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Brief Retrospect on Human Rights

1901-1913
Dayton police adopted the Bertillon identification system for criminals in 1902. This system recorded body measurements as well as mental and moral qualities. A similar system would be used during the 1930s in Germany to determine "Racial Purity."

Whites rioted against black inhabitants in Springfield, Ohio. Militia units were called in to stop the violence in March 1906.

In 1907 the U.S. passed laws to restrict immigration.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in the United States in 1909.

1914-1918
World War I started when Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo in 1914. The war would last until 1918.

The Dayton Chapter of NAACP was founded in 1915.

A mob of 3,000 seriously injured the sheriff of Lima, Ohio, after he concealed a black rape suspect in 1916.

The U.S. entered WWI in 1917.

1,184 striking miners were forcibly deported to an internment camp in New Mexico by boxcar in 1917. Germany would later use boxcars to deport Jews to concentration camps.

1919-1920
The Treaty of Versailles was signed and the League of Nations was organized for the preservation of peace in 1919.

U.S. Senate voted against joining the League of Nations.

The National Socialist German Worker's Party (Nazi) was formed with 60 members. Adolf Hitler writes the party platform.

Race riots occurred in Chicago.

There was rapid growth in the black population of Dayton, Ohio, as blacks moved north to seek employment. The black population rose from 4,824 in 1910 to 9,025 in 1920.

1921-1923
In Springfield, Ohio, 14 people were shot and wounded during a race riot in 1921.

In 1923, 32 whites were arrested for assaulting police guards at a newly integrated school in Springfield, Ohio.

In 1923, over 7,000 members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) marched down Main Street in Dayton.

In India, Ghandi was sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience.

Mussolini formed Fascist government in Italy.

1924-1926
By 1924, approximately 15,000 people, or about one out of every 10 Daytonians, had joined the KKK.

Hitler was imprisoned for nine months after the Nazi Party failed in a violent attempt to take over the German government. While in prison, Hitler writes Mein Kampf (My Struggle).

Hitler reorganized the Nazi Party, which had grown to 27,000 members.

Black doctors in Cleveland, Ohio, had their homes bombed and stoned by mobs after they moved into "white" neighborhoods.

John Scopes went on trial for teaching evolution in Tennessee.

1927-1929
The National Origins Act was passed. It limited the immigration of Asians and Eastern European Jews into the United States.

The Classic Theater was opened in Dayton during 1927 for black theater-goers excluded from Dayton's white theaters.

The term "apartheid" (separation of the races) was first used in South Africa in 1929.

Stock market fall triggered a worldwide depression. German economic system collapsed.

General strike took place after members of the Nazi Party were acquitted of political murder.

1930-1932
The worldwide depression continued, many businesses failed and 18 percent of the German population was unemployed. Hunger became common in Germany.

German population had grown to 36 million people. Very few of these people belonged to either religious or racial minority groups. The Jews were the largest religious minority, numbering less than 1 percent of German's total population.

The Nazi Party grew rapidly. With 800,000 members by 1930, it received 11 percent of the German vote. In 1932 they received 1 million votes, enough to lead Germany in a coalition government.

In February of 1932, California authorities began to round up and force Hispanics onto trains leaving for Mexico. By the end of the year, over 11,000 had been forcibly deported.

1933
Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany.

The passage of the German Enabling Laws consolidated political, legal and economic power under the Nazi Party.

The Nazi Party organized a general boycott of Jewish-owned businesses.

Dachau, the first concentration camp in Germany, was opened for political prisoners, habitual criminals and homosexuals.

The public burning of books written by political dissidents and Jews became fashionable in Germany.

1934-1935
Laws passed in the United States allowed the courts to authorize the sterilization of the mentally handicapped. In Germany, laws are passed requiring the sterilization of both the physically and mentally handicapped.

Germany ignored the provisions in the Treaty of Versailles and began to rebuild its armed forces.

"Juden Verboten" (Jews Forbidden) signs appeared in stores and restaurants throughout Germany.

Nuremberg Laws deprived all German Jews of citizenship.

The testing of biological warfare agents on prisoners of war by Japanese researchers became commonplace. Most victims died in agony. Some victims were still alive when they were dissected.

1936-1937
German troops took over the Rhineland, which had been given to France after WWI. Black and mixed-race children from the area are sterilized.

Italy began the use of poisoned gas against the Ethiopians.

Jewish doctors barred from practicing medicine in German institutions.

Japan invaded China and began the mass killing of Chinese.

Many Jews left Germany to escape the growing discrimination.

Over 150,000 Hispanics had been forcibly transported from California to Mexico. Some of these Hispanics were American citizens who suffered severe financial losses in the process. 

1938
Germany marked Jewish passports with stamped letter "J."

Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) was the start of large-scale anti-Jewish violence in Germany and Austria. 20,000-30,000 Jews were sent to concentration camps.

Jewish students were expelled from all German schools.

It became much more difficult for Jews to leave Germany.

Italy passed anti-Jewish legislation.

U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the University of Missouri Law School must admit blacks because of a lack of other facilities in the area.

1939
Hitler stated that if war erupts, it will mean Vernichtung (extermination) for Jews.

Germany invaded Czechoslovakia and Poland. England and France declare war on Germany. World War II began.

Handicapped patients in Germany were killed in an effort to "improve the Aryan Race." This included the first use of gas chambers for mass killing.

Ghettos are established in Poland for the isolation of the Jews as deportations from Austria and Czechoslovakiato Poland begin. Hitler openly used the American removal of Native Americans to reservations as a model for the removal of European Jews to Ghettos.

1940
Germany occupied Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and France. German anti-Semitic laws are now enforced in these countries.

Germany stepped up unrestricted submarine warfare, sinking thousands of tons of merchant shipping and killing hundreds of civilians without warning.

Auschwitz concentration camp opened.

500,000 Jews sealed in the Warsaw Ghetto, many being allowed only one suitcase.

United States Selective Service Act required draftees be selected in a racially impartial manner, but the armed forces of the United States were to remain racially segregated.

1941
Deportation of German and Dutch Jews to concentration camps.

Theresienstadt ghetto opened in Czechoslovakia.

Auschwitz II-Birkenau built as extermination camp.

Coventry, England, destroyed by a German air attack. This was the first massive air raid on an essentially civilian target.

Germany attacked Russia.

Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. America declares war on Germany, Italy and Japan.

1942
Wannsee Conference: Nazi officials agreed on a plan to kill all the Jews in Eastern Europe as a "Final Solution to the Jewish Problem."

Germans began using gas chambers to kill millions of Jews.

30,000 Parisian Jews sent to camps (only 30 will survive).

U.S. moves over 100,000 West Coast Japanese-Americans to inland internment camps. Most were only allowed to take a single suitcase. Like the Hispanic-Americans moved during the 1930s, they suffered severe financial losses.

Brutal war continued in Russia where the Germans killed millions of Soviet civilians and unarmed prisoners of war.

1943
The Russian army pushed the German army back and discovered evidence of mass executions of Russian citizens.

Race riots occurred in larger U.S. cities that have received an influx of southern black laborers.

A massacre of the inhabitants by German troops ends the Warsaw Ghetto revolt.

The German city of Hamburg was consumed in the first firestorm created by aerial bombardment. Thousands of civilians were killed.

American coal mines were taken over by the U.S. when a half million coal miners went on strike.

1944
Deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz (380,000 killed in three months).

D-Day Allies invade Nazi-occupied Europe at Normandy, France.

German buzz bombs and V-2 rockets land randomly in London, killing over 2,700 people.

Round-the-clock bombing of German cities; thousands of civilians die.

During the Battle of the Bulge, German troops torture and kill black soldiers serving in the American Army.

1945
Hitler committed suicide on April 30.

Auschwitz was liberated.

Thousands of civilians on Okinawa died in the crossfire between U.S. and Japanese troops.

Germany surrendered unconditionally.

U.S. began massive firebombing of Tokyo and other cities, causing a massive loss of civilian life that dwarfed the number killed by the later use of the atomic bomb on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Japan surrendered, ending WWII.

1946
Disagreements between Russia and the Western Allies over the future of Europe resulted in the beginning of the Cold War.

At the Nuremberg Trials, 12 Nazis were sentenced to death and two to life imprisonment for war crimes. Many other "wanted" Nazi war criminals were employed by the U.S. and British governments.

Loyalty Oath was required of U.S. government employees in response to a growing fear of communism.

Japanese experimenters who had killed thousands of people in the process of conducting biological warfare tests were released without charges by the U.S. government in exchange for the results of their experiments.

1947-1948
UN planned for partition of Palestine.

House Un-American Committee (HUAC) formed in 1947 in response to public fear of communistic activities in the U.S.

U.S. Committee on Civil Rights reported widespread unequal treatment in education, housing, medical care, etc.

Jewish State of Israel founded in 1948.

USSR halts traffic into Berlin; the U.S. responds with the Berlin Airlift.

UN prepared the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

1949-1950
Apartheid program established in South Africa.

Chinese revolution; establishment of Communist Peoples Republic of China.

Korean War began in 1950.

UN reported that from a total of 800 million children in the world, 480 million were undernourished.

Independence Hall in Philadelphia was defaced with anti-Semitic slogans.

The bombing of black homes became a nationwide problem in the U.S.

Compiled by James Houk

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