Holocaust - Timeline - 1940

January 24

Jewish property in Generalgouvernement registered.

January 25

The Polish town of Oswiecim (Auschwitz) is chosen as the site of a new Nazi concentration camp.

February 10/13

First deportations from Pomerania (Stettin, Stralsund, Schneidemuehl) to Lublin, Poland.

March

Katyn Massacre: Soviets execute thousands of Polish officers.

April 9

Germany invades Denmark and Norway.

April 20

Secret order by the High Command of the Armed Forces: Discharge persons of mixed blood and husbands of Jewish women.

April 27

Himmler directive to establish a concentration camp at Auschwitz.

April 30

First guarded ghetto established in Lodz, Poland.

May 1

Rudolf Hoss is chosen to be kommandant of Auschwitz.

Norway surrenders to the German army.

May 10

Germany invades Holland, Belgium, and France. Chamberlain resigns; Churchill U.K.'s new prime minister.

May 15

Holland capitulates.

May 20

Auschwitz concentration camp is established.

May 26

Allies evacuate forces at Dunkirk.

May 28

Belgium capitulates.

June 5

Battle of France begins.

June 10

German troops defeat Denmark and Norway.

Italy declares war on Britain and France.

June 14

The Nazis occupy Paris.

June 18

Hitler presents Mussolini with Madagascar plan.

June 22

French army surrenders. Marshal Petain signs an armistice with Germany.

June 30

Lodz ghetto sealed off. From then on all Jews living in Lodz had to reside in the ghetto.

German forces occupy the Channel islands.

July 10

Vichy government formed.

Battle of Britain begins.

July 19

U.K. turns down German peace offer for recognition of domination in western Europe.

July 21

Hitler order preparations for an attack on Russia.

August 8

Anti­Jewish racist laws passed in Rumania.

August 17

Germany declares "Total blockade of Britain."

September 7

German "Blitz" on England reaches climax.

September 27

Germany, Italy, and Japan conclude Tripartite pact.

October 3

Anti-Jewish laws (Statut des Juifs) passed by Vichy government in France.

October 7

German troops enter Romania.

October 12

Hitler announces Operation Sea Lion (the plan to take over Britain) to be postponed.

October 16

Order for the establishment of the Warsaw Ghetto.

October 22

“Aktion Burckel”: Deportation of Jews from Alsace­Lorraine, Saarland, and Baden to Southern France, then in 1942, to Auschwitz. Jewish businesses in occupied Netherlands registered.

October 23

Hitler meets Franco, tries to get him to enter the war but fails.

October 28

Registration of Jewish property in Belgium. Italy invades Greece.

November 15

Hermetic sealing of the Warsaw Ghetto.

November 20/24

Hungary, Rumania, and Slovakia join the Axis powers.

December

"Oneg Shabbat" clandestine archives established.

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