HistoryFebruary 19, 2016
Samuel Willenberg Dies
On this day, February 19, 2016, Samuel Willenberg, a survivor of Treblinka and of its 1943 revolt, died in Israel at 93.
Era · Living archive
World War II
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HistoryNovember 5, 1945
Anti-Jewish Riots Break Out in Tripoli, Libya
On this day, November 5, 1945, anti-Jewish riots broke out in Tripoli. Over three days, about 120 Jews were killed in the city and nearby towns.
HistoryMay 5, 1945
U.S. Troops Liberate Mauthausen
On this day, May 5, 1945, a U.S. Army reconnaissance unit reached Mauthausen. Larger Third Army units arrived in the following days.
History29–30 April 1945
Soviet Forces Liberate Ravensbrück
Soviet forces liberated Ravensbrück on 29–30 April 1945. Remaining SS guards fled on the 29th; the Red Army vanguard arrived on the 30th.
HistoryApril 29, 1945
US Liberates Dachau
On April 29, 1945, American troops liberated the Dachau concentration camp, freeing approximately 32,000 prisoners after twelve years of Nazi imprisonment, forced labor, medical experimentation, and mass death.
HistoryApril 26, 1945
SS Begins Death Marches from Dachau
On this day, April 26, 1945, the SS began forcing prisoners from Dachau and its subcamps on death marches south toward the Alps, three days before U.S. troops reached the main camp.
HistoryApril 15, 1945
British Troops Liberate Bergen-Belsen
On this day, April 15, 1945, British troops entered Bergen-Belsen and found tens of thousands of prisoners, many dying of typhus and starvation.
HistoryApril 11, 1945
U.S. Troops Liberate Buchenwald
On this day, April 11, 1945, U.S. troops reached Buchenwald after prisoners seized control of the camp as the SS fled.
HistoryFebruary 13, 1945
Soviet Forces Liberate Gross-Rosen
On this day, February 13, 1945, Soviet forces liberated the main Gross-Rosen concentration camp after the SS had evacuated most prisoners.
HistoryJanuary 27, 1945
Soviet Troops Liberate Auschwitz
On this day, January 27, 1945, Soviet troops entered the Auschwitz camp complex and found about 7,000 remaining prisoners.
HistoryJanuary 26, 1945
Abba Berdichev Is Executed
On this day, January 26, 1945, the Nazis murdered Yishuv paratrooper Abba Berdichev at Mauthausen after capturing him in Slovakia.
HistoryJanuary 19, 1945
Soviet Troops Enter Łódź
On this day, January 19, 1945, the Red Army entered Łódź. About 800 Jews who had hidden in the former ghetto were liberated.
HistoryJanuary 18, 1945
SS Begins Evacuating Auschwitz
On this day, January 18, 1945, the SS began evacuating prisoners from the Auschwitz camp complex on death marches as Soviet forces approached.
History17–18 January 1945
Soviet Troops Liberate the Budapest Ghetto
On 17–18 January 1945, Soviet troops liberated the Pest ghetto. Tens of thousands of Jews were still inside. Buda fell a month later.
HistoryNovember 7, 1944
Hannah Szenes Is Executed
On this day, November 7, 1944, Hannah Szenes was executed by firing squad in Budapest. She was 23.
HistoryOctober 7, 1944
Sonderkommando Revolt at Auschwitz-Birkenau
On this day, October 7, 1944, Jewish Sonderkommando prisoners at Auschwitz-Birkenau attacked SS guards and set fire to Crematorium IV.
HistoryAugust 11, 1944
Joop Westerweel Is Murdered at Vught
On this day, August 11, 1944, German authorities executed Joop Westerweel at Vught for helping Jews escape Nazi deportation.
HistoryApril 11, 1944
A Transport from Athens Reaches Auschwitz
On 11 April 1944, Jews deported from Athens on transport no. 20 reached Auschwitz.
HistoryNovember 3, 1943–November 4, 1943
Operation Harvest Festival
On 3–4 November 1943, SS and police units murdered about 42,000 Jewish prisoners in the Lublin district during Operation Harvest Festival.
HistoryOctober 14, 1943
Prisoners Revolt at Sobibor
On this day, October 14, 1943, prisoners at Sobibor killed members of the SS staff and about 300 broke out of the camp.
History1–2 October 1943
German Police Begin Arresting Danish Jews
On the night of October 1–2, 1943, German police began arresting Jews in Denmark. Most escaped to Sweden after being warned.
HistoryAugust 16, 1943
Białystok Ghetto Uprising Begins
On this day, August 16, 1943, Jewish fighters in the Białystok ghetto rose as German forces began the final liquidation. The revolt was the second-largest ghetto uprising after Warsaw.
HistoryAugust 2, 1943
Prisoners Revolt at Treblinka
On this day, August 2, 1943, Jewish prisoners at the Treblinka killing center seized weapons and tried to break out. USHMM records that more than 300 escaped; German forces later recaptured and killed about two-thirds of them.
HistoryAugust 1, 1943
The Final Liquidation of the Będzin Ghetto Begins
On 1 August 1943, German forces began the final liquidation of the Będzin ghetto. Armed resistance slowed the clearance.
HistoryMay 8, 1943
Mordechai Anielewicz Is Killed
On this day, May 8, 1943, German forces seized the ŻOB bunker at 18 Miła Street. Mordechai Anielewicz died there during the Warsaw ghetto uprising.
HistoryApril 24, 1943
Rabbi Menachem Ziemba Is Killed
On this day, April 24, 1943, Rabbi Menachem Ziemba was shot in the Warsaw ghetto while fleeing a fire during the uprising.
HistoryApril 19, 1943
Bermuda Conference on Refugees Opens
On this day, April 19, 1943, British and American delegates opened a closed conference in Bermuda on wartime refugees. It produced no rescue program.
HistoryApril 19, 1943
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Begins
On this day, April 19, 1943, the first night of Passover, Jewish fighters in the Warsaw ghetto opened fire as German forces entered for the final deportation.
HistoryApril 19, 1943
Belgian Resistance Stops the Twentieth Convoy
On this day, April 19, 1943, three Belgian resistance fighters stopped a deportation train from Mechelen to Auschwitz, the only such attack on a convoy.
HistoryFebruary 18, 1943
Japan Designates a Restricted Zone in Shanghai
On this day, February 18, 1943, Japanese authorities in occupied Shanghai ordered stateless refugees, most of them Jews, into a designated area of Hongkou.
HistoryFebruary 9, 1943
Zofia Yamaika Dies Covering a Partisan Retreat
On this day, February 9, 1943, Zofia Yamaika was killed near Radom while covering her partisan unit’s retreat from a German attack.
HistoryJanuary 10, 1943
The Kopernik Camp in Mińsk Mazowiecki Is Liquidated
On 10 January 1943, German forces began liquidating the Kopernik labor camp in Mińsk Mazowiecki.
HistoryNovember 16, 1942
Joseph Schmidt Dies
On this day, November 16, 1942, the tenor Joseph Schmidt died near the Girenbad internment camp in Switzerland. He was 38.
HistoryJuly 22, 1942
Warsaw Ghetto Grossaktion Begins
On this day, July 22, 1942, German SS and police began mass deportations from the Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka. About 265,000 Jews were deported by September.
History13–14 July 1942
Nazis Liquidate the Rivne Ghetto
On 13–14 July 1942, German SS and Ukrainian police cleared the remaining Rivne ghetto. About 5,000 Jews were taken to the forest near Kostopil and shot.
HistoryJune 7, 1942
Jews in Occupied France Must Wear the Yellow Star
On this day, June 7, 1942, a German decree took effect requiring Jews in occupied France, aged six and older, to wear a yellow star marked Juif.
HistoryMay 21, 1942
First Roundup Begins in the Chełm Ghetto
On this day, May 21, 1942, the eve of Shavuot, the first roundup of Jews in the Chełm ghetto began. The Aktion lasted through May 23.
HistoryMarch 17, 1942
Deportations from Lublin to Bełżec Begin
On this day, March 17, 1942, German authorities began mass deportations from the Lublin ghetto to the Bełżec killing center.
HistoryFebruary 12, 1942
Avraham Stern Is Killed
On this day, February 12, 1942, British police shot Avraham Stern, founder of Lehi, in a Tel Aviv apartment. The circumstances of the shooting remain disputed.
HistoryJanuary 20, 1942
Wannsee Conference
On this day, January 20, 1942, Reinhard Heydrich chaired a meeting at a villa on the Wannsee in Berlin to coordinate the already-decided mass murder of European Jews.
HistoryDecember 27, 1941–January 7, 1942
The Kharkiv Ghetto Is Liquidated
From 27 December 1941 to 7 January 1942, the Kharkiv ghetto was emptied and its people were killed at Drobytsky Yar.
HistoryDecember 11, 1941
Hitler Declares War on the United States
On this day, December 11, 1941, Germany declared war on the United States, four days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
HistoryDecember 8, 1941
Killing Operations Begin at Chełmno
On this day, December 8, 1941, the SS and police murdered the first transport of Jews at Chełmno in gas vans.
HistoryDecember 8, 1941–December 9, 1941
German and Latvian Forces Murder Jews at Rumbula
On 8–9 December 1941, German SS and police and Latvian auxiliaries carried out the second mass shooting of Riga Jews at Rumbula.
HistoryOctober 1941
Himmler Assigns Globocnik the Murder of the General Government’s Jews
In October 1941, Heinrich Himmler assigned Odilo Globocnik to murder the Jews of the General Government, the program later called Operation Reinhard.
HistoryOctober 22, 1941–October 26, 1941
A Bombing in Odessa Becomes the Pretext for a Massacre
From 22 to 26 October 1941, after a bomb destroyed Romanian headquarters in Odessa, Romanian forces killed at least 25,000 to 30,000 Jews.
HistorySeptember 29, 1941–September 30, 1941
Massacre at Babi Yar
On 29–30 September 1941, German SS and police units murdered 33,771 Jews at the Babi Yar ravine outside Kyiv.
HistorySeptember 6, 1941
Nazis Establish the Vilna Ghetto
On this day, September 6, 1941, German authorities forced Vilna’s remaining Jews into two ghettos in the old Jewish quarter.
HistoryAugust 1941
Romania Orders Jews to Wear the Yellow Star
In August 1941, Mihai Antonescu ordered Jews in Romania to wear the yellow star. The order was revoked on 9 September 1941.
History26–28 August 1941
Massacre at Kamianets-Podilskyi
On 26–28 August 1941, SS and police units under Friedrich Jeckeln murdered 23,600 Jews near Kamianets-Podilskyi. More than half were deportees from Hungary.
HistoryAugust 20, 1941
Drancy Internment Camp Opens
On this day, August 20, 1941, French police interned thousands of Jewish men arrested in Paris at Drancy, opening the camp that later became the main transit point for deportations from France.
HistoryAugust 1, 1941
Bialystok Ghetto Is Sealed
On this day, August 1, 1941, German authorities confined about 50,000 Jews in the Bialystok ghetto.
HistoryJuly 1941
Nazis Establish the Minsk Ghetto
In late July 1941, German authorities established a ghetto in Minsk. About 80,000 Jews, including people from nearby towns, were crowded into the northwestern quarter.
HistoryJune 22, 1941
Germany Invades the Soviet Union
On this day, June 22, 1941, Germany launched Operation Barbarossa. More than three million German soldiers, with allied troops, attacked across a front from the Baltic to the Black Sea.
HistoryMay 15, 1941
The Palmach Is Established
On May 15, 1941, the Haganah national command ordered the Palmach formed as a countrywide combat reserve.
HistoryMay 14, 1941
Green Ticket Roundup Arrests Foreign Jews in Paris
On this day, May 14, 1941, French police arrested 3,710 foreign Jewish men in Paris who answered green-ticket summonses and sent them to camps in the Loiret.
HistoryApril 6, 1941
Germany Invades Yugoslavia and Greece
On this day, April 6, 1941, German forces invaded Yugoslavia and Greece. Occupation and the destruction of Jewish communities followed; those later crimes are not dated here as a single day.
HistoryFebruary 25, 1941–February 26, 1941
The February Strike Shuts Down Amsterdam
On 25 and 26 February 1941, Amsterdam stopped work to protest the German roundup of Jews.
History21–23 January 1941
Bucharest Pogrom Begins
On 21–23 January 1941, during the Legionary rebellion against Ion Antonescu, Iron Guard members murdered more than 120 Jews in Bucharest.
HistoryAugust 15, 1940
Eichmann Issues a Madagascar Plan Memorandum
On this day, August 15, 1940, Adolf Eichmann’s office issued a Madagascar Project memorandum calling for the forced resettlement of millions of European Jews on the island.
HistoryJuly 1940
Nazis Establish the Będzin Ghetto
In July 1940, German authorities announced a ghetto for Jews in Będzin. The quarter was not sealed at once. German forces liquidated it in August 1943.
HistoryApril 30, 1940
Nazis Seal the Łódź Ghetto
On this day, April 30, 1940, German authorities sealed the Łódź ghetto. About 160,000 Jews were already confined there.
HistoryFebruary 8, 1940
Order Establishes the Łódź Ghetto
On this day, February 8, 1940, German authorities in Łódź ordered Jews into a ghetto. The ghetto was sealed on May 1.
HistoryNovember 23, 1939
Hans Frank Orders Jews in the General Government to Wear Armbands
On this day, November 23, 1939, Hans Frank ordered Jews in the General Government over the age of ten to wear a white armband with a blue Star of David.
HistoryOctober 8, 1939
Nazis Establish the Piotrków Ghetto
On this day, October 8, 1939, German authorities ordered a ghetto in Piotrków Trybunalski, the first ghetto in occupied Poland.
HistorySeptember 1, 1939
Germany Invades Poland
On this day, September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Britain and France declared war on September 3.