Germany expels Polish Jews in the Polenaktion

The Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring created hereditary health courts that ordered forced sterilization. This coercive eugenic program targeted disabled people and others...

The Reich Citizenship Law and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor defined Jews by ancestry, stripped them of full political citizenship, and criminalized relationships...

German forces entered Austria and the Nazi government annexed it. Austrian Jews were immediately exposed to a wave of public humiliation, dispossession, and coercive emigration; expansion carried Nazi...

Delegates from 32 countries met at Évian-les-Bains to discuss refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. Most governments kept restrictive immigration rules, leaving Jews with few safe destinations;...

A German decree required passports issued to Jews to be marked with a red letter J, following pressure from other states seeking to identify Jewish refugees. The measure shows how Nazi persecution...

After a Nazi-organized pogrom began on the night of November 9–10, synagogues were burned, Jewish businesses and homes destroyed, and Jewish people assaulted and killed. Police and fire services...

The German government imposed a one-billion-Reichsmark fine on German Jews and ordered the “Aryanization” of Jewish businesses. Perpetrators turned mob violence into state-enforced economic...

The Nazi government barred Jewish children from public schools, completing an accelerating process of isolation. Families faced decisions about emigration and children’s safety while other governments...

The first group of children evacuated from Nazi-controlled territory arrived in Britain, beginning a rescue effort that brought nearly 10,000 mostly Jewish children to safety before the war. The...

In a Reichstag speech, Hitler threatened the “annihilation” of Jews in Europe if war came, using antisemitic conspiracy claims to frame Jews as a collective enemy. The speech is evidence of...