Bernie's Journey: Timeline
This timeline has been constructed to support, contextualise and enrich your knowledge and understanding of Bernie's Journey. As you are following the journey, you may like to look at the timeline to understand what is happening in Frankfurt, Germany and other areas in Europe from 1933-1945.
Some events & dates are linked to further information - click on the event to find out more.
1933
January 30: Adolf Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany
January 1933: Many Jewish workers are fired from their jobs
March 22: Dachau concentration camp opens
April 1: Boycott of Jewish shops and businesses
April 7: 'Gleichschaltung' begins - laws that bar Jews from having jobs in the civil service, university, and governments/councils are introduced
April-May: Jewish Oberburgermeister (Mayor) of Frankfurt is removed from office and replaced with a member of the Nazi Party
April 26: Gestapo established
May 10: Public burning of books written by Jews, 'political opponents', and others not approved by the state
1934
August: Hitler declares himself the Fuhrer (Leader) and Chancellor of the Reich
1935
May 31: Jews barred from serving in the German armed forces
September 15: "Nuremberg Laws": anti-Jewish racial laws introduces; Jews are no longer considered German citizens
1936
March 3: Jewish doctors barred from practicing medicine in German institutions
June 17: Himmler is appointed as the Chief of German Police
July: Sachsenhausen concentration camp opens
1937
July: Buchenwald concentration camp opens
Autumn: Salomon & Hermann Federmann are arrested and sent to Dachau concentration camp
1938
April 26: Jews owning property in the Reich had to register it with the authorities
July: Salomon & Hermann Federmann leave Dachau concentration camp
October 5: Germans mark all Jewish passports with a letter "J" to restrict Jews from movement
November 9-10: November Pogrom (sometimes referred to as 'Kristallnacht' or 'Night of Broken Glass': anti-Jewish pogrom in Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland; 200 synagogues destroyed; 7,500 Jewish shops looted; 30,000 male Jews sent to concentration camps (Dachau, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen). In Frankfurt, the largest Orthodox and Reform synagogues were burned to the ground and most synagogues in Frankfurt were badly damaged or destroyed
November: Salomon Federmann is arrested and sent to Buchenwald concentration camp. Hermann Federmann leaves Frankfurt.
November 12: Law passed forcing all Jews to transfer shops or retail businesses to Aryan ownership
November 15: All Jewish students permanently excluded from German schools
Autumn-Winter: Thousands of Jews in Frankfurt are arrested - 2000 Jews are sent to Buchenwald. Many Jews attempt to flee the country under dangerous circumstances.
December 12: One billion Marks fine to be paid by German Jews for the destruction of property during November Pogrom
1939
Spring: Salomon Federmann leaves Buchenwald concentration camp.
Summer: An application to the Home Office for 'naturalisation' is made by S Federmann
September 1: Beginning of World War II: Germany invades Poland
September 21: Heydrich gives orders to establish ghettos in German-occupied Poland
September: Jewish cemeteries in Frankfurt are vandalised
October 12: Germany begins deportation of Austrian and Czech Jews to Poland
October 28: First Polish ghetto established in Piotrków
November 23: Jews in German-occupied Poland forced to wear an arm band or yellow star
1940
May 7: Lodz Ghetto (Litzmannstadt) sealed: 165,000 people in 1.6 square miles
May 20: Concentration camp established at Auschwitz
November 16: Warsaw Ghetto sealed, containing 500,000 people
1941
February 1: Rounding up of Polish Jews by German authorities for transfer to Warsaw Ghetto
March: Adolf Eichmann appointed head of the department for Jewish Affairs of the Reich Security Main Office
June 22: Germany invades the Soviet Union
July 31: Heydrich appointed by Göring to implement the "Final Solution"
September 1: German Jews required to wear yellow star of David with the word "Jude"
September: Hitler orders the deportation of all Jews still in the 'Greater German Reich'
September 28-29: Massacre of 34,000 Jews at Babi Yar
October: Opening of Auschwitz II (Birkenau) for the purpose of extermination of Jews; Gypsies, Poles, Russians, and others
Autumn: Deportation of Jews from Frankfurt to Lodz, Minsk and Riga ghettos
December 8: Chelmno (Kulmhof) extermination camp begins operations: 340,000 Jews, 20,000 Poles and Czechs murdered by April 1943
1942
January 20: Wannsee Conference in Berlin: Heydrich outlines plan to murder Europe's Jews
January: 2952 Jews from Frankfurt are sent to Theresienstadt (Terezin) camp
March 17: Extermination begins in Belzec; by end of 1942 600,000 Jews murdered
May: Extermination by gas begins in Sobibor extermination camp; by October 1943, 250,000 Jews murdered
June: Jewish partisan units established in the forests of Belorussia and the Baltic States
June 11: Sabine Federmann is arrested and then deported to Sobibor extermination camp
July 22: Germans establish Treblinka concentration camp
Summer: Deportation of Jews to extermination centres from Belgium, Croatia, France, the Netherlands, and Poland; armed resistance by Jews in ghettos of Kletzk, Kremenets, Lakhva, Mir, Tuchin, and Weisweiz
August 9: Bernhard Federmann arrives at Dachau concentration camp, via Gross-Rosen camp
Winter: Deportation of Jews from Germany, Greece and Norway to extermination centres: Jewish partisan movement organized in forests near Lublin
1943
March: Liquidation of ghetto in Krakow
March 3: Erna Federmann is deported from Berlin on the 33rd 'East Transport' to Auschwitz
April 19: Warsaw Ghetto revolt begins as Germans attempt to liquidate 70,000 inhabitants; Jewish underground fights Nazis until early June
May: Liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto.
June: Himmler orders the liquidation of all ghettos in Poland and the Soviet Union
Summer: Armed resistance by Jews in Bedzin, Bialystok, Czestochowa, Lvov, and Tarnów ghettos
Autumn: Liquidation of large ghettos in Minsk, Vilna (Vilnius), and Riga
October 14: Armed revolt in Sobibor extermination camp
1944
January: Last transport of Frankfurt Jews to Theresienstadt (Terezin) camp
March 22: Allied bombing of Frankfurt destroys the Old Town and large parts of Frankfurt's shipping area, The East Port
June 6: D-Day: Allied invasion at Normandy
July 24: Russians liberate Majdanek extermination camp
October 7: Revolt by inmates at Auschwitz; one crematorium blown up
November: Last transport of Jews deported from Theresienstadt (Terezin) to Auschwitz
1945
January 17: Evacuation of Auschwitz; beginning of death march
January 25: Beginning of death march for inmates of Stutthof
March: Allied forces reach Frankfurt
April 6-10: Death march of inmates of Buchenwald
April 30: Hitler commits suicide
May 8: V-E Day: Germany surrenders; end of Third Reich