Historical Events

On February 27, 1933, the German parliament (Reichstag) building burned down. Nazi leadership and Nationalist coalition partners exploited the fire to pass emergency legislation, paving the way for Nazi dictatorship.

Dachau was the first regular Nazi concentration camp.

Facing persecution and violence for his anti-Nazi stance and as a Jew, Albert Einstein renounced his German citizenship.

In the first nationwide, planned action against Jews, Nazis boycotted Jewish businesses and professionals throughout Germany.

University students in towns throughout Germany burned tens of thousands of “un-German” books as part of the Nazi push for state censorship and control of culture.

On July 14, 1933, Germany declared a new law that authorized forced sterilization of certain people with mental or physical disabilities or illnesses.

Roland Velz was one of several American citizens assaulted by Nazi storm troopers or German mobs in 1933.

During the 1930s, an estimated 400,000 to 1,000,000 Mexican nationals and American citizens of Mexican descent from throughout the United States were deported or “repatriated” to Mexico.

On June 30, 1934, Hitler ordered a violent purge of the top leadership of the Nazi Party paramilitary formation, the SA (Sturmabteilungen) or Storm Troopers. This event later became known as “the Röhm Affair” or the “the Night of the Long Knives.”

She was the first American journalist ousted for criticism of the Nazi regime.

At their annual party rally, Nazi leaders announced new laws that defined Jews as a “race” and stripped them of basic citizenship rights.

After months of public debate about whether the US should send a team to the "Nazi Olympics," the AAU narrowly voted against a boycott of the Games.