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German infantry during the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.

The Holocaust and World War II: Key Dates

The mass murder of Europe’s Jews took place in the context of World War II. As German troops invaded and occupied more and more territory in Europe, the Soviet Union, and North Africa, the regime’s racial and antisemitic policies became more radical, moving from persecution to genocide. Explore a timeline of key events during the Holocaust and World War II. This timeline covers the period of January 1933 through May 1945. 

1933

  • January 30, 1933: President Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany.
  • March 20, 1933: SS opens the Dachau concentration camp outside of Munich.
  • April 1, 1933: Boycott of Jewish-owned shops and businesses in Germany.
  • April 7, 1933: Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service.
  • July 14, 1933: Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases.

1935

  • March 16, 1935: Germany introduces military conscription.
  • September 15, 1935: Nuremberg Race Laws.

1936

  • March 7, 1936: German troops march unopposed into the Rhineland.
  • August 1, 1936: Summer Olympics begin in Berlin.

1938

  • March 11–13, 1938: Germany incorporates Austria in the Anschluss (Union).
  • September 29, 1938: Munich Agreement. Germany, Italy, Great Britain, and France sign the Munich agreement, by which Czechoslovakia must surrender its border regions and defenses (the so-called Sudeten region) to Nazi Germany. 
  • November 9–10, 1938: Kristallnacht (violent nationwide anti-Jewish riot in Germany and its annexed territories).

1939

  • May 13, 1939: The St. Louis sails from Hamburg, Germany.
World War II: Maps
  • Axis alliance, 1939-1941
  • World War II and the Holocaust

    The Holocaust was the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, between 1933 and 1945. Jews were the primary victims - six million were murdered. Roma (Gypsies), physically and mentally disabled people and Poles were also targeted for destruction or decimation for racial, ethnic, or national reasons. Millions more, including homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war, and political dissidents also suffered grievous oppression and death under Nazi tyranny.

  • German invasion of Poland, September 1939
  • Eastern Europe after the German-Soviet Pact, 1939-1940
  • Soviet annexations in eastern Europe, 1939-1940
  • German conquests in Europe, 1939-1942

    In World War II, Germany sought to defeat its opponents in a series of short campaigns in Europe. Germany quickly overran much of Europe and was victorious for more than two years. Germany defeated and occupied Poland (attacked in September 1939), Denmark (April 1940), Norway (April 1940), Belgium (May 1940), the Netherlands (May 1940), Luxembourg (May 1940), France (May 1940), Yugoslavia (April 1941), and Greece (April 1941). Yet Germany did not defeat Great Britain, which was protected from German ground attack by the English Channel and the Royal Navy. On June 22, 1941, German forces suddenly invaded the Soviet Union. But Germany proved unable to defeat the Soviet Union, which together with Great Britain and the United States turned the tide of battle and ultimately defeated Germany in May 1945.

  • German invasion of western Europe, 1940
  • German invasion of Denmark and Norway, 1940
  • Invasion of the Balkans, April 1941
  • Invasion of the Soviet Union, 1941-1942
  • Defeat of Nazi Germany, 1942-1945

    Beginning in 1938, the Nazis increased their territorial control outside of Germany. By 1942, three years into World War II, Nazi Germany reached the peak of its expansion. At the height of its power, Germany had incorporated, seized, or occupied most of the continent. However, also in 1942, the Allied Powers started to systematically bomb Germany. They would continue to do so until Germany's surrender in 1945, weakening the war effort and demolishing cities.

    Slowly, the Allied Powers began pushing Germany back towards prewar boundaries. From 1942 to 1943, Nazi Germany suffered battle and territory losses in the Soviet Union and North Africa. With the Soviets on the offensive, German troops were pushed westward, gradually losing control of the Eastern Front. In July 1943, the Allied Powers landed in Italy, pushing German troops north. Rome was liberated in June, 1944. That same month, other Allied divisions landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, pushing German troops east. By the end of 1944, the Allies had liberated a majority of Axis territories occupied during the war. 

    In early 1945, Allied troops entered Germany. By mid-April, the Soviets had encircled the German capital of Berlin. On April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler killed himself. The German armed forces surrendered unconditionally in the west on May 7 and in the east on May 9, 1945, bringing an end to World War II in Europe. 

  • Battle of Berlin, April 1945

1940

1941

  • April 6, 1941: German forces invade Yugoslavia and Greece.
  • June 22, 1941: Germany invades the Soviet Union.
  • July 6, 1941: Einsatzgruppen (so-called mobile killing units) shoot nearly 3,000 Jews at the Seventh Fort (Fort VII), one of the 19th-century fortifications surrounding Kovno.
  • August 3, 1941: Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen of Muenster denounces the “euthanasia” killing program in a public sermon.
  • September 29–30, 1941: Einsatzgruppen shoot about 34,000 Jews at Babyn Yar, outside Kyiv (Kiev).
A large crowd of people stand in the middle of a field in various states of undress. Piles of possessions are scattered across the field. A few unformed men can be seen threatening the crowd.
Babi Yar massacre

On September 29-30, 1941, SS and German police units and their auxiliaries, under guidance of members of Einsatzgruppe  C, murdered the Jewish population of Kiev at Babi Yar, a ravine northwest of the city. 

This photograph shows groups of Jews being forced to hand over their possessions and undress before being shot in the ravine. 

  • Ernst Klee Archive

  • November 7, 1941: Einsatzgruppen round up 13,000 Jews from the Minsk ghetto and kill them in nearby Tuchinki (Tuchinka).
  • November 30, 1941: Einsatzgruppen shoot at least 11,000 Jews from the Riga ghetto in the Rumbula Forest. The massacre continues on December 8–9. In total, at least 25,000 Jews are killed. 
  • December 6, 1941: Soviet winter counteroffensive.
  • December 7, 1941: Japan bombs Pearl Harbor and the United States declares war on Japan the next day.
  • December 8, 1941: The first killing operations begin at Chełmno in occupied Poland.
  • December 11, 1941: Nazi Germany declares war on the United States.

1942

  • January 16, 1942: Germans begin the mass deportation of Jews from Łódź to the Chełmno killing center.
  • January 20, 1942: The Wannsee Conference is held near Berlin, Germany.
  • March 27, 1942: German officials begin the deportation of more than 65,000 Jews from Drancy, outside Paris, to the east (primarily to Auschwitz).
  • June 28, 1942: Germany launches a new offensive towards the city of Stalingrad.
  • July 15, 1942: Germans begin mass deportations of nearly 100,000 Jews from the occupied Netherlands to the east (primarily to Auschwitz).
  • July 22, 1942: Germans begin the mass deportation of over 300,000 Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to the Treblinka killing center.
  • September 21, 1942: Germans complete the mass deportation of about 265,000 Jews from Warsaw to Treblinka.
  • November 23, 1942: Soviet troops counterattack at Stalingrad, trapping the German Sixth Army in the city.

1943

  • April 19, 1943: The Jews of the Warsaw ghetto initiate their final act of armed resistance against the Germans. The Warsaw ghetto uprising begins.
German soldiers arrest Jews during the Warsaw ghetto uprising.
Captured Jews during the Warsaw ghetto uprising

German soldiers arrest Jews during the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Poland, May 1943.

The Warsaw ghetto uprising began on April 19, 1943, after German troops and police entered the ghetto to deport its surviving inhabitants. By May 16, 1943, the Germans had crushed the uprising, deported surviving ghetto residents, and left the ghetto area in ruins. 

  • National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD

  • July 5, 1943: Battle of Kursk.
  • October 1, 1943: Danish citizens initiate the mass rescue of Denmark's Jews.
  • November 6, 1943: Soviet troops liberate Kyiv.

1944

  • March 19, 1944: German forces occupy Hungary.
  • May 15, 1944: Germans begin the mass deportation of about 440,000 Jews from Hungary.
  • June 6, 1944: D-Day: Allied forces invade Normandy, France.
  • June 22, 1944: The Soviets launch an offensive in eastern Belorussia (Belarus).
  • July 25, 1944: Anglo-American forces break out of Normandy.
  • August 1, 1944: The Polish Home Army initiates the Warsaw uprising.
  • August 15, 1944: Allied forces land in southern France.
  • August 25, 1944: Liberation of Paris.
  • December 16, 1944: Battle of the Bulge.

1945

  • January 12, 1945: Soviet winter offensive is launched.
  • January 18, 1945: Death march of nearly 60,000 prisoners begins from the Auschwitz camp system in the southern part of German-annexed Poland.
  • January 25, 1945: Death march of nearly 50,000 prisoners begins from the Stutthof camp system in the northern part of German-annexed Poland.
  • January 27, 1945: Soviet troops liberate the Auschwitz camp complex.
  • March 7, 1945: US troops cross the Rhine River at Remagen.
  • April 16, 1945: The Soviets launch their final offensive, encircling Berlin.
  • April 29, 1945: American forces liberate the Dachau concentration camp.
  • April 30, 1945: Adolf Hitler kills himself.
  • May 7–8, 1945: Germany signs an unconditional surrender at the headquarters of US General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Commander of Allied forces in northwest Europe, at Reims on May 7. The surrender takes effect on May 8 at 11:01 p.m. Central European Time (CET).
  • May 8, 1945: Germany signs a second, very similar, document of surrender in Berlin. It also comes into effect on May 8 at 11:01 p.m. CET. In Moscow, this was already after midnight on May 9.
Last Edited: Mar 31, 2026
Author(s): United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

Critical Thinking Questions

  • Consider the choices the Allies made in response to German policies and military operations. What motivations and pressures might have influenced their actions?

  • What was the role of the German military in the Holocaust? 

  • What was the relationship between the progress of the war and the mass murder of Europe’s Jews?

  • How did the course of the war affect the possibility of rescue of the endangered Jews by the Allies and other nations?

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