Poland Key Dates

Late 19th century/early 20th century

Widespread pogroms in the Russian Empire in the late 19th century prompt mass emigration of Jewish communities from eastern Europe.

1914-1918

Jews actively participated in the fight for Poland’s independence.

1917-21

Attacks on Jews continue during localised conflicts in eastern Europe. The period sees the birth of the Judeo-Bolshevik myth.

1933

30 January  

Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany.

1935

September 

Nuremberg Laws are declared

1936

4 June 

Economic boycott of the Jews becomes formal government policy in Poland.

1937

Polish universities introduce quotas for Jewish students.

1938

27 October

17,000 Polish Jews living in Germany are expelled.

9-10 November 

Kristallnacht a nation-wide anti-Jewish pogrom organised by the Nazis takes place throughout Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia.

1939

23 August

Nazi-Soviet Pact signed.

1 September

Germany invades Poland.

17 September

The Soviet Union invades eastern Poland, partitioning the country with Germany.

21 September

Reinhard Heydrich issues instructions to concentrate all Polish Jews in major cities near railway junctions.

28 October 

First Polish ghetto established in Piotrków.

23 November

Jews in German-occupied Poland are forced to wear identifying armbands or yellow stars.

1940

15 November

Warsaw Ghetto is sealed.

December

The Chełmno extermination camp begins operation. Mobile gas vans are used to murder Jews.

1941

22 June

Germany invades the Soviet Union.

August

Massacres of Jews in territories occupied by German forces, such as the massacre at Kamianets-Podilskyi, include women and children. The persecution of the Jews becomes genocidal.

3-5 September 

First experimental gassing at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

7 December 

Japan attacks Pearl Harbour.

11 December 

Germany declares war on the USA.

1942

20 January 

Wannsee Conference.

March

Auschwitz II-Birkenau begins operation.

Mass deportations to extermination camps begin.

4 May  

SS carry out the first selection at the ramp in Auschwitz II-Birkenau.

July

Operation Reinhardt, the code name for the systematic murder all Jews and Roma in the General Government in German occupied Poland begins. Between July 1942 and October 1943, 1.6-1.8 million Jews and about 50,000 Roma are murdered in the extermination camps of Bełžec, Sobibór and Treblinka, where there were no selections.

2 August

An armed revolt breaks out at the Treblinka extermination camp.

14 October

An armed revolt occurs at the Sobibór extermination camp.

1943

February

Germany surrenders at Stalingrad.

19 April 

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins.

1944

Summer 

The massive Soviet offensive prompts SS chief Heinrich Himmler to order prisoners in all concentration camps and subcamps be forcibly evacuated toward the interior of the Reich.

July

The Red Army liberates the Majdanek camp.

August

The Polish Home Army begins the Warsaw Uprising against the German occupation.

The Łódź Ghetto, the last major ghetto in Poland, is liquidated, and its remaining inhabitants are sent to Chełmno and Auschwitz

Winter 

SS authorities increasingly evacuate concentration camp prisoners from both east and west on foot.

1945
27 January

Auschwitz is liberated by the Red Army.

8 May

Germany surrenders. End of the Third Reich.

August

Pogrom in Krakow.

1946

4 July

The Kielce Pogrom prompts the exodus of a large part of the surviving Polish Jewish population.