restoration of the
Professional Civil Service is
enacted, barring Jews from
holding government positions.
June 16
National census completed in Germany, identifying
525,000 Jews in the country—less than 0.75 percent
of the population. Nazi regime later links this census
data with a “marriage and family book” to develop a
special racial database and a registration system,
making it easier for the regime to “locate” its future
Jewish victims.
September 15
The Nazi regime enacts the Nuremberg Race Laws, which
define “Jewishness” in terms of ancestry, prohibit marriage
and sexual intercourse between Jews and Germans, and
restrict citizenship to “German or kindred blood . . . that
is both desirous and personally fit to serve loyally the
German people and the Reich.”
1938
August 17
An executive order requires all Jews in Germany to add
either “Sarah,” if a woman, or “Israel,” if a man, on all
identity documents. The regime also publishes a list of
“Jewish” names that parents must choose from when
naming their newborns.