NOVA Online | Holocaust on Trial | Timeline of Nazi Abuses: 1933

Adolf Hitler, seated center right, celebrates with members of his cabinet on January 30, 1933, the day he was appointed Prime Minister of Germany.

1933

January 30
President Paul von Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler Reichs Chancellor (Prime Minister).

February
Published since 1923 by Julius Streicher in Nuremberg as a local organ of the Nazi party, the weekly publication Der Stürmer, devoted primarily to anti-Semitic propaganda and promoting hatred against the Jews, becomes one of the official organs of the party in power. The motto of the paper is "The Jews are our misfortune."

February 27
Nazis burn Reichstag (Parliament) building to create crisis atmosphere. President Hindenburg grants Hitler emergency powers that limit civil rights.

March 5
During the last free election in pre-war Germany, the Nazi party wins nearly 44 percent of the popular vote, more than twice as many votes as the next closest political party, the Social Democrats, with 18 percent. In a coalition with another right-wing party, Hitler takes full control of Germany.

March 9
Members of the SA (Sturmabteilung, or "Stormtroops," originally established in 1921 by Hitler to defend Nazi meetings) and Stahlhelm (nationalist ex-servicemen's organization) instigate rioting against German Jews.

March 20
First concentration camp, Dachau, established north of Munich.

March 23
German government passes the Enabling Act, granting Hitler dictatorial powers.

During the April 1933 boycott, two SA members guard the entrance to a Jewish-owned leather-goods shop. The sign reads "No respectable German shops here!"

April 1
SA instigates boycott of all Jewish shops in Germany. Action also directed against Jewish physicians and lawyers. Jewish students forbidden to attend schools and universities.

April 7
Law for "the re-creation of civil-service professionalism" passed. Removal of many Jewish civil-service employees, including teachers and judges. Exception made for front-line veterans of World War I.

April 11
Decree issued defining a non-Aryan as "anyone descended from non-Aryan, especially Jewish, parents or grandparents. One parent or grandparent classifies the descendant as non-Aryan ... especially if one parent or grandparent was of the Jewish faith."

April 26
Formation of the Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei, or "Secret State Police"), transforming Prussian political police into an organ of the Nazi state.

May 10
Books written by Jews and opponents of Nazism burned.

July 14
Nazi party declared only party in Germany. Also, law pertaining to the revocation of naturalization and cancellation of German citizenship passed. Primarily aimed at Jews naturalized since 1918 from the formerly Eastern German territories.

September 22
Nazis establish Reich Chamber of Culture and exclude Jews from participating in the arts.

October 4
Editor Law passed: Jews prohibited from serving as newspaper editors.

October 14
Germany quits League of Nations.

October 24
Nazis pass a law against "Habitual and Dangerous Criminals" that justifies placing the homeless, beggars, unemployed, and alcoholics in concentration camps.

Continue: 1934

Photos: Courtesy of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives

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