Holocaust - Timeline - 1942

January 1

Declaration of the United Nations signed by Allied nations.

January 6

Molotov hands over information on mass graves.

January 14

Concentration and expulsion of Dutch Jewry begins.

January 15

Start of the “resettlements” from Lodz to the extermination camp Chelmno.

January 20

Wannsee Conference held to solidify plans for deportation and extermination of European Jewry (Final Solution).

January 21

United Partisan Organization established in Vienna

January 31

Report from Einsatzgruppe A pertaining to the liquidation of 229,052 Jews in the Baltic states.

End January

Start of deportations to Theresienstadt.

February/March

Mass murder of Jews in Charkow (Kharkov), Ukraine (14,000 victims).

February 24

More than 30,000 Jews deported from Lodz to Chelmno

March 1

Extermination of Jews begin at Sobibor. By October 1943, 250,000 Jews had been murdered there.

March 6

First conference on sterilization: Definitions pertaining to sterilization of persons of mixed blood.

March 13

Germans have already killed 240,000 Jews in Ukraine alone

March 16/17

Extermination camp Belzec established in Poland to murder Jews from Lublin, the Lublin district, and Galicia. 600,000 Jews were murdered there.

Mid March

Start of “Aktion Reinhard,” code name for the operation that had as its objective the physical destruction of the Jews in the interior of occupied Poland within the frame­ work of the Final Solution.

March 21

Resettlement of the ghetto in Lublin, Poland: 26,000 persons sent to extermination camps Belzec and Majdanek and other camps.

March 23

Over the next two days, the SS transfers 1,000 women — mainly German Jewish women but also Romani (Gypsy) women — from Ravensbrück to Auschwitz-Birkenau in German-occupied Poland. The SS establishes a women's camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

March 26

Public notices pertaining to the identification of Jewish homes in Germany.

March 26

Deportation of 60,000 Slovakian Jews, some to Auschwitz, others to the extermination camp Majdanek.

Starting end of March

Arrival of initial transports of Jews at the concentration and extermination camps Auschwitz (Auschwitz I & Auschwitz II).

April

Prohibition of the use of public transportation by Jews. Exception only for forced laborers, if their workplace is farther than seven kilometers from their place of residence. Taking a seat in the conveyance is not allowed.

Additional restrictions during the course of World War II: Jews were forbidden to use public telephones and automatic ticket dispensing machines; to congregate in railroad stations or visit restaurants; to enter forests (parks) or step on lawns; to keep dogs, cats, birds, or other pets; to place orders with organized skilled trades; and to obtain newspapers or periodicals. All electrical or optical equipment had to be turned in without compensation, as well as bicycles, typewriters, fur coats, and wool items.

Jews could not obtain any seafood items or ration cards for meat, clothing, milk, or tobacco. They were not allowed any white bread, fruit, canned fruit, candy or sweets, and shaving soap.

Jewish Anti-Facist Committee established in USSR.

April 8

Einsatzgruppen Report: No Jews left in Crimea.

April 30

Pinsk Ghetto established.

Early May

First mass killing in Sobibor extermination camp.

May 4

First selection for gassing preformed at Auschiwtz-Birkenau. These were the weak, sick and "unfit" prisoners.

May 18

The New York Times: More than 200,000 Jews shot by Germans.

May 21

The I.G. Farben synthetic-rubber and petroleum plant opens at Monowice, near Auschwitz, using Jewish forced laborers from the camp.

May 27

SS leader Heydrich is mortally wounded by Czech underground agents.

May 31

Auschwitz III (also known as Monowtiz or Buna) opened. This was an I.G. labor camp.

June 1

Introduction of the Star of David in France and Holland. Treblinka extermination camp opened. Mass exterminations by gassing were started on July 23, 1942, 700,000 Jews murdered there by August 1943.

June 2

Start of deportation of German Jews to Theresienstadt.

BBC: 700,000 Jews killed in Poland.

June 4

Heydrich dies of his wounds.

June 5

Army Group South besieges Sevastopol.

June 10

Germans liquidate Lidice in retaliation for Heydrich’s death.

June 21

Germans wrest Tobruk (Libya) from British.

June 22

First transports from Drancy camp to Auschwitz.

June 30

Closing of Jewish schools in Germany.

July 1

Massacres of Jews in Minsk, Lida, and Slonim, all in Belorussia.

July 2

Berlin Jews are sent to Theresienstadt.

July 4

Start of mass gassings at Auschwitz.

July 7

Himmler grants permission for sterilization experiments at Auschwitz.

Almost 200 women arrive in Ravensbrück from the Czech village of Lidice. The Germans destroyed Lidice, a small village outside Prague, in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the German governor of Bohemia and Moravia and head of the Security Police. SS forces killed all the men of Lidice and more than 50 women. They deported the remaining 200 women and almost 100 children to camps in Germany. Demolition squads burned and destroyed the village.

July 11

The Germans require all Jewish men between the ages of 18 and 45 living in Salonika to report to Liberty Square where they are to receive forced-labor assignments. 9,000 Jewish men report. About 2,000 are assigned to forced-labor projects for the German army. The remainder are detained until the Jewish communities of Salonika and Athens pay a huge ransom to the German occupation authorities for their release. As part of the payment, the Jewish cemetery in Salonika is transferred to city ownership. The city dismantles it and uses stones from the cemetery in the construction of a university on the site.

July 15

First deportation train from Holland to Auschwitz. Major police raids in Paris.

July 16

Roundup of Paris Jews.

July 19

Himmler orders Operation Reinhard, the mass deportation of Jews in Poland to extermination camps.

July 20

SS doctor Karl Gebhardt begins sulfanilamide experiments in Ravensbrück on about 80 concentration camp prisoners, mostly Polish women. Gebhardt seeks to determine the effectiveness of sulfanilamide in preventing infections in battlefield wounds for the benefit of the German armed forces. He deliberately inflicts wounds on prisoners and infects them with bacteria. He tests treatments of sulfanilamide and other drugs. Some women die as a result of these experiments; many others are crippled or maimed. Other experiments at Ravensbrück include the testing of various methods of setting and transplanting bones and sterilization experiments on women and children, mostly Roma (Gypsies).

July 21

Mass protest rally at Madison Square Garden.

July 22

Start of the “resettlement” of the inhabitants of the Warsaw Ghetto to the extermination camps at Belzec and Treblinka. By September 13, 300,000 Jews had been deported to Treblinka, 265,000 of those were murdered in the killing center. Armed resistance during liquidation of Nieswiez ghetto, western Belorussia.

July 23

Gassing operations begin at Treblinka.

July 28

Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB) founded in Warsaw.

July 31

Army Group South crosses the Don.

August 4

First deportations from Belgium to Auschwitz.

August 8

U.S. delays information on plan to annihilate Jews to verify sources.

August 9

Armed resistance during the liquidation of the Mir ghetto, western Belorussia.

August 10/22

“Resettlement” of the Lemberg (Lvov) ghetto in Ukraine. 40,000 Jews deported to extermination camps.

August 14

Arrest of 7,000 “stateless” Jews in unoccupied France.

August/September

Deportations from Zagreb, Croatia, to Auschwitz. Gassings near Minsk of Jews deported from Theresienstadt.

September 3

Armed resistance during liquidation of Lahava ghetto, western Belorussia.

September 9

Massacre of Jews near Kislowodsk, Caucasus.

September 12

Battle of Stalingrad begins.

September 16

Conclusion of “resettlement” of the Lodz ghetto (55,000 victims).

September 23

Armed resistance during the liquidation of the Tutzin ghetto, western Ukraine.

September 30

Hitler publicly repeats his forecast of the destruction of Jewry.

October 4

German concentration camps to be “free of Jews;" all Jewish inmates deported to Auschwitz.

October 5

The SS transfers more than 600 Jewish women from Ravensbrück to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The transfer is a response to an order from the Reich Security Main Office requiring the transfer of all Jewish concentration camp prisoners from camps in Germany to Auschwitz.

October 18

The Ministry of Justice transfers responsibility for Jews and citizens of the eastern countries within Germany to the Gestapo.

October 22

Nazis suppress revolt by Jews at Sachsenhausen assigned for deportation to Auschwitz.

October 23

British begin counteroffensive at El Alamein.

October 27

Second conference pertaining to sterilization.

October 28

First deportations from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz.

October 29

Mass execution of Jews in Pinsk, Belorussia (16,000 victims).

November 1

First deportation from Bialystok district to Auschwitz.

November 5

"Europa" rescue plan.

November 8

U.K. and U.S. invade N. Africa.

November 9

Germany occupies Tunisia.

November 10

British victories in Egypt.

November 19

Soviet counterattack near Stalingrad.

November 23

Red Army closes the 6th army in, in Stalingrad.

November 25

First deportation of Jews from Norway to Auschwitz.

December 4

Council for Aid to Jews (Zegota) established in Poland.

December 10

First transport of Jews from Germany arrives at Auschwitz.

December 17

Allies solemnly condemn the extermination of the Jews and promise to punish the perpetrators.

December 23

Jewish Fighting Organization attacks Germans in Cracow.

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