One of the defining features of the Nazis’ regime was their apparatus of terror. This image shows the devastation of Kristallnacht, an antisemitic pogrom which took place in November 1938. Over the course of this pogrom alone, over 25,000 people were sent to concentration camps, over 7,500 businesses had their windows smashed, over 1,000 synagogues were destroyed and just under 100 people were murdered.
Courtesy of The Wiener Holocaust Library Collections.
The Nazis came to power in 1933, and were defeated at the end of the Second World War in 1945.
During their twelve years in power their ideology and actions shaped almost every aspect of life in Germany and the countries that they occupied.
This section will give an overview of the Nazis’ Third Reich.
On 24 February 1920, Hitler announced the new 25 point party programme for the German Worker's Party.
On 27 February 1933, the Reichstag building burned down. A Dutch communist, Van der Lubbe, was arrested for the crime.
On 28 February 1933, the day after the Reichstag Fire, President Hindenburg declared a state of emergency. This increased the Nazis power.
On 6 February 1943, Jews in Thessalonika, Greece, were forced into ghettos. One month later, 45,000 of them were deported to Auschwitz.
On 26 February 1943, the first large transport of Roma deported from Germany arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
