Holocaust Chronology of 1934
Early 1934
Youth members are turned loose throughout Germany to intimidate members of Catholic youth groups.
January 1
The Nazis remove Jewish holidays from the official German calendar.
German laws allowing sterilization of the “unfit,” which were passed in July 1933, are promulgated.
Hitler orders the German government to undertake a building program that will produce 4000 aircraft by October 1935.
January 24
Jews are banned from the German Labor Front.
A Lutheran minister opposed to the Reich Church is beaten by Nazi thugs.
January 26
Germany and Poland sign 10-year non-Aggression Pact.
January 30
Hitler publicly insists that Germany will not be deterred from its program of rearmament.
February 1934
Germany native Anneliese Frank joins other family members in Amsterdam. Anne is three years old.
First group of Jewish refugees from Germany arrive at Kibbutz Ein Harod in Israel.
February 17
Great Britain, France, and Italy warn that Austria’s independence must be maintained.
April 1934
Germany establishes the Volksgericht (People’s Court) to deal with enemies of the state; there is no trial by jury and no right of appeal.
April 1
Heinrich Himmler appointed head of the SS.
April 7
Several thousand Americans attend a pro-Nazi rally in Queens, New York.
April 14
An extreme anti-Semitic group, Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny or the Radical Nationalist Organization (ONR), is established in Poland.
May 1
Julius Streicher’s Nazi periodical, Der Stürmer--one of Germany’s most popular periodicals and a favorite of Hitler--reminds its readers that during the Middle Ages, the Jews were accused of committing ritual murder of Christian children and of using their blood for religious ritual purposes.
The Rassenpolitisches Amt der NSDAP (Racial Policy Office of the National Socialist German Workers Party) is established by Hitler’s friend and secretary, Rudolph Hess.
May 2
Congressman Louis T. McFadden delivers an antisemitic speech on the floor of the United States House of Representatives.
May 17
German Jews are no longer entitled to health insurance.
At New York’s Madison Square Garden, thousands attend a pro-Nazi rally sponsored by the German-American Bund.
June 9
The SD (Sicherheitsdienst; Security Service), an intelligence service of the SS, is now designated the sole intelligence service for the SS and Nazi Party.
The Soviet Union, Poland, and Romania pledge to respect their common borders.
June 14-15
In Venice, Hitler and Italy’s dictator, Benito Mussolini, meet to discuss the fate of Austria.
June 30
Hundreds of actual and presumed opponents of the Hitler regime, including many high-ranking officers of the Nazi Storm Troopers (SA), are rounded up and executed in what will come to be called the “Night of the Long Knives.” Victims include Ernst Röhm, chief of the SA, and Gregor Strasser, former Reich organization leader of the Nazi Party.
Nazi persecution of homosexuals begins in earnest.
July 4
An Inspectorate of Concentration Camps is established, headed by Theodor Eicke.
July 10
The Polish antisemitic organization Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny is banned by Polish leader Marshal Jozef Pilsudski, three months after its formation.
July 25
Nazi Putsch in Austria fails but Engelbert Dollfuss, the Austrian Prime Minister, is murdered.
August 2
President Paul von Hindenburg dies. Offices of President and Chancellor combined. Hitler declares himself Führer of the German state and commander-in-chief of Germany’s Armed Forces. Members of the Armed Forces must take a personal oath of allegiance to Hitler.
August 5
One hundred Jews are killed in an antisemitic pogrom in Constantine, Algeria.
August 19
In a plebiscite on Hitler’s expanded powers, 89.9 percent of voters approve. Although an overwhelmingly Christian nation, most Germans will generally support Hitler’s actions until near the end of the war.
September 1934
In Denmark, a collaborationist SS organization, National Socialistike Ungdom (National Socialist Youth), is established.
September 4-10
A massive Nazi Party Congress is staged at Nuremberg.
September 24
The Nazis establish Verfügungstruppen (Militarized Standby Troops) as part of the SS. In wartime, the Verfügungstruppen will serve as conventional troops under the Wehrmacht.
September 27
Hoping to deter Hitler’s expansionist goals, Great Britain, France, and Italy declare support for the independence of Austria.
October 1
Hitler secretly orders expansion of the army, navy and the creation of the air force, breaking the Treaty of Versailles.
October 7
The Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany declare their political neutrality. Also affirm defiance of Nazi restrictions on the practice of their religion.
1934: Other important events
“Twenty-Five Points of the German Religion” are issued in Germany by Professor Ernst Bergmann. It holds that Christ was not a Jew but a Nordic warrior put to death by Jews, and whose death spared the world from Jewish domination; Adolf Hitler is the new messiah sent to Earth to save the world from Jews.
Heinrich Himmler is given responsibility for police in Prussia, making him the chief of police forces throughout the Reich.
The Institut für Erbbiologie und Rassenforschung (Institute of Hereditary Biology and Race Research) is founded at the University of Frankfort am Main by Dr. Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer to study racial and hereditary issues.
Dorothy Thompson, an anti-Nazi American journalist whose 1932 book I Saw Hitler is critical of the Führer, is expelled from Germany.
Restoration work begins at Wewelsburg, a 17th-century cliff-top fortress in Westphalia, Germany. When complete, the castle will be used by Heinrich Himmler and the Schutzstaffel (SS) as a mystical fortress, complete with a 12,000-volume Aryan library and a center for racial research.
In the United States, the American Christian Defenders (the World Alliance Against Jewish Aggressiveness) is founded by antisemitic propagandist Eugene N. Sanctuary.
Sources: Various books and chronologies related to World War II and the Holocaust Memorial Center
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