The first Jewish transport arrived under the command of Rudolf Hoess, containing 1000 Jews from Slovakia and 1000 women from Ravensbruk. According to a conservative estimate, from March 1942 until the liberation on January 27, 1945 over 750,000 Jews were gassed within its gates. Hoess himself estimated it at 1,135,000.
1942 August 25, RESISTANCE IN THE SARNY GHETTO (Ukraine) 
Was organized after being informed that deportations would soon begin. On the day of the revolt, the Judenrat ordered the organizers to cease all activities, claiming that resistance would be harmful since they would only be deported for work camps. Most of the inhabitants allowed themselves to be convinced, and the revolt was postponed. Between August 27-29, most of the 14,000 Jews were murdered. Only a few succeeded in escaping to the forest.
1942 April 13, SERGEANT ANTON SCHMID (Lithuania)
Serving in the Wermacht was executed by the Nazis. Schmid was accused of disobeying orders after saving over 250 Jews near Vilna. In 1964 he was awarded the title "Righteous Among the Nations" by the Israeli government. In May 2000, the German government renamed a military base, Feldwebel Anton Schmid Kaserne, in his honor.
1942 April 20, ZDZIECIOL GHETTO (Dyatlovo, Belarus)
Alter Dworetsky and all the members of the Judenrat were forced to flee after their activities on behalf of the partisans became known to the Germans. Dworetsky tried to organize an attack on the Germans in the city but the Russian partisans refused to join them and later killed him. Dworetsky's efforts paid off when 800 people succeeded in escaping the ghetto and joined the Orlinski detachment of Russia partisans as a Jewish unit under Hersch Kaplinski. Dyatlovo was the birthplace of Israel Meir HaCohen (the Chafetz Chayim) as well as Jacob Wolf Kranz of Dubno (the Dubno Maggid). By August there were no Jews left.
1942 April 10, PARTISAN UNIT (Minsk, Belarus)
Was set up by Israel Lapidus who fled the ghetto with 20 men. His unit, known as the Kutuzov detachment, became very active in the area, bombing German supplies even in Minsk itself. Two weeks later, another group under Nahum Feldman also fled the ghetto establishing the Budyonny detachment, of whom many of its guides were 10 -13 years old. All of the units set up became mixed with non-Jews, although many Jews remained in command. The main force behind these efforts was Hersh Smolar (Smoliar), a Communist activist from Bialystok who managed to survive the war and later immigrated to Israel. All of them received direct help from local Belarusns. It is estimated that out of the approximately 10,000 Jews who succeeded in fleeing the Minsk ghetto, more than half survived.
1942 January 16, SENITSA VERSHOVSKY (Ukraine)
The mayor of the city of Kremenchug was shot for protecting Jews. Kremenchug had over 30,000 Jews before the war, who made up over 40% of the population.
1942 January 31, ESTONIA
Franz Stahlecker, commander of Einsatzgruppe A , in a report to Himmler, affirmed that there were no more Jews in Estonia and only a few thousand left in Latvia. By the end of the war, 90% of all Jews in the Baltic countries had been eliminated. Stahlecker was killed by Estonian partisans two months later.
1942 January, HUNGARIAN TROOPS (Yugoslavia)
Massacred several thousands Jews in the Bacska region of Yugoslavia under their control. Although this was not official policy, the perpetrators were able to flee to Germany.
1942 February 1, VIDKUN QUISLING (Norway)
The head of the pro-Nazi National Union Party (Nasjonal Smaling) was appointed prime minister by Josef Terboven, the Nazi commissioner. Quisling initiated anti-Jewish measures including confiscation of property and the establishing of labor camps. Half of Norway's 1,600 Jews were deported to Auschwitz on October 25, 1942.
1942 July 23, - 1943 October 14, TREBLINKA II (Poland)
Death camp went into operation with the first transport of Warsaw's Jews. (Treblinka II was different from Treblinka I which was a labor camp and also housed political prisoners). Over 750,000 Jews were murdered there. The camp was closed and dismantled after a revolt.The camp was organized by Odilo Globocnik. Those that ran it included Joseph (Sepp) Hirtreiter and Kurt Franz, who were sentenced to life imprisonment, and Franz Stangl, who was caught in Brazil and sentenced in 1971 to life imprisonment but died the same year.
1942 February 16, COMMITTEE FOR A JEWISH ARMY (New York, USA)
Led by Hillel Kook (alias Peter Bergson) took out an ad in the New York Times: "For Sale to Humanity, 70,000 Jews, Guaranteed Human Beings at $50 a Piece." Written by Ben Hecht, a famous Jewish playwright, it brought to the forefront the plight of Jews in Romania and demanded that the United Nations play a role in the rescue of European Jewry. The following week, Senator Edwin Johnson of Colorado echoed the demand.
1942 March 2, - 1943 April, BELZEC (Poland)
The second death camp (and former labor camp) became operational. Over 600,000 Jews, mostly Polish, were murdered in the camp before it was closed by the Germans. Odilo Globocnik was its first commandant. Globocnik was appointed by Himmler to be in charge of the European sector of the "Final Solution" and was involved in organizing Belzec, Sobibor, Majdanek, and Treblinka. He took poison in May 1945. Christian Wirth, another commandant, was killed by Tito's partisans. When the camp was abandoned, local villages were attracted to the site and dug for valuables. In order to obliterate the site, the Germans plowed it over and turned it into a farm run by one of the Ukrainian guards.
1942 March 14, S. BERTRAND JACOBSON (USA)
The chief representative in Eastern Europe for the Joint, held a press conference. He estimated that the Nazis had already killed 250,000 Jews in the Ukraine and that the Jews of Slovakia would probably begin to be deported very soon. Their deportations actually began within a few weeks.
1942 March 14, VATICAN (Italy)
Sent a letter to a Slovak official protesting the deportation of Slovakian Jews. The reply by Foreign Minister Vojtech Tuka assured the Vatican that the Jews were being settled in labor camps and that their conditions were "humane." Eichmann and his lieutenant, Dieter Wisliceny, organized "letters" from those deported, to be sent upon their arrival to Auschwitz. They also organized an "inspection" by Fritz Fiala, a pro-Nazi Slovak editor whose report and pictures (censored directly by Himmler) were published in the Slovak and Romanian press.
1942 March 16, The PALESTINE POST (Eretz Israel)
Printed a small article at the bottom of the page entitled "Warsaw Jews Threatened, Quarter million Jews massacred." Most papers in Eretz Israel refused to print the reports, considering them exaggerated. They also did not wish to "alarm the world."
1942 March, - 1945 January 17, AUSCHWITZ (Poland)
The largest concentration and death camp began to take in Jews. Auschwitz was divided into three camps. Auschwitz I held both Jews and non-Jews. Auschwitz II, better know as Birkenau, was the main extermination camp. Auschwitz III was used for Jewish slave labor. Over 1,000,000 Jews were exterminated in Auschwitz.
1942 May 15, SLOVAKIA
Passed legislation exempting any Jew who converted prior to March 14, 1939 (the date of the establishment of the Slovakian state) from being deported. During the previous year, thousands of Jews had tried to convert, hoping that despite the Nuremberg Laws, their conversion would save them.
1942 May 27, YELLOW BADGE (Belgium)
The Belgium administration refused to disseminate the order for Jews to wear the yellow badge, and the Germans were forced to do it themselves.
1942 June 7, YELLOW BADGE (France)
Jews were ordered to wear a yellow badge in the occupied section of France. Many Jews marched down the streets of Paris wearing their war medals together with the star and were applauded by the crowds. Xavier Vallat, Commissariat of Jewish Affairs, told the Germans that he would not enforce the regulation and was replaced by Darquier de Pellepoix . A month later, Jews were banned from public places and only allowed one hour a day for shopping.
1942 June 22, GENERAL ERWIN ROMMEL (Egyptian border)
With Rommel's approach from the south, a general draft was instituted in Eretz Israel. Twenty thousand Jews joined the army.
1942 June 25, ARTUR SAMUEL ZYGELEBOYM (London, England)
And his compatriot, Dr. Ignacy Schwartzbart, arrived in London and released the most comprehensive account of confirmed massacres to date. Known as the Bund Report, it gave detailed information according to date and location. The report estimated that 700,000 Jews had already been murdered and concluded that the Germans planned to "annihilate" all the Jews in Europe. The Boston Globe published the information the next day, making it the first American newspaper to carry the report.
1942 July, VICHY FRANCE
Pierre Laval, the new premier of Vichy France (April 1942), agreed to a German request to expel 100,000 Jews from France. Laval conditioned it on limiting it to "foreign born Jews" further stating that neither was he concerned with their children. Within a month, 50,000 foreign born Jews were handed over to the Germans for deportation. Laval was executed for treason October 15, 1945 in France.
1942 July 16 - 17, LARGEST AKTION OF FRENCH JEWS (Paris, France)
12,884 people, among them 4,051 children, were arrested and imprisoned in the Paris Velodrome d'Hiver cycling stadium. The action had been postponed so as not to conflict with Bastille Day. People were kept there for five days without almost any food and water. In general, the French police would only participate in roundups of foreign Jews, while the Gestapo itself would act against French Jews.
1942 July 19, - October 6, OPERATION (AKTION) REINHARD (Poland)
Was ordered by Himmler and carried out by Odilo Globocnik. It included mass deportations of Jews within what was known as the General Government in Poland, from small towns to 7 major ghettos. All this was to make it easier for their eventual deportation in the "Final Solution."
1942 July 22, ARMED RESISTANCE IN NESVIZ (Belarus)
A small town in former Russian territory with less then 6,000 Jews prior to the war. Four thousand had been killed on October 30, 1941 after which the head of the Judenrat, Magalif, began to work with the underground. When the final Aktion came, all those left attacked the Germans with knives, hatchets, sticks, and home made incendiary devices. They then set the ghetto in fire. Only 25 Jews succeeded in reaching the forest and joining the partisan units. Over 40 Germans were either killed or wounded. Many similar incidents occurred in small ghettos in this region, such as Kletsk (on the same day), where 400 people broke out of the ghetto.
1942 July 22, THE GREAT LIQUIDATION (Warsaw, Poland)
Began. Each day, between 5-6,000 Jews were brought to the Umschlagplatz (literally 'transshipment square')on Stawki street and sent to Treblinka in cattle cars. This continued until September 12, 1942.
1942 June 31, BELGIUM
Four Jewish partisans dressed as Gestapo officers entered the Judenrat known as the Association de juifs de Belgique (AJB) and destroyed the records and lists of Jews, thus hampering the German effort at deportation.
1942 July, DEPORTATIONS BEGAN IN THE NETHERLANDS
Jews were first sent to two transit camps, Westerbork and Vught and from there to Auschwitz and Sobibor. Approximately 13,000 Jews were successfully hidden by both Jews and non-Jews. Out of 140,000 Jews before the war, only 35,000 survived.
1942 August 5, THE GHETTO SPEAKS (USA)
A publication of the Jewish Labor Bund in the United States disclosed information on the murder of 700,000 Jews at Chelmno. Neither the American press - nor for that matter the Jewish press - were prepared to believe the reports.
1942 August 9, MIR REVOLT (Belarus)
Only 850 Jews were left in the town after the Nazis killed 1500 on November 9, 1941. They were transferred to the old Mirski fortress where many began to plan a revolt. Informed of an impending Aktion, two hundred young people decided to escape and join the partisans rather than try to fight the Germans in the town. Over 15,000 Jews fought under the Russians partisans alone. A few days later, on August 13, all those who were left were murdered.
1942 August 11, MOSCOW RADIO BROADCAST (Russia)
Described how Jews were forced to dig their own graves in the Nazi-occupied Minsk region.
1942 August 24, FRANCE
Handed over to the Germans around 15,000 foreign-born Jews. By the end of the month, 25,000 Jews were deported, although not from the "free" zone.
1942 August 26, MARIE-ROSE GINESTE (Montauban, France)
Traveled well over 100 km by bicycle to hand deliver to other churches, copies of an appeal from Monsignor Pierre-Marie Theas (bishop of Montauban), condemning the deportation of Jews and urging defiance of German orders. Four days later, he proclaimed from his church "all men Aryan or non Aryan are brothers being created by the same God."
1942 September 2 - 3, LACHVA / LACHWA (Belarus)
German troops, together with Belarusn police, surrounded the ghetto which still had 2,000 people. Dov Lopatin head of the Judenrat refused the German request to line up for deportation. Although many of the town's elders were against taking any initiative, Lopatin and the youth leaders decided to resist even without weapons. As the Germans entered, most of the town attacked them, equipped with axes, sticks, and Molotov cocktails. Between 600 to 700 Jews were killed fighting, and a further 600 succeeded in reaching the forests after killing or wounding about 100 Nazis. The rest were shot by the Germans. Many of those who reached the forests were killed by local police units. Approximately 90 people survived the war.
1942 September 3, JACOB ROSENHEIM (USA)
President of Agudat Israel received a telegram from Israel Sternbuch, his representative in Switzerland, confirming the mass murder of 100,000 Polish Jews. Rosenheim sent the letter to President Roosevelt, James G. McDonald, the president's advisor on political refugees, and Stepen Wise. McDonald also forwarded it to Eleanor Roosevelt. There was no reply from either Roosevelt.
1942 September 12, MORDECHAI TENENBAUM - TAMAROFF (Poland)
A member of the Dror youth movement and the Jewish Fighting Organization was asked to organize the underground in the Bialystok ghetto. He also was active in organizing the Warsaw ghetto uprising and served as a contact with Anton Schmid, the Austrian soldier who helped Jews. Tenenbaum probably committed suicide after the failed uprising.
1942 September 12, WARSAW (Poland)
Only 60,000 Jews remained in the the ghetto.
1942 September 23, TUCHIN/TUCZYN UPRISING(Ukraine)
Up till then, around 3000 Jews survived by working in the local tannery and cotton mill. After the Germans and Ukrainians surrounded the town, the heads of the community decided to resist and almost the entire town decided not to submit. Among the principal organizers of the resistance were the chairman of the Judenrat Gecel Schwarzman, and his deputy, Meir Himmelfarb. While some were burning down the ghetto, others rushed and flattened the barbed wire fence. Almost 2,000 people succeeded in getting to the forests. Unfortunately, there were no partisans operating in that area and local Ukrainians gave many of them away. Starving and with little hope, 500 of them believed a Nazi promise and returned to the ghetto where they were shot.
1942 October 12, PHILIPPE ETTER (Switzerland)
The former president of Switzerland persuaded the Red Cross not to adopt any resolution which related to "certain nationalities" ... (who suffered) attacks on their lives for acts they did not commit. On the other hand, Carl Burckhardt, another Red Cross official, helped pass information on the plight of the Jews to the American Legation in Switzerland that same month.
1942 October 15, BEREZA KARTUSKA (Belarus)
The Germans began to liquidate the A camp (non-productive workers). In response, the Jews set fire to the camp. The local Judenrat was then ordered by the Nazis to hand over Jews for deportation. At their last meeting, many of the members chose to commit suicide rather then help the Germans. While many Jews were killed in the camp itself, over 18,000 were shot outside the town.
1942 October, HUNGARY
Germany pressured the government of Miklos Kallay to adopt German actions against Hungarian Jews. Kallay, though not against anti-Jewish legislation, balked at the idea of deportation.
1942 October, COUNCIL FOR HELPING JEWS (Poland)
Was formed by two Polish women Zofia Kossak-Szczucka and Wanda Krahelska-Filipowiczowa. For their efforts, Kossak-Szczucka was sent to Auschwitz (where she was ransomed) and Krahelska was denounced by the "Polish National Armed Forces" and died in the hands of the Gestapo. This was one of the few Polish organizations which tried to help the Jews. Unfortunately, by the end of 1942, most of Poland's Jews had already been killed.
1942 November 2, MARCINKONIS Marcinkance/Marcinkonys (Lithuania)
After a demand that the Jews report for "transfer," Aaron Kobrovsky, head of the Judenrat, realized that there was little hope, and publicly called on all the Jews to fight or flee. Some attacked the Nazis while others broke down the fence and fled. Those who reached the forest, including some of the fourteen Kobrovsky siblings (nephews of Aaron). Moyshe, Leyb and Jacob, and Yitzkhok, set up a small unit and managed to purchase some weapons. They later joined the famous "Davidov Company" of partisans and were known for their daring and courage. Most of them survived the war and live in Israel today.
1942 November 7, CAPTURE OF ALGIERS (Algeria)
Allies landed. Of the 377 resistance members who took Algiers - 315 were Jews. Many of the rebels' leaders were from the Aboulker family, including José 1920-2009)who was one of its founders.. The Americans found it hard to believe that the group had actually taken the town and decided to negotiate with the Vichy leaders, Admiral Darlan and General Juin, for their tactical surrender, leaving the Vichy government in place.
1942 November 25, TEMPORARY COMMITTEE (USA)
Later known as the Joint Emergency Committee on European Jewish Affairs, was established by Stephen Wise. It was made up of the American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, Jewish Labor Committee, B'nai B'rith, World Jewish Congress, Synagogue Council of America and Agudat Israel of America. Though often at odds with each other, they managed to contact important non-Jews, asking for their help, and to pressure the press to cover the genocide. They also sponsored a national day of mourning and managed to get the only meeting about the Holocaust between Roosevelt and Jewish leaders during the war.
1942 December 8, PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT (USA)
After submitting to friendly pressure by Stephen Wise, who stated that refusal to meet with them may be "gravely misunderstood," met with Jewish leaders of the Temporary Committee for half an hour. Roosevelt spoke 80% of the time and mostly about issues unrelated to the plight of the Jews. After hearing the evidence he confirmed its veracity, stating the U.S. was "well acquainted with most of the facts." Despite his acknowledgement of the planned annihilation of European Jewry his only concession was to agree issue a war crimes warning. The entire holocaust part of the conversation lasted less then two minutes. This was his only meeting with Jewish leaders concerning the Holocaust. His only other meeting to discuss the issue was with 7 Jewish congressmen on April 1 1943.
1942 December 19, THE UNITED NATIONS INFORMATION OFFICE (New York, USA)
Published a report confirming that the Nazis had made Poland "One vast center for murdering Jews."
1942 December 21, VARIAN FRY (USA)
After his return to the U.S., he tried to warn of the impending disaster for the European Jews in an article in The New Republic entitled "The Massacre of the Jews."
1942 December 22, AHARON LIEBESKIND (Cracow, Poland)
The joint forces of HeHalutz HaLohem and P.P.R (Polish Workers Party) Jewish Units attacked German targets in the capital of the General Government. Liebeskind was Secretary of the religious Zionist Akiva movement and commander of the HeHalutz HaLohem (fighting organization of the Pioneer Jews). In the coordinated attacks, dozens of Germans were either killed or wounded. Liebeskind himself was killed in hand-to-hand combat when the Germans attacked his bunker on December 24, 1942. Before he died he succeeded in killing 2 German officers. He is credited with the line: "The Jewish fighters are fighting for 3 lines [telling about us] in history [books]."
1942 December 20, ALPES MARITIMES (Maritime Alps -Italian occupied Vichy France)
The local French Prefect ordered all foreign-born Jews to leave and relocate in German-occupied areas. Encouraged by Angelo Donati (an influential half Jew), the Italian government, especially its generals, countered the order despite the efforts by Ribbentrop and even Himmler. Thus, the Italian zone became a haven of sorts for Jewish refugees up till September 1943 when the Italian zone was overrun by the Germans.
1942 December 17, FRANCE - SPAIN
The first organized group of young French Jews left to try crossing to Spain. Upon arrival, they were arrested and spent the next 2 ½ months in the prison of Pampeluna. Only later the next year, under pressure from both England and the United States, did the Spanish government allow refugees to move into boarding houses provided that the funds would come from abroad. Until that time, many of the refugees were kept in camps under appalling conditions. The Spanish government, although rarely turning away people at the border, did its best to discourage refugees crossing over from France.
1942 March 28, FIRST DEPORTATIONS TO AUSCHWITZ (France)
From France. Many of the 1100 prominent foreign Jews had been arrested the previous December. Some had been held in the Drancy camp, others in the camp at Compiegne.
1942 December, CHAIM MORDECHAI RUMKOWSKI (Lodz, Poland)
Despite evidence to the contrary, continued in his belief that it is the work of the ghetto that protects the Jews. In a speech, he declared: "our children and grandchildren will proudly remember the names of those who contributed... labor opportunities which grated justification to live".
1942 July 2, PIERRE LAVAL (Vichy, France)
The premier of Vichy France reinstated in April 1942, agreed to a German request to expel 100,000 Jews from France. Laval conditioned it by limiting it to "foreign-born Jews," further stating that he was also not concerned about their children. Within a month, 50,000 foreign-born Jews were handed over to the Germans for deportation. Laval was executed for treason on October 15, 1945 in France.
1942 July 1, OBERTYN (Ukraine)
As the Russians withdrew in advance of the German offensive, the local party secretary urged the Jews to join them. The Jews decided to remain, believing the promises of the Ukrainian nationalists that Hitler only wanted them to work. The next day, Ukrainian mobs rounded up all the Jews from the neighboring towns, tied theirs hands with barbed wire and threw them off the ferry into the Dniester river. There were two survivors.
1942 November 11, GERMANS OCCUPIED ALL OF FRANCE
In response to the allied invasion of North Africa, Germany and Italy occupied all of France. Nazis began to round up Jews in Marseilles. Many Jews in the Vichy areas fled to southern France (which was still occupied by Italy). Ninety thousand French Jews, mostly foreign-born, were deported. Father Pierre-Marie Benoit began to organize the transfer of Jews to the Italian occupation zone. He printed thousands of counterfeit baptismal certificates. For his actions Father Pierre-Marie Benoit was recognized in 1966 as "Righteous Among the Nations" by the State of Israel.
1942 February 7, GIADO (JADU) CONCENTRATION CAMP (Libya)
After the retreat of the British army, Benito Mussolini, ordered the Jews living in Cyrenaica ( the eastern half of Libya) to be deported to an interment camp at Giado, 235 kilometers (146 miles) south of Tripoli. Eight months later approximately 2,600 were transferred to the camp hundreds more were sent to other camps (Sidi Azaz and one in the Tobruk area). Within 3 months 500 Jews died mostly from hunger and sickness, others were shot trying to escape. The British returned in February 1943 but due to the inmates poor health it took months for the camp to be closed down.
1942 August 23, MONSIGNOR JULES-GÉRARD SALIÈGE ( France)
Archbishop of Toulouse, issued a public letter of protest upon receiving information regarding the first deportation of Jews to the Dracy transit camp . All the priests in his diocese read out his letter from their pulpits. They included Bishop Théas of Montauban, Bishop Delay of Marseilles, Cardinal Gerlier of Lyon, Bishop Vanstenbergher of Bayonne, and Archbishop Moussaron of Albi. In November of the previous year he also objected to the treatment of Jews under the Vichy government.
1942 March, IMPLEMENTATION OF RACIST LAWS (Tunisia)
The Vichy governor of Tunisia, Admiral Jean-Pierre Estéva (1880-1951), had succeeded in postponing their implantation for two years and even now did what he could to ease the restrictions. Estéva had visited the ancient synagogue of Ghriba at Djerba in May, 1941 and had made donations to the Jewish poor before Passover. On the eve of WWII there were about 85,000 Jews in Tunisia (2.7% of the general population). More than half of them lived in the capital Tunis.
1942 November 9, GERMANS OCCUPY TUNISIA
For six months, from November 1942 through May 1943. Within the first two weeks they arrested the leaders of the Jewish community, and demanded 3,000 Jews for forced labor. SS Colonel Walther Rauff also ordered all to Jews wear a yellow star on their backs. Jewish property was confiscated, and heavy fines imposed on the community. Thirty two forced labor camps for Jews were set up across Tunisia. The largest of these, were the camps in Bizerte and Mateur, where tens of Jewish prisoners died from disease, labor, punishment by the German guards, and Allied bombings.
1943 September 30, DENMARK
On Friday morning, the day before Rosh Hashanah, Rabbi Marcus Melchior of Copenhagen announced that "There will be no services this morning ......tomorrow the Germans plan to ... arrest all the Danish Jews... By nightfall tonight we must all be in hiding." Melchior had been warned by Hans Hedtoft (later Prime Minister) who in turn had been warned by Georg Duckwitz, an attache to the German Merchant Marine. Thus began one of the heroic stories of the Holocaust. On the appointed day, which was also the first day of Rosh Hashanah, the raid took place.
During the next few weeks, over 7000 Danish Jews were hidden and smuggled to Sweden which had promised refuge to any Danish Jews who reached it. Only 202 Jews were found. After the war the Danish Government restored all Jewish property to their original owners.
1943 October 14, SOBIBOR REVOLT (Poland)
Led by Alexander Pechersky, a former Red Army officer, and a few other Jewish members of the Red Army, a revolt broke out in the Sobibor death camp. Prevented from fleeing through the gates, approximately 80 Jews died trying to escape through the mine fields Prisoners, remaining in the camp, were rounded up and shot. Twelve SS guards were killed, and another 38 guards were killed or wounded. The number of prisoners to initially escape Sobibor was 320 but 170 of them were soon captured and executed. . Of the remaining 150 escapees, 50 joined up with partisan units and the Red Army, of whom 5 were killed, while 92 were killed in hiding, mostly by hostile native elements, Only 53, survived until the liberation. Told of the revolt, Himmler was furious and ordered the camp closed immediately and plowed under by Jewish laborers who were in turn shot when the job was finished. Semyon Rozenfeld, one of the revolt leaders, survived, and was the soldier who carved on the Reichstag wall "Baranovichi-Sobibor-Berlin."
1943 October 16, JUDENRAZZIA (ROUNDUP OF JEWS) IN ROME(Italy)
In the largest action of its kind in Italy, over one thousand Jews were rounded up and deported directly to Auschwitz by SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer (Lieutenant-Colonel) Herbert Kappler, the head of the Gestapo on Rome. Out of Italy's approximately 40,000 Jews, 8000 Jews or 20% were annihilated. Over 2000 Jews joined various partisan units. Despite the silence of the pope, the help offered by local clergy and the Italian people in general, played a major role in the low number of deportations.
1943 November 14, ITALIAN JEWS KILLED (Ferrara, Italy)
Italian fascists killed 3 Jews in cold blood in broad daylight. They were not arrested or prosecuted in any way.
1943 December 6, MILAN JEWS DEPORTED (Italy)
In one of the last major Italian deportations, 212 Jews from Milan were sent to Auschwitz. In all, out of a population of 35,000 before the war, approximately 8500 Jews were killed. An estimated 2000 Jews fought with the partisans, five of them winning Italy's highest medals for bravery.
1943 December 13, VLADIMIRETS-VOLYN (Ukraine)
As the SS began its extermination of the local population of Vladimiretz-Volyn, they were attacked by 30 armed Jews. A number of the SS officers were killed as well as half of the attacking force. The remainder fled to the forests to join the partisans. The Voroshilov Detachment and (Anton) Brynsky's partisan battalion were made up mostly of Jews who played an important role fighting against Ukrainian Nationalists and Germans, and later helping the Russians as they advanced.
1943 March 9, OPPOSITION TO TRANSPORTATION (Bulgaria)
Vice-president of the Bulgarian Parliament, Dimitar Peshev protested to Minister of Interior Gabrovski, against planned deportations of Jews. Peshev and 42 fellow members of the National Assembly, presented a petition to the prime minister that successfully held off their deportation. Consequently, Peshev was dismissed as vice president. As a compromise, none of the (approximately 34,000) Jews from old Bulgaria were deported. Yet over 11,384 Jews from Macedonia and Thrace were sent to their death.
1943 May 24, KING BORIS III (Bulgaria)
Ordered Sofia's Jews to resettle in the provinces as a step to appease the Germans. A demonstration against the order was held that day in front of the King's Palace. The principal cleric, the Metropolitan Stefan, took the chief rabbi into his house for protection.
1943 July 2, ALOIS BRUNNER (France)
Described by Eichmann as "one of my best men", took over Drancy, the main transit camp in France. During his 14 months in France, he sent an estimated 25,000 men, women and children to their deaths. Brunner was an assistant to Eichmann and was responsible for the deaths of over 128,000 people including 200 Americans. Brunner also masterminded the deportation of Thessaloniki's 50,000 Jews to death camps. Brunner was one of the most wanted war criminals and succeeded in finding refuge in Syria, which steadily refused to give out any information on him.
1943 July 13, YITZHAK (ANTEK) ZUCKERMAN (Antek, Poland)
A former leader of HeHalutz HaTzair, he became the leader of the ZOB after Mordechai Anielewicz died. He appealed to the Polish Home Guard to allow Jews to join them or at least provide them with arms. His requests were denied. During the uprising, he was assigned to the Polish sector in order to maintain contacts, which he made good use of. He headed the Jewish Fighters Unit of the Polish uprising of August, 1944. After the war, he and his wife Zivia Lubetkin were among the founders of Kibbutz Lohamei Hagetaot.
1943 July 16, FATHER PIERRE-MARIE BENOIT / PADRE BENEDITTI (Italian Occupied France)
Known in Marseilles as "the Father of the Jews." Pledging himself to protect Jewish refugees, he met with the Pope Pius XII. Marie-Benoit realized that it was only a matter of time before the Germans took over France and asked the pope to help convince Mussolini to allow 30,000 safe passage through Italy and settle them in North Africa. Unfortunately, with the fall of the Badoglio government and the occupation by the Germans of northern Italy, the plan came to naught.
1943 July 25, MARSHAL PIETRO BADOGLIO (Italy)
Took over from Mussolini who had been ousted a few days earlier. The Allied invasion of Sicily two weeks earlier began to change Italy's position in the war. Badoglio's short-lived government tried to hamper Nazi efforts to deport Jews to what was known as the "Italian zone" in France.
1943 December, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Issued a new visa application which was four feet long. The waiting period for processing was now nine months. In addition Jews in Nazi held territories had no way of making visa applications since there were no American consulates. Any refugee who succeeded in reaching countries that had an American consulate (Spain, Portugal) was now considered "not in acute danger" and was therefore denied a visa.
And Angelo Donati devised a plan to save over 30,000 Jews in the Italian zone by taking them through Italy to North Africa. They won support from the Allies with the entire expense covered by the JDC (Joint Distribution Committee).
1943 August 16 - 20, BIALYSTOK UPRISING (Poland)
Ephraim Barash, head of the Judenrat had been told the night before that the ghetto with the 40,000 Jews left in it was to be liquidated. The next morning he reported to the main square with his suitcase. Himmler, not wishing a repeat of the Warsaw, uprising, appointed Odilo Globocnik as the commander of the operation. He had at his command 3 battalions and other police and military units as well as artillery. There were only enough weapons for 300 of the 500 Jewish fighters. The Germans called in tanks and even aircraft to put down the revolt. Although the main fighting was over within a few days (having run out of ammunition), it took the Germans almost a month before they could leave the ghetto. Mordecai Tenenbaum-Tamaroff and Daniel Moszkowicz were believed to have committed suicide when their bunker was surrounded. Only 70 of the fighters succeeded in reaching the forests.
1943 September 3, BELGIUM
Despite a promise made by military Governor General Alexander Von Falkenhausen to the Queen Mother Elisabeth and Cardinal Van Roey that Belgium Jewish citizens would not be deported, nevertheless, hundreds of Jews were taken for deportation. After a strong protest by the Queen Mother and the Cardinal, they were released. Although there were transports to Auschwitz of Belgium Jews, it was never done en mass.
1943 March 23, WILLIAM TEMPLE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY (England)
In a speech to the House of Lords, called upon the British government to "end its procrastination" and establish a temporary refuge for the Jews. "We at this moment have upon us a tremendous responsibility," he said. "We stand at the bar of history, of humanity, and of God." The British government responded by calling for a conference, afraid that if “successful” they may be flooded “ with alien immigrants. That same day Himmler received a report that 1,500,000 Jews had already be exterminated.rnrn
1943 September 9, ALLIES INVADE SOUTHERN ITALY
The Germans immediately invaded Italy and reached Rome. Italy was divided into two parts. The Nazis under Otto Wachter placed Mussolini back in the government. Jews were now going to be deported. The Germans also took over all of France, dashing any hopes of rescuing Jews by transferring them through Italy to North Africa. Angelo Donati was forced into hiding as he was wanted by the Gestapo.
1943 September 16, GOLDMANN PLAN (USA)
Nahum Goldmann proposed a plan to send $10 million (partially funded by Jewish contributions) worth of medicines and food to those Jews still alive in Poland, the Balkans and Czechoslovakia. The aid was to be sent though the Red Cross. Breckenridge Long, the Assistant Secretary of State, ostensibly agreed to the idea but proposed to first send it to a discussion by the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees - which according to officials was tantamount to "tossing it in the waste paper basket".
1943 September 20, ATHENS (Greece)
Rabbi Eliyahu Barzilai was ordered by Eichmann's deputy, Wisliceny, to provide him with a list of all Athenian Jews. Instead, Barzilai warned them all to flee and did so himself.
1943 September 30, SONDERKOMMANDO BABI YAR REVOLT (Ukraine)
Led by Vladimir Davidov and Fyodor Yershov (a Russian soldier). Over 50 of the 275 men in the Sonderkommando unit succeeded in picking the locks. They then overpowered the guards using their bare hands, hammers and screw drivers. Fourteen of them (11 of whom were Jews) succeeded in surviving until the Red Army arrived on November 6, 1943. Davidov was an important witness at the Nuremberg trials and helped bring their story to the world.
1943 October 7, ARCHBISHOP DAMASKINOS (Greece)
Ordered all monasteries to shelter any Jews who approached them. This was in response to Hoherer SS- und Polizeifuhrer, (HSSPF) (Higher SS and Police Leader) SS General Jurgen Stroop's order for all Jews to register on penalty of death.
1943 October 20, IRENA SENDLER (Warsaw, Poland)
A Polish Catholic, was arrested by the Gestapo. Irena had worked for the Council for Aid to Jews, (Zegota), an underground unit in which Catholic democratic activists gathered to assist Jews. At great risk, Irena rescued 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw ghetto and placed them with Christian families. She buried jars containing their real and assumed names in the garden, so that they could be reunited with their own families after the war. During her torture she refused to divulge any information regarding her activities Although sentenced to death, she managed to escape from prison and survived the war. In 1965 she was awarded with the title Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem and in 1991 she was made an honorary citizen of Israel. A play was also written about her life entitled "Life in a Jar".
A beautiful, young dancer from Warsaw who performed at the famous Melody Palace nightclub, arrived at the death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau along with about 1700 other Polish Jews. As she was preparing for the gas chamber, one of the SS men, Josef Schillinger, stared at her as she undressed. Mann threw her shoe at him. As he drew his revolver she wrested it away from him, shooting him twice and killing him and shooting another SS man, Emmerich, as well. The Germans opened fire with machine guns and forced the survivors into the gas chamber.
1943 November 3, OPERATION HARVEST FESTIVAL (Erntefest) (Poland)
Partly in response to Jewish resistance including the revolt on Sobibor. Himmler ordered Jakob Sporrenberg to eliminate all the Jews in the Lublin area where most of them were in forced labor camps. In one day, 10,000 Jews from the Trawniki labor camp and 8,000 Jews, from Maidanek were machine-gunned after digging their own graves. In the Poniatowa camp 15,000 were killed the next day. During the operation, the Germans killed almost 43,000 Jews.
1943 December 24, NINTH FORT (Kunas, Lithuania)
Considered almost escape proof, 64 Jews broke out on Christmas eve when most of the guards were celebrating. Most were caught in a massive manhunt by Germans and Lithuanian police. Only fourteen made it to the partisans.
1943 January 30, VICHY MINISTER JOSEPH DARNARD (Vichy, France)
Formed the Milice, a militia unit which was officially recognized by the Nazis. His units worked with the Germans to capture Jews for deportation. Darnard was executed for treason in October 1945.
1943 February 10, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT TELEGRAPH 354
Sent by Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles to all American consulates "suggested" that they not to accept any " private messages" or reports regarding the German actions against Jews. This effectively closed off almost all reports regarding the Holocaust from even reaching the United States. Although reportedly Welles may have been personally sympathetic to the "Jewish problem", he totally identified with the State Departments policies and carried them out with alacrity.
1943 February 13, ROMANIA
Offered to "sell" 72,000 Jews and permit them to be transferred to Eretz Israel on ships flying a Vatican flag for a price of $130 a person. Although Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau brought this offer to the attention of the President Roosevelt , it was shuffled back to Sumner Wells at the State Department who decided without checking on the facts that the proposal "was without foundation."
1943 February 26, BERLIN (Germany)
Was declared Judenrein (free of all Jews).
1943 February, STATUS REPORT (Europe)
Out of the approximately 2,700,000 Jews in areas occupied by the Germans since June 1941, less then 10% were still alive.
1943 March 15, SALONIKA (Greece)
The first transport 2,800 Jews left for Auschwitz under the direction of Eichmann's deputy, Dieter Wisliceny. By August 7, the last of the 19 transports left Salonika. Of the 46,091 Jews deported, only only 2,469 survived. Wisliceny, who also served in Greece and Hungary, later surrendered to the Allies, presenting them with invaluable evidence. He was hanged in Bratislava in 1948. By the end of the war, out of 77,000 Greek Jews, 60,000 were murdered during the Holocaust.
1943 March 20, MUSSOLINI (Italy)
Pressured by Germany for the lack of enthusiasm of the Italian army in France to act against Jews, Mussolini set up the Polizia Razziale (Racial Police). He appointed Guido Lospinoso as the commissioner of police. Lospinoso soon proved to be a master at evading German instructions. Father Pierre-Marie Benoit, persuaded him to help delay any deportation orders. Together they succeeded in preventing any mass deportations in the Nice area until the Germans took over in September.
1943 March 25, MATHAUSEN (Austria)
A Bavarian Catholic priest reported that an estimated 10,000 Dutch Jews had already been murdered in poison gas experiments at the Mathausen concentration camp. The report was confirmed by the Dutch government-in-exile on April 5, and by an American diplomat on June 8. Despite this, no action was taken by the American State Department or the British government.
1943 May 16, SS GENERAL JUERGEN STROOP (Poland)
Sent in his report, "A Jewish Quarter in Warsaw no longer exists." His final action was the destruction of the Great Synagogue on Tlomacka Street. Stroop reported 56,065 Jews captured, 13,929 killed and 631 bunkers destroyed. Though it is impossible to know the exact amounts, Polish estimates place the numbers of German dead to well over 1,000, with many more wounded. Some fighters escaped to the Aryan side of the city through sewage tunnels and others fled and tried to join Polish underground forces. Despite the official end to the uprising, small groups knows as "rubblemen" continued to attack German troops until mid-September.
1943 July, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT (USA)
Issued a new visa application which was four feet long. The waiting period for processing was now nine months. In addition, Jews in Nazi-held territories had no way of making a visa application since there were no American consulates. Any refugee who succeeded in reaching countries which had an American consulate (Spain, Portugal) was considered to be "not in acute danger" and was therefore denied a visa.
1943 February 27, "FABRIK-AKTION" FACTORY-ACTION (Berlin, Germany)
The last 10,000 Jews still working in "vital war production" were taken directly from their factories to be deported. Seven thousand of them were sent to Auschwitz, others were sent to Theresienstadt. More than 100 Jews labeled as Mischlinge (half-breeds) or living in a Mischehe (racially mixed marriage) were held separately. After a mass protest (the only one of its kind) by thousands of relatives and friends, the Nazi released them. During the war, over 50,000 Berliner Jews were deported to the East. A few thousand, most of them with non-Jewish spouses, managed to survive with many of them hiding the entire war in the city.
One of the leading Rabbis called on the Jews of Warsaw to revolt, "we must resist the enemy on all fronts". He also warned that "we are prohibited by Jewish law from betraying others...". Zemba was killed (19 Nissan) a few days after the revolt began. He had refused the offerof Catholic priests to help him and flee with another two rabbis, believing that he must remain until the end with his fellow Jews. Zemba had published over 20 manuscripts, many others were destroyed in the ghetto.
1943 January 17, CASABLANCA MEETING (Morocco)
Two months after liberation, a meeting was held between President Roosevelt, General Patton, the U.S. envoy Robert Murphy, and General Nogues representing the non Vichy government. In response the Jews demand for the right to vote, Roosevelt encouraged the postponement of free elections. He also recommended limiting the number of Jews being allowed to practice law, medicine etc. to their percentage of the entire north African population. This he stated would “eliminate specific and understandable German complaints… that fifty% of the lawyers doctors teachers etc in Germany were Jews”. Later that day he proposed the same idea regarding the Jews of Algeria to the French army commander General Henri Giraud.
1943 September 9, NAZI GERMANY OCCUPIES ZAKYNTHOS GREECE
Their first act was to ask to a list of all the Jews. The mayor Loukas Karrer and the Metropolitan Bishop Chrysostomos replied by returning a paper with only their names on it. The 275 Jews were dispersed into the local villages until the Germans left in October 1944. No Jew was deported. They were honored by Yad Vashem in 1978 with the title of "Righteous among the Nations. Statues of the Bishop and the Mayor celebrate their heroism on the site of the town’s historic synagogue, destroyed in the Earthquake of 1953
1944 April 15, PONARY (Lithuania)
During the years from July 1941 until July 1944, approximately 100,000 people (mainly Jews) were murdered in the forests of the resort town, Ponary in Lithuania. As the Russians approached, a group of 70 Jews and 10 Russians were given the task of burning all the bodies to cover up the mass murder. Realizing that at the end of their work they too would be killed they dug a tunnel thirty meters long with spoons over a period of three months. On the night of April 15 they escaped. Only 13 reached safety alive.
Secretary of the Treasury, presented a personal report to President Roosevelt accusing the State Department of actively preventing the rescue of European Jewry. The State Department's antagonism toward any help for European Jewry stemmed from both incompetence and a fear of "what to do with the Jews if they do get out". The Department was totally against a more liberal attitude toward its own anti-immigration policy and fully supported the British position of not allowing more Jews into Eretz Israel.
1944 March 16, ADMIRAL MIKLOS HORTHY (Hungary)
Promised Hitler to dismiss the Kallay government which had been making overtures to the Allies and had refused to deport Hungarian Jews.
1944 March 19, OPERATION MARGARET (Hungary)
Germany moved into Hungary. At the time of the occupation 63,000 Jews had already died or been killed. Eichmann, as the head of S.S. officers of the R.S.H.A. (Reich Security Main Office), arrived in Budapest along with SS Major Dieter Wisliceny and Edmund Veesenmayer who was to be in charge of "Jewish Affairs".
1944 March, BRICHAH ORGANIZATION (Rovno, Ukraine)
A month or so after the liberation of Rovno, Eliezer and Abraham Lidovsky, together with Pasha (Isaac) Rajchmann, decided that there was no future for the Jews in Poland. They officially formed an artisan guild to cover their activities. During that summer they sent a group to Cernauti Romania to explore escape routes. Yet it was only after Abba Kovner and his group from Vilna joined in January 1945 that the organization which was known as Brichah took shape.
1944 March, ROSWELL McCLELLAND (Switzerland)
Was assigned to run the War Refugee Board in Switzerland. McClelland had lived in occupied France working for the American Friends Service Committee and had vast experience dealing with these issues. With the financial backing of the Joint, he succeeded in producing thousands of false identity cards, work permits and birth certificates, as well as shipping emergency aid to those who hid Jews in their homes or in convents.
1944 April 5, BUDAPEST JEWISH LEADERS (Hungary)
Dr. Rudolf Kastzner and Joel Brand met with Dieter Wisliceny and proposed to ransom Hungarian Jews in what became known as Blut fuer Ware ("Blood for Goods"). Eichmann, with Himmler's approval, allowed Brand to go to Istanbul in order to broker the deal with the Allies. It is theorized that Himmler was trying to prepare for the inevitable Allied victory by "showing" that he was really in favor of Jewish emigration rather than annihilation.
1944 April 19, HENRY MORGENTHAU (USA)
After an emotional meeting with three old Rabbis, Morgenthau pressured Secretary of State Cordell Hull to help Jews in Vitel, France who possessed Latin American passports and were in danger of deportation to Poland. George Tait, the first secretary in Bern, strongly objected. The State Department succeeded in stalling for 7 weeks by which time the 214 Jews held in Vitel were deported.
1944 April 21, ESCAPEES FROM AUSCHWITZ
Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, who had been in Auschwitz Auschwitz for two years, reached Slovakia and gave an eye witness detailed account of the camp. They were able to produce a detailed report on the structure, workings, and methods of the camp - including the entire annihilation process. The report reached Rabbi Dov Weissmandl who sent it on the head of the Orthodox community in Budapest, Rabbi Philip Von Freudiger, as a warning for Hungarian Jews, and sent it to the American Delegation in Bern as well. It took Roswell McClelland of the American delegation in Switzerland almost six months to forward the full text of the report to the State Department. Weismandel appealed for the bombing of the camps but was rebuffed.
1944 April, IRA HIRSHMAN (USA)
An executive at Bloomingdale's and the representative for the War Refugee Board (WRB) in Turkey succeeded in convincing the Romanian ambassador to Turkey, Alexander Cretzianu, to move Jews from Transnistria, which the Germans still occupied, to Romania itself, thus saving 48,000 people.
1944 May 15, HIMMLER
Offered Rudolf Kasztner to keep 30,000 physically fit Hungarian Jews "on ice" in an Austrian labor camp at a price of $200 per head plus maintenance. The committee could only find around 10,000 dollars. Eichmann took the money and sent them to Auschwitz.
1944 May 14, - July 8, HUNGARIAN JEWS DEPORTED (Hungary)
Mostly to Auschwitz. According to German reports, 437,402 Jews were deported in 55 days on 148 trains.
1944 May, SERVIGLIANO CONCENTRATION CAMP (Italy)
Was attacked by partisans led by Haim Vito Volterra. Several hundred Jews were able to escape. This was the only time in Western Europe that Jewish and non-Jewish partisans joined in attacking a Jewish concentration camp.
1944 June 17, CHANIA (CANEA) (Crete)
The Jewish community of Chania (Canea), Crete dating from Roman times, came to an end when the Nazis occupying the island of Crete ordered Chania's remaining 269 Jews into the Etz Hayyim (Tree of Life) synagogue. In the morning, they were forced to board the ship Danai on the first leg of a journey to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Halfway to the mainland, the vessel was hit by British torpedoes and sank. There were no survivors, including 600 other Greek and Italian prisoners. At the beginning of the war there were 322 Jews in Crete. Only 7 Jews survived.
1944 June 25, MONSIGNOR ANGELO ROTTA (Hungary)
The papal nuncio (ambassador) in Budapest, at his own initiative, delivered a letter of protest from the pope over the deportation of Hungarian Jews. This letter, combined with a warning from Secretary of State Cordell Hull regarding reprisal for the Hungarian actions, forced Regent Horthy to stop the deportations.
1944 June 30, BLUT FUER WARE ("BLOOD FOR GOODS") (Hungary - Switzerland)
Hungarian Jewish leaders Joel Brand and Rudolf Kastner working together with the Jewish Agency and the War Refugee board concluded a deal with Adolph Eichmann. It became known as Blut fuer Ware ("Blood for Goods"). This date marks the first of three transports with 1,658 people to Switzerland. Included in this transport were 80 prominent Jews including the Satmar Rebbe (Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum), the Debreziner Rav, Rabbi Jonathan Steif, and Adolph Deutsch, head of the Budapest Agudah. This transport was held up in Bergen-Belsen for six months and only reached Switzerland in December. There were two other transports; one on August 18, with 318 people and the last on December 6, with 1,368 people. A total of 3,344 Jews were sent at a price of 1,000 dollars per head. The deal was the subject of much controversy and after the war, Kastner was accused by Malkiel Grünwald of collaboration with the Nazis and of testifying for an SS officer Kurt Becher who had negotiated with him on behalf of Eichmann. Much of the resentment had to do with the selection made for the transports. He was accused of helping only those who were either wealthy, had a personal connection to the committee, or were politically acceptable. Although the Supreme Court in Israel (on an appeal) cleared his name on January 17, 1958, it came too late for Kastner who had been shot and killed in March, 1957 in Tel Aviv by Ze'ev Eckstein, a Hungarian survivor.
1944 July 2, THE NEW YORK TIMES (USA)
Published an article concerning the murder of 400,000 Hungarian Jews. It was put on page twelve while page one was dedicated to problems with the July 4th holiday crowds.
1944 July 9, RAOUL WALLENBERG (Hungary)
Arrived in Budapest to join Per Anger, secretary of the Swedish legation in Budapest, at the Swedish Embassy at the request of the Swedish government and the War Refugee Board. Anger had already begun to use temporary passports but Wallenberg had the idea of a Schutzpass (protective pass) which was more effective. Charles "Carl" Lutz, consul for Switzerland, joined in with him. Wallenberg helped set up soup kitchens, and medical care facilities. They would often go to the trains using threats and even bribery to get Jews off the trains. Wallenberg managed to issue around 15,000 protective passes.
1944 July 13, RUSSIANS ENTERED VILNA (Lithuania)
During the war, over 100,000 Jews passed though the ghetto. The Russians found only 600 Jews who were hiding in the sewers.
1944 August 1, SECOND WARSAW UPRISING (Poland)
As the Russians approached the Vistula river, the National Armed Force (NSZ) called for a revolt against the Germans. Thousands of Jews who had been hiding in the Aryan section tried to join but were rejected outright and in many cases attacked. Yitzhak Zuckerman did succeed in leading a Jewish Fighters Unit. Others joined Polish resistance groups such as Armia Krajowa (Home Army) and the Armia Ludowa (People's Army).
1944 August 6, LODZ GHETTO (Poland)
The last ghetto in Poland was liquidated. 60,000 Jews were sent to Auschwitz.
1944 August 17, DRANCY CONCENTRATION/TRANSIT CAMP (France)
Was liberated. From August 21, 1941 until it was liberated over 61,000 Jews were deported from Drancy "to the East." Many Jews died in Drancy and its satellite camps (Noe, Gurs, and Recebedou). 1500 inmates were still in the camp when it was liberated.
1944 August 19, JEWISH MARQUIS (French Resistance movement) (France)
The Marc Haguenau company (named for the Jewish resistance leader killed in 1943 who had been a leader of the "sixth") led by Robert Gamzon, together with help from an American sabotage team, blew up a German troop train near Mazamet. After the initial blast, an intense firefight ensued. By dawn the Germans fearfully surrendered to the calls "Wir Sind Juden" ("We are Jews"). The next day they participated in the German surrender (3,500 soldiers) in Casters.
1944 August 21, BERGEN-BELSEN (Germany)
A token transport of 318 Jews was sent from Bergen-Belsen to Switzerland on the orders of Himmler to show "good will" for Kastzner and the other negotiators.
1944 August 29, SLOVAK UPRISING
Began with the participation of over 1500 Jewish partisans. The revolt was viciously repressed by the Germans who occupied the whole country and deported more than 18,000 Jews.
1944 September 28, JOINT DISTRIBUTION COMMITTEE (Slovakia)
Represented by Saly Meyer leader of the Swiss Jewish community, and Rudolph Kastzner offered fifteen million Swiss francs to save the remaining Slovak Jews. The offer was dismissed despite the fact that Romania, Finland, and Bulgaria had already surrendered and the fate of the war was sealed.
1944 October 7, BIRKENAU (AUSCHWITZ II) UPRISING
David Szmulewski, one of the leaders of Birkenau's underground, and of the Jews of the Sonderkommados, who worked in the gas chambers and crematorias, blew up crematorium IV. Rosa Robota, one of the heroines of the Auschwitz underground, succeeded in smuggling explosives out of a munitions factory. Rosa was caught and tortured but refused to give away any of her comrades. Her last words scribbled on a piece of paper just before she was hanged were "Hazak V'Arnatz"--Be Strong and Brave." After killing several SS men, the group escaped, although few survived.
1944 October 28, NATIONAL REVOLT (Slovakia)
Approximately 2,500 Jews, including a parachutist from Eretz Israel, joined to try to help organize the revolt. The Germans used this as the alleged reason for the deportation of most of the 13,500 Slovakian Jews who were left. The rebels succeeded in liberating two labor camps, Sered and Novaky, before the rebellion was put down and they had to escape to the mountains.
1944 October, PLASZOW CONCENTRATION CAMP (Poland)
Oscar Schindler obtained permission from SS commandant Amon Goeth to move his factory, which produced ammunition for the German army, from Plaszow near Cracow, to Brunnlitz in occupied Czechoslovakia. Schindler succeeded in drawing up his own list of 1,098 workers which became known as "Schindler's list." Most of the other 25,000 Jews in Plaszow were sent on the short 60 km journey to Auschwitz. Goeth, who was known for his cruelty which included target practice on bypassing Jews, was hanged near Plaszow on September 13, 1946.
1944 November 6, LEHI ASSASSINATED BRITISH MINISTER LORD MOYNE (Eretz Israel)
The LEHI group (Lochami Cheirut Yisrael) had accused him of expelling immigrant ships and preventing the arrival of refugees to Eretz Israel. When approached by Joel Brand in Cairo with a request to help save Hungarian Jewry he had commented, "what would I do with a million Jews." Two of Lehi's members - Eliyahu Hakim and Eliyahu Bet-Zuri - were dispatched to Cairo to assassinate Lord Moyne but were caught shortly after carrying out their mission. On January 10, 1945 they were put on trial and were hanged March 23, 1945.
was murdered. Born in Hungary, she immigrated to Eretz Israel in 1939 and volunteered with 32 other young Jews who were trained by the British to infiltrate behind enemy lines. Szenes was captured in June by the Hungarian secret police and refused to give away information, even under torture. On November 7, 1944 although her final sentence had not been passed ,she was shot in the courtyard of Conti prison under the orders of Captain Simon. Six other parachutists lost their lives during their missions. Captain Simon was later charge with her illegal execution and sentenced to one year in prison. In 1993 she was exonerated by a Hungarian military court.
1944 November 28, BUDAPEST (Hungary)
As Soviet troops reached the outskirts of the city, the Germans forced 85,000 Jews on a death march towards Austria.
1944 December, - 1945 January, GIORGIO PERLASCA (1910-1992) (Budapest, Hungary)
An Italian, worked together with the Spanish ambassador, Angel Sanz Briz, to not only become a Spanish citizen but to even be "appointed" as his substitute after Briz was transferred to Germany. Under this guise, Perlasca used the "Rivera law" to give Spanish citizenship to all Sephardic Jews. In the 45 days until the entry of the Russian army, he managed to save 5218 people.
1944 March 25, VOLOS, GREECE
Volos had a population of 872 Jews before the war which rose to about 1000 by 1944. Tipped off by Archbishop Joachim Alexopoulos, Rabbi Moshe Pessah, working together with the archbishop, managed to disperse all but 130 in the surrounding villages. All of those who remained perished. When they returned after the war, the Archbishop urged the local residents to return any valuables or property which they had been given for safekeeping.
The Swedish diplomat disappeared in Budapest two days after it was liberated. Eyewitnesses last saw him in the company of two Russian soldiers. Wallenberg was instrumental in saving tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Nazis. The Russians claim that he died in a Russian prison on July 17, 1947. There are many witnesses who claim they saw him in prison years later.
1945 January, BRICHAH (Lublin,Poland)
Organization was founded by Abba Kovner and Yitzchak Zuckerman joining the Lidovsky brothers and their group from Rovno. What had begun as an ideological discussion six months earlier had become a movement to get Jews out of Europe and into Eretz Israel. Mordechai Roseman was asked to direct the organization, which began sending small groups to Romania. It later merged into Mosad leAliyah Bet (or "Mosad", center for "illegal" immigration) in Palestine, whose head, Shaul Avigur, moved his office to Paris in 1946. Between 1944-1948, Brichah moved over 200,000 people to southern ports and eventually to Eretz Israel, mostly against the will of the occupying governments.
1945 March 25, NARODOWE SILY ZBROJOWE (NSZ) (Poland)
A fascist organization announced that it is a patriotic duty to kill Jews.
1945 May 8, GENERAL JODL SIGNED GERMANY'S SURRENDER (Rheims, Germany)
At Eisenhower's headquarters, Germany was divided into four sectors. Tens of thousands of Jews fled to the American and British Zones. The Third Reich, known as the Thousand Year Reich was over. While it existed, approximately 6,000,000 Jews were killed; 63% of the Jewish population of Europe prior to the war was exterminated.
1945 July 1, SHE'ERIT HA-PELETAH (surviving remnant) (Germany)
A conference was organized with 94 representatives of Jewish DPs from all the zones at the St. - Ottilien Camp in Germany. Among their demands was the establishment of a Jewish state and Jewish participation in the peace negotiations. The group, which also called itself the Central Committee of Liberated Jews, had first met in Feldafing a month earlier. Although at first they succeeded in putting political issues aside, by October many including the Zionist formed their own groups within the central committee.
1945 August 11, CRACOW (Poland)
A Jewish school was burned down in the first of the post-war anti-Jewish riots that spread over Poland. Many of them were instigated by organizations such as AK-WiN (Wolnosc i Niezawislosc - Freedom and Independence) which was the successor to the right wing A.J. (Armja Krajowa). WiN accused the Jews and the Soviet NKVD of instigating the riots. Other riots broke out in Radom and Czestochowa. The approximately 80,000 Jews in Poland at the time (a further movement of Jews into Poland from Russia would take place in 1946) looked for any means to enter the western sectors of Germany.
1945 August 21, GENERAL GEORGE S. PATTON (Poland)
Turned back four trainloads of 650 Jews organized by the Brichah movement. They attempted to cross the Allied zones near Pilsen, Czechoslovakia hoping to enter Germany and the special camps being set up for Jewish refugees. Although there had been a request from the "top authorities" of the US army's XXII corps to allow the transports through, General Patton ordered his 8th armored Division to use force to send them back to Poland and many Jews were injured. The uproar in the press, combined with the soon-to-be-released Harrison Report, once and for all stopped the Americans from prohibiting Jews from enter into the American zone in Germany.
1945 August 24, HARRISON MISSION (USA)
Earl Harrison, the Dean of Law at the University of Pennsylvania and a former U.S. commissioner on immigration, had been sent as a personal envoy of President Harry S. Truman to inquire into the conditions of the Displace Persons (DP's), especially the Jews, and issued his report. "Jews are kept behind barbed wire…in camps, including concentration camps…with no opportunity…to communicate to the outside world. We appear to be treating the Jews as the Nazi's…except that we don't exterminate them." He concluded that "the U.S. should convince the British to open Palestine to refugees."
1945 August 31, PRESIDENT HARRY S.TRUMAN (USA)
In reaction to the Harrison Report, President Truman severely criticized the conditions of the DP's and contended that his policies "are not being carried out." In addition, he urged the British government to grant 100,000 immigration permits to the DP's in Germany. It was also decided to arrange for Jews to live in separate camps with the Joint providing additional rations.
1945 September 16, PRIME MINISTER ATLEE (Britain)
Rejected Truman's request to allow the admission of 100,000 refugees into Eretz Israel. A few days later, (September 21), the British cabinet decided that despite previous promises, "Palestine" was to become a country with an Arab majority. Jewish immigration was to be limited to 18,000 Jews a year.
1945 October, POLAND
From the beginning of the year until October, 351 Jews had been murdered in anti-Jewish riots in Poland.
1945 November 2, EGYPT
Riots took place on the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. Similar riots in Tripoli left 120 Jews dead.
1945 December 5, BRITAIN
Announced that Jews were no longer permitted to enter DP camps in their zone.
1945 December 22, EXECUTIVE ORDER (USA)
By President Truman was to give priority to DP's and allow into the United States almost 40,000 per year. In reality, between December 1945 and July 1948 (when the Displaced Persons act was passed) the State Department only let in 45,000 DP's of which only about 12,600 were Jews.
1945 September 17, GENERAL GEORGE S. PATTON
Taking General Eisenhower on a visit to DP camps, he called Jewish inmates "the greatest stinking bunch of humanity" and stating that they have "no sense of human relationships". Patton had also referred to the Jewish DP's as "lower than animals". When attacked for his anti-Semitic remarks, Patton called it a "plot by Jews and Communists" to replace him.
1945 May 9, ARRIVED IN BRUNNLITZ (Czechoslovakia)
Oscar Schindler and his wife Emilie bid an emotional good bye from the 1,200 Schindlerjuden (Schindler's Jews) he managed to save. In addition to the 1,100 Jews he saved from Plaszow, he and his wife also rescued two cattle cars of half frozen Jews who had been left to die. Schindler, although personally a controversial figure, attained the admiration of Jews and non-Jews all over the world. His comment, when asked about his actions was: "I could've got more, if I'd just..." He died October 9, 1974 and upon his request was buried on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.
1945 January 16, ARMY LIBERATED BUDAPEST (Hungary)
From the time the Arrow Cross party took power until the Russian liberation, over 90,000 Hungarian Jews lost their lives.
1945 November 5, TRIPOLITANIA PROVINCE RIOTS (Libya)
In three days of riots more than 140 Jews were murdered (including 36 children) and hundreds more injured in the British controlled area of Tripolitania. The British were criticized for not acting to quell the riots soon after they began. Nine synagogues and over 4000 Jewish houses were destroyed. This directly led to the mass immigration to Israel which began four years later.
1945 June 2, POPE PIUS XII
At the college of cardinals attacked the former Nazi regime. In his speech he mentioned the catholic priests imprisoned in Dachau, and other priests and nuns who died in Nazi concentration camps. He did not say one word about the annihilation of the Jews or any other group.
1946 October 16, ERNST KALTENBRUNNER (1903-1946) (Germany)
The S.S. leader and successor of Heydrich as chief of the RSHA, was hanged after a trial at Nuremberg. Kaltenbrunner, a friend of Eichmann, was a key figure in the implementation of the "Final Solution". As the end of the war approached, he insisted on continuing the annihilation of the Jews until the last possible moment.
1946 July 4, KIELCE POGROM (Southern Poland)
Claimed 42 Jewish lives. Kielce had a history of Jewish settlement (depending on expulsion orders) of over 500 years. Prior to World War II, there were over 25,000 Jews living there. After the war approximately 200 survivors returned. The riots broke out after a nine year old boy told the head of the local militia that the Jews had held him captive for two days in a basement at 7 Planty Street. He also related that other Christian children had been murdered there. The commander surrounded the house and confiscated their weapons. In return, they were promised protection. During the ensuing pogrom, forty-two people were murdered and dozens more injured. The Kielce pogrom served as a warning to Holocaust survivors not to try to return to their towns and gave an additional push for the massive movement to the West. Within three months, 70,000 Jews left the country.
1946 January 1, DISPLACED PERSONS (Europe)
Britain agreed to allow 1500 Jews a month to immigrate to Eretz Israel. The United States, still under quotas, allowed only 1500 permits for anyone from Eastern Europe (Jews and non-Jews alike). It is estimated that there were over 250,000 Jewish Displaced Persons (DPs) in Europe, approximately thirty percent of all the displaced persons in Europe. Britain closed off their sector to Jews, forcing 5000 Jews a month into the American zones over the next four months. Over the next few years Israel would take in 142,000, the USA 72,000, Canada 16,000, Belgium 8,000, France, 2000, and the rest of the world combined 10,000.
1946 January 2, GENERAL SIR FREDERICK MORGAN (Germany)
The British Chief of Displaced Persons for the United Nations (UNRRA - The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) in Germany claimed that there was a Jewish conspiracy in trying to leave Europe. "They are well dressed, well fed, and rosy cheeked" and had "pockets bulging with money" and warned that the Jews were "growing into a world force." He also insisted that he did not find one "concrete example" of a pogrom within Poland since the war. Although he later claimed he was misquoted, he never retracted or explained what he really did say.
1946 January 6, POGROM IN ZANZUR (LIBYA)
Islamic instigators encouraged the local population to attack the Jewish community. Half of the 150 local Jews were murdered. The rioting spread to a number of small towns near Tripoli, leaving a death toll of approximately 180 Jews and nine synagogues destroyed. The local police and Arab soldiers often joined in the destruction and murder.
1946 May 1, ANGLO-AMERICAN COMMITTEE OF INQUIRY
After examining the situation in the DP camps, the committee concluded unanimously that no other country was willing to help Jews who wished to leave Europe. As such, in addition to trying to find other countries willing to take in Jewish refugees, 100,000 certificates for immigration to Eretz Israel was to be issued immediately. Although President Truman endorsed the recommendation, the British again turned him down.
1946 June 19, KFAR GILADI (Eretz Israel)
In a raid on the kibbutz, twelve members were injured while offering passive resistance. When hundreds of nearby residents tried to reach the kibbutz, the British opened fire, killing three and wounding six. In all, during the two days of confrontation, four Jews were killed, eighteen injured and more than 100 arrested.
1946 July 26, JAN MASARYK (Czechoslovakia)
The Czech foreign minister influenced the government to open its borders to Jews wishing to flee Poland. Within three months over 70,000 Jews, using transportation paid for by the Czechs, used this route to get to Eretz Israel.
1946 July 22, KING DAVID BOMBING (Jerusalem, Eretz Israel)
After the Black Sabbath, Moshe Sneh on July 1 ordered the Irgun to destroy the King David Hotel and the military headquarters located there. Four warnings were made: to the kitchen staff, the hotel, the Palestine Post, and the French consulate. According to witnesses, one high British official shouted "we are not here to take orders from the Jews, we give them orders." He then left, and ordered guards to prevent others from leaving. Twenty-five minutes later the bombs went off, killing 91 people. The British government originally denied that they had been warned, but they were forced to retract it and no inquiry was made as to why the order was given not to leave the building. Despite the orders by Sneh, the Jewish Agency fearful of world opinion, condemned the act. This marked the end of the united resistance movement.
1946 July, MISKOLC POGROM (Hungary)
Five Jews were killed and many injured. This, following a pogrom at Kunmadaras, convinced many Hungarian survivors that they should emigrate.
1946 December 9 - 24, ZIONIST CONGRESS (Basel, Switzerland)
The first Congress since the Holocaust. The Congress accepted the plan of the Zionist Organization "to establish a Jewish commonwealth integrated into the world democratic structure." A British proposal for a Jewish-Arab conference in London was rejected, and as a result Weizmann resigned. It was also reported that between July 1945 and December 1946, about 111,500 Jews succeeded in fleeing Poland, most of them organized by the Brichah organization.
1947 November 29, UNITED NATIONS (New York City, USA)
Voted in favor of the establishment of the State of Israel as a national homeland for the Jewish people in 55 percent of the country. The vote consisted of 33 in favor, 13 against, and 10 abstentions. Jews around the world reacted with dancing in the streets. The Arabs reacted with threats of violence.
1947 July 18, EXODUS 1947 (Eretz Israel)
Was towed to Haifa. The refugees were forced off the boat into three other boats. The Exodus (originally the President Warfield) carried 4,515 survivors and was stopped at sea by the British Navy. During the struggle, three Jews were killed and 28 injured. The passengers were forcibly removed and sent first to France. The Exodus was destined to become the symbol for all Jews prevented from being able to leave the slaughterhouse of Europe and immigrate to Israel.
1947 July 29, AVSHALOM HAVIV, YAAKOV WEISS AND MEIR NAKAR (Eretz Israel)
Were hanged. They were the last three Jews to be executed by the British. In retaliation the Irgun hanged two sergeants. British soldiers then began shooting in Tel Aviv, killing five and wounding twenty.
1948 March 11, JEWISH AGENCY BUILDING (Jerusalem, Eretz Israel)
Was bombed. A car driven by the chauffeur for the American consulate parked next to the building which served as the headquarters for the Yishuv. A guard, seeing that the car blocked the road, moved it to a side wing. Twelve people were killed and forty- four wounded. Since the U.N. resolution in November, around 850 Jews had been killed by Arab terror.
1948 April 23, HAIFA CAPTURED (Eretz Israel)
By the Haganah. Although loudspeakers called on the Arabs to stay, they fled in mass, urged to do so by leaders of the Arab High Command. Many of these leaders believed that the upcoming war would be helped by masses of Arab refugees whose presence would encourage them to join in the attack. The refugees were promised that they would only be away for a short time and would be able to return when the attacking armies "drive the Jews into the sea". They were also promised compensation for their property.
- See more at: http://jewishhistory.org.il/history.php?search=jews#sthash.nGOPhmdq.dpuf
1946 May 1, ANGLO - AMERICAN COMMISSION
On the Jewish refugee problem in Europe advised to allow the immediate entry of 100,000 Jews into Eretz Israel.
