Berlin  - The systematic persecution of Jews in Germany began soon after Hitler came to power in January 1933 and led to the state- orchestrated mass slaughter of the Holocaust. Following is a brief chronology of the events:

1933 - Boycott of Jewish businesses, attorneys, and physicians. Law for the Reestablishment of the Civil Service results in the firing of Jewish professors from universities.

1934-35 - "No Jews" signs placed with increasing frequency outside shops, restaurants and public recreation facilities. Employment ban on Jewish actors and authors. Medical and law students barred from sitting exams. Nuremberg racial laws outlaw marriage and out-of- wedlock relationships between Jews and "Aryans."

1938 - Jewish physicians lose their licences. Jewish property and synagogues destroyed in Kristallnacht atrocities. Some 400 Jews die. Law passed enforcing compulsory "Aryanization" of Jewish businesses.

1940 - Start of deportations to ghettos in Poland. Heinrich Himmler, head of the Gestapo and SS, orders the start of construction of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

1941 - All Jews over the age of six required to wear the yellow Jewish Star on their clothing from September onwards. Systematic deportations begin in October. Hundreds of thousands killed in mass shootings after the invasion of the Soviet Union.

1942 - Senior German government officials meet for Wannsee Conference in suburban Berlin to discus details and logistics of their plan for a "final solution" to kill all Jews.

By the end of the war in 1945 around six million Jews had been killed in Europe. (dpa)