January 15, 1944: Belgium; Belgium Jews are among the latest victims of the German efforts to rid smaller areas of their Jewish population. They are sent to Birkenau.
January 18, 1944: Buczcz; 300 Jews who have been hiding for over nine months are surrounded by German tanks. They are all discovered and killed.
January 20, 1944: Lodz Ghetto Chronicle; ‘People are faced with the catastrophe of inevitable starvation.' 80,000 Jews are still living within the ghetto.
January 29, 1944: Cracow; Five Poles are put to death for helping Jews.
February 3, 1944: Drancy; The 67th train in eighteen months leaves for Birkenau. 985 of the 1,214 deportees are gassed upon their arrival. 184 where children under 18 year of age.
February 8, 1944: Holland; 1,000 Jews are deported to Birkenau, including 268 hospital patients. 200 were taken to barracks, the rest are all gassed within days.
February 9, 1944: Lodz Ghetto: The Ghetto receives machinery and a factory is set up, helping to secure survival for a while longer for many Jews. Unknown to them, the machinery came from Poniataw, which was obliterated of all its Jews the prior November.
February 23, 1944: Zwadka, Poland; A Polish man and his daughter are killed by Germans, along with the two Jewish women with whom he helped.
February 24, 1944: Birkenau; 200 of the 800 prisoners in the Sonderkommando were sent to Majdanek where they are shot.
March 4, 1944: Cracow; Hans Frank tells meeting of Nazi Party, "the Jews are a race which must be wiped out. Whenever we catch one - he will be exterminated.'
March 4, 1944: Warsaw; Four women were shot in the ghetto along with 80 non Jews. All their bodies, dead and wounded alike, were thrown into a building that was then lit on fire.
March 5, 1944: Drancy; Single deaths still occurred with frequency. On this day Max Jacob, early 19th century poet, dies while awaiting deportation. Earlier in his life he converted to Catholicism, yet was still forced to wear the yellow star and await his fate. Picasso was his godfather.
March 7, 1944: Drancy; The poet David Vogel is deported to Birkenau along with another 1,500 Jews. With the Red Army about 100 miles away from Hungary, Hitler launches Operation Margarete; the invasion of Hungary.
March 7, 1944: Birkenau; 3,860 Jews who had been living in "family quarters", where sent to the gas chambers. Five days earlier, in their special "family quarters", they were shown off to Red Cross representatives (who were not allowed to see the rest of the camp.) The Jews were told to write postcards to their Czech. relatives, but post date them. March 25, 26, and 27. The Jews would never live to see those days. Of this group, only 37 were spared, including eleven sets of twins. They would be sent to Dr. Mengele for medical experiments.
March 8, 1944: Warsaw Ghetto: 37 Jews are given away in their hiding places. Among them is Emanuel Ringelblum, noted historian and author of a detailed chronicle of the continual plight of the Warsaw Jews. Ringelblum is tortured for three days in which he reveal nothing about his fellow Jews in hiding. A few days later Ringelblum ( 43 year old), his wife, and 13 year old son Uri are executed.
March 10, 1944: Mauthausen concentration camp: Adolf Eichmann and his staff meet to work out the deportation of over 750,000 Jews from Hungary.
March 18, 1944: Austria; Hitler summons the Hungarian Regent, Admiral Horthy, for talks. Horthy guarantees the delivery of 100,000 Jewish workers for the German war effort. Yet he was still hesitant about a general deportation of the rest of the country's 750,000 Jews. At 9:30 that evening, German troops begin to enter Hungary.
March 19, 1944: Hungary; Germans arrest 200 Hungarian Jewish doctors and lawyers. Germany's first independent action in that Country. The Gestapo then set up activities in hundreds of Hungarian towns. They threatened thousands of prosperous Jews with death if they did not pay a homage of valuable belongings and money to the Gestapo. The results were devastatingly effective.
March 21, 1944: Hungary; Eichmann goes to Hungary to oversee German interests in a country that was still hesitant about deporting its Jews. They too would soon capitulate to German demands.
March 22, 1944: Koldzyczewo Work Camp; A Jew, Shlomo Kushnir, leads a revolt where ten Nazi guards are killed. Kushnir and 25 others are captured. Kushnir commits suicide.
March 25, 1944: Berlin; After weeks of political wrangling and German invasion, official word comes that Hungary is ready to deal with its Jewish "problem".
March 27, 1944: Riga, Kovno, and Vilna; As the Red Army approaches, Germany picks up the pace with actions against the surviving inhabitants of the ghettos. Children everywhere were being seized and driven off to their death. "The Children's Action" in Kovno resulted in the death of thousand of children under the age of 17. Most of them were shot. In order to spare their children from such horrors, some parents poisoned them. In Lodz, a mother kills her severely handicapped boy with a lead pipe across the head instead of allowing him to meet his fates with the Germans.
March 27, 1944: Belgium; Resistance fighter Abraham Geleman, born in Lodz, is killed.
March 31, 1944: Hungary; Every Jew is required to wear a yellow badge as of April 5.
April 5, 1944: Northern Italy; 835 Jews are deported to Birkenau. 559 are killed immediately upon their arrival.
April 6, 1944: Ain, France; 43 Jewish children are arrested. They are sent to Lyon, then to Drancy, then to Birkenau. Same day; 3,000 Germans under take a dawn-to-dusk search for Jews hiding in Warsaw. 75 were found and executed a few days later.
April 7, 1944: Budapest; The decision is made to deport the Jews. 7620,000 await their fate.
April 8, 1944; Birkenau; First night of Passover; A transport from Vittel, France arrives.
April 11, 1944; Holland; Anne Frank diary insert - ‘Who has made us Jews different to all other people? Who has allowed us to suffer so terribly up till now. It is God that has made us as we are, but it will be God, too, who will raise us up again. . ."
APRIL, 1944: Ponar execution Site; Blobal Commando: By now, 68,000 corpses were dug up by Jewish prisoners and burned in Germany's effort to destroy the evidence of their action. One digger had found the body of his brother during one of the digs. Another Jewish worker, Isaac Dogim, recognizes his wife, three sisters and three nieces. (He recognized his wife by the medallion he gave her.)
April 15, 1944; Ponar Execution Site: Diggers in the pit, having unburied tens of thousands of bodies, then burning them as part of the Blobal Commando Action, attempt to escape to freedom. They had been secretly digging a tunnel within the burial pits. 40 managed to get through the tunnel. 25 are found and shot, 15 were able to escape. The remaining 25 diggers were shot in punishment of the actions of the others.
April 29, 1944: Kistarcsa, Hungary; The first deportation from Hungary to Birkenau takes place.
April 30, 1944: Topolya, Hungary; The second deportation from Hungary to Birkenau takes place.2,000 Jews are transported. To fool the remaining Jews, the SS has the deported ones write postcards to their family back home.
May 3, 1944: Auschwitz Region; The first of a number of new factories open up in preparation to receive laborers from the deportation of Hungarian Jews. New labor camp opens in Myslowice, Bobrek, and Sosnoweic in preparation for the same action.
May 15, 1944: Hungary: Trains from Hungary begin crossing Slovakia and Southern Poland containing carloads of Jews. Their destination was Birkenau. Within a few days the pace would accelerate to the gassing and cremation of 12,000 Jews a day.
May 16, 1944: Bikenau begins a new series of tattoo numbers. Only those selected for work were given numbers. The Germans didn't bother with the others. On this day, along with countless others, 518 Italian Jews were gassed. Among them, seventy seven year old Daria Bauer and three year old Alina di Consiglio.
May 18, 1944: Parczew Region; Jewish partisan leader, Aleksander Skotnicki, dies his units action against an SS Viking division.
May 19, 1944: Hungary; Ghettoization and deportations placed pressure on the Jewish leaders who stressed that their followers "must trust and have faith."
May 24, 1944: Auschwitz; The deportations from Hungary to Berkenau average 13,000 Jews per day.
May 25, 1944: Budapest; German representative, General Edmund Veesnmayer reports that 138,870 Jews have been deported in the past 10 days.
May 27, 1944: Birkenau; Two Jews escape from Birkenau. They witnessed the first ten days of the Hungarian arrivals. They were able to tell the West the truth about the tragedies they survived through.
May 28, 1944: Berkenau; Some Jews try to revolt as they are marched to the gas chambers. They are machine-gunned to death.
May 29, 1944: After a three and a half day journey in cattle cars, doors are opened for the first time for a train of thousands of packed Hungarian Jews. Fifty five of them were found dead.
May 31, 1944: Budapest: German representative, SS General Edmund Veesnmayer reports that 60,000 more Hungarian Jews have been deported in the last six days. The total for the past 16 days stood at 204,312. This day 42 dead bodies were removed from the Berkenau bound trains.
June 3, 1944: Eichmann, "I have to clean up the provincial towns of the Jewish garbage. I must take this Jewish muck out of the provinces. I cannot play the role of the savior of the Jews." His response to Rudolf Kastner's plea to let some of the Hungarian Jews remain in Budapest.
June 3, 1944: A train from Lyon arrives in Birkenau. One survivor, Freda Silberberg, states how it was the French that arrested her, not the Germans. Dr. Mengele selects Freda for his experiment pool.
June 6, 1944: THE ALLIES LAND IN NORMANDY-------- D-DAY
June 6, 1944: Corfu, Greece; The Germans round up 1,795 Jews. 1,500 of them are gassed at Birkenau.
June 16, 1998: Lodz Ghetto; A call was made for volunteer who wanted to perform labor tasks of unsaid origin outside the ghetto. They were actually destined for Chelmo.
June 17, 1944: Budapest; SS General Veesenmayer notifies Berlin that the 340,000 Hungarian Jews had now been deported. All since April 29.
June 19, 1944: Dachau; 500 Jews are transferred from the death camp of Birkenau to the work camp at Dachau.
June 22, 1944: Dachau; 1000 Jews are transferred from the death camp of Birkenau to work the factories of Dachau. They were lucky. 98% of the Jews sent to Birkenau were gassed there. 1500 pairs of twins were tortured by Dr. Joseph Mengele in during his "medical experiments".
June 23, 1944: Lodz; After intensive search through the Ghetto for Jews, deportation begins and does not end until July 14. 3,000 Jews a week for three weeks. They would all perish once inside the fences of Chelmo. They were told that they on their way to work as laborers in Berlin or outside of Liepzig.
June 24, 1944: Birkenau; A pole and a Jewish girl escape from Belgium. The girl, Mala Zimetbaum, escapes through an airlock in the gas chamber waiting room. She became the camp interpreter and falls in love with a Polish man. They managed to escape only to be eventually caught and brought back to Auschwitz where they were tortured. They then were to be hung in public view by thousands of prisoners. Instead she produces a razor blade and slashes her wrists in front of the onlookers. Incensed, the SS shoots her dead.
June 27, 1944: Lyon, France; Germans execute 24 year old resistance leader.
June 28, 1944: Minsk; The Red Army makes gains into German territory. However, the bomb the labor camp of Maly Trostenets. The Germans lock all the Jews in their housing and torch them the structures to ashes.
June 30, 1944: Birkenau; 1,795 Jews arrive from Corfu.
July 1, 1944: Germany; As the war strains on, 1,000 Jews are taken from Birkenau and put to work within Germany.
July 2, 1944: Vilna; As the Red Army closes in, Germans seize 1800 Jews from their work in the factories and taken to Ponar where they are shot.
July 8, 1944: France; Marianne Cohn was killed along with five non-Jewish resistance fighters who were trying to escort a group of Jewish children to safety.
July 8, 1944: Budapest; Due to international pressure by the Pope, King of Sweden and the Red Cross (all who have only recently learned the extent of the Hungarian tragedy), this day saw the halt of the deportation of the Hungarian Jews. By now some 437,000 Hungarian Jews were deported. 170,000 still remained. Eichmann had other plans for them.
July 9 1944: Budapest; Raoul Wallenberg presents visas for 630 Hungarian Jews.
July 10, 1944: Warsaw; The search for Jews continue. Thirty men are shot in the Pawiak prison.
July 12, 1944: Kovno ghetto: The 8,000 remaining Jews were taken to Strutthof. Hundreds killed on the way.
July 13, 1944: Vilna; The Red Army liberates the town. The town was an empty shell by then.
July 15, 1944: Siauliai, Lithuania; The Red Army approaches, so the Germans clear out the town of its remaining four thousand Jews. More and more Jews are finding freedom in the arms of the advancing Red Army. Kovno Ghetto is also cleared out of its remaining Jews.
July 18, 1944: Rhodes and Kos, Greece; Jews, with roots dating back to 1492 are told to told to assemble. The men go through a two week ordeal of transport to Hungary.
July 19, 1944: 1,200 Jews are taken to Rakoscsaba and locked into trains bound for Birkenau.
July 20, 1944: FAILED ATTEMPT ON HITLER'S LIFE.
July 22, 1944: Parczew; The Germans withdraw, and the approach the forests where so many hunts for Jews had taken place. The Red Army occupies Chelm. The hopes of the 68,000 Jews left in Vilna rise.
July 24, 1944: Sarvar, Hungary; Deportations continue despite the retreat of the German Army. 1,500 are sent to Birkenau. This day, Soviet forces entered Majdanek. For the first time, allied observes gaze upon the gas chambers, crematoria and the remains of thousands of charred human remains.
July 26, 1944: General Bradley's forces break through the German lines at St.-Lo.
July 27, 1944: Lvov; The German Army retreats.
July 30, 1944: General Patton's army barrels through France and into Avranches. Opening the way for further Allied advancement.
July 31, 1944: France; As Western troops move forward to Paris, a last train leaves with over 300 deported children. On the same day, 3,000 Jews are transported from the labor camp at Blizyn to Birkenau where over 500 are gassed to death upon their arrival.
August 1, 1944: Warsaw Ghetto; Police resistance fighters take force against their German occupiers. Russian forces approach the Vistual. 16 months after the ghetto uprising. Coming out of hiding, and joins forces with other bands of survivors, Jews join in the battle. Many die.
August 3, 1944: Strassenhof camp; 2,400 Jews are marched away to never return. They were all under the age of eighteen and gassed in a makeshift crematorium. Three days later the Red Army liberates the 600 surviving camp members.
August 4, 1944: Amsterdam; Despite the closing in of the Allied Armies, Germany continues to search out and deport Jews. On this day they found a young women named Anne Frank. A month later she and her family were sent to Birkenau.
August 5, 1944: Gesiowka Labor Camp; The Polish army liberates 348 Jews.
August 7, 1944: Lodz Ghetto; 68,000 Jews remained. The largest gathering left in all of Europe. 67,000 of them were told they were to be resettled. Instead they are sent to Birkenau. Once there, most of them meet the usual horrific fate - selection, death by gas, and then the cremation of their bodies. Some of the crippled were specially selected by Dr. Mengele. He still had plenty of subjects to use for his medical "studies" and experiments.
August 7 - August 30: Birkenau; For 23 days, Jews arrive, boxcar by boxcar from Lodz ghetto. During that time a total of 67,000 Jews would meet their final fate at the death camp Birkenau.
August 8, 1944: Berlin; After a kangaroo trial, overseen by Goebbels, Hitler hangs the German officer corp of conspirators who tried to kill him. They are hung on meat hooks with chicken wired around their necks. The butchery is filmed and sent to Hitler for review. Over the next months many more conspirators would be sent to trial.
August 16, 1944: Birkenau; A train arrives from Athens with 1,651 Jews from Rhodes and 94 from Kos. Upon arrival and then separation, Sidney Fahn would see his wife and young child for the last time. Only 151 of these Jews would survive.
August 23, 1944: Rumania; Rumania surrenders to the Allies.
August 24, 1944: The Red Army continues to liberate towns empty of Jews where there were thousands before the Holocaust.
August 25, 1944: France; Paris is liberated by Patton and the allied armies. Jewish resistance fighters join the battles against the Germans in their quest for liberation of Lyon.
August 29, 1944: Lodz Ghetto; The last transport leaves Lodz Ghetto after two months of final liquidation of the Jewish population. Only 600 Jews remain from 76,000 who were still alive there on June 15.
August 31, 1944: Jews liberated from the Novaki labor camp join the battle for Banska Bystrica. Four weeks later Eichmann exacts revenge for the Slovak Uprising by deporting 8,975 Slovak Jews to Birkenau. Most were gassed upon their arrival.
September 5, 1944: Slovakia; A new government is formed that blames the Russians, Czechs and Jews for the recent uprising. The new leadership declares that "the Jewish problem in Slovakia demands a thorough solution."
September 8, 1944: Topolcany, Slovakia; More reprisals in reaction to the Slovakia Uprisings. Einsatzkommando break into Jewish homes and deport the town's Jewish population.
September 9, 1944: Chelmno; An inventory was reported of 775 wrist watches and 550 pocket watches have been collected since July from the victims of the Lodz ghetto cleansing.
September 10, 1944: Topolcany, Slovakia: 52 Jews hiding from the prior two days of SS reprisals are uncovered. They are brought to an open field, dig deep ditches and then are all shot dead. Among the dead were six young children.
September 15, 1944: Birkenau; 1,500 young boys are taken to the Children's Block. Three days later, on Rosh Hoshona Eve, they would be sent to the gas chambers.
September 17, 1944: Bor Labor Camp; As the Red Army approaches, the Germans start the evacuation of the Bor labor camp. The first Hungarian death march begins. 5,000 people would set off, only 9 would survive.
September 19, 1944: Rosh Hoshona; Klooga Camp; Almost the entire camp is killed in the German attempts to silence the witnesses. The number includes 1,500 Jews and 800 Russian prisoners-of-war.
September 24, 1944: Birkenau; Having murdered 400,000 Jews over the summer, the gassings slows down. A comparative few 200 Sonderkommando prisoners are be gassed. Only 661 Sonderkommando were left at the camp to be party to the continuation of the German dirty work.
September 25, 1944: Birkenau; Yom Kippur; - A reminder that the "Goebbels Calender" still was in effect. - 2000 boys would be told that extra bread would be given to them on their day of Atonement. Instead, 1000 would be chosen by Dr. Mengele to be sent to the gas chamber. In this instance the selection method was based on height. The shorter boys would be killed. 1,000s of Jews elsewhere would be sent to their deaths this day.
September 28, 1944: Birkenau; 1,000 of the 2,499 Jews sent from Theresienstadt are gassed.
September 29, 1944: Birkenau; 1,000 more Jews from Theresinstadt are gassed.
October 1, 1944: Birkenau; 1,000 more Jews from Theresinstadt are gassed.
October 4, 1944: Birkenau; All the women and children sent from Theresinstadt this day would be killed.
October 7, 1944: Birkenau; The Sonderkommando revolt instead of being selected to be "sent away." Chaim Neuhof is the first to strike an SS guard. Then the rest of the Crematorium IV men surge forward with pick and axes against their guards despite the arrival of multiple machine gun units. After setting fire to the Crematorium, the SS machine all the men down. However, Crematorium II Sonderkommandos and Russian prisoners take the lead. Many men from Crematorium III and V breakout through the fences. Almost are all caught and shot to death.
October 9, 1944: Birkenau; Simhat Torah. 650 boys involved with the Birkenau revolt were locked in the barracks together. Most of them would be tortured and then killed on October 20.
October 10, 1944: Fourteen men from the Sonderkommando who escaped during the revolt of October 7 are found. They are tortured along with many other picked up during the prior two days. But none gave away the locations of the of the hiding survivors. None of the men would survive the interrogation.
October 13, 1944: Riga; The Soviet Troops enter Riga. Only a handful of Jews survived where there were 30,000 just ten years earlier.
October 14, 1944: Field Marshall Rommel commits suicide. His only option is to face trial on conspiracy charges and then suffer death at the hands of his accusers. Suicide guaranteed that his family would not be hurt and that he would be given a state funeral.
October 15, 1944: Hungary; A truce is claimed between Budapest and the Allies. However, a successful coup is undertaken by the Arrow Cross, Hungarian Fascists Organization, who regain power. The remaining 170,000 Jews (from originally 500,000 at the beginning of the year), are again vulnerable after three months of no deportations.
October 15, 1944: Cracow; Plaszow Camp; The Germans empty the camp. Included in the evacuation were 700 of the Jews protected by Oscar Schindler. They are sent to the concentration camp at Gross Rosen. Schindler managed to retrieve these Jews, claiming the essential nature of their contribution to his factory and the war effort. Schindler also fought for release of 300 other of "his" Jews who were sent to Auschwitz.
October 16, 1944: Budapest; The Germans resume influence on Budapest. Jews are again dragged from their homes and into the streets. Then for the next 10 days, all Jews are forbidden to leave their homes.
October 17, 1944: Budapest: Adolf Eichmann returns to Budapest. He demands that 50,000 Jews be used as forced laborers in Germany and that they should march there on foot.
October 17, 1944: Birkenau; Mengele commences another selection of children to be sent to the gas chambers. Only his small selected group of about 200 twins were continued to be spared his wretched wrath.
October 18, 1944: Birkenau; Eva Heyman and Gisi Fleischmann, head of the women's Zionist movement in pre-war Slovakia were killed.
October 20, 1944: Birkenau; 600 of 650 boys between the ages of 14 and 16, locked in barracks since the Revolt at Birkenau on October 7, would be gassed. Most of them were Hungarians. On this day the deportations from Hungary begin again. Despite the uprisings, more Jews from Theresienstadt were selected for death. 1,416 would be gassed.
October 21, 1944: Crematorium III, Birkenau; Trunk loads of files, documents and papers concerning the Jews of Birkenau would be burned. The Germans began destroying the evidence of their evil. At the same time thousands of Jews would be sent away from Birkenau. The human evidence was being moved as well. Tens of thousands would die from hunger, cruelty and the raw elements as they marched from the concentration camp towards central Germany. Some would eventually find their way to Dachau and Stutthof.
October 22, 1944: Hungary; As the Soviets close in on Budapest, 25,000 Jews are deported and forced to dig anti-tank ditches on the Westward roads. Thousands were shot during the marches.
October 23, 1944: Hungary; Hungarian authorities agree to send another 25,000 Jews to Germany for purposes of forced labor. Charles Lutz, the Swiss Consul manages to save thousands of others by issuing collective passports and protective documents.
October 27, 1944: Warsaw; One of the few places still under German control. They still search for hidden Jews. Seven would be found and shot.
October 28, 1944: Birkenau; The last transport train from Theresienstadt would arrive with 2,038 Jews. 1,589 would find their fates in the gas chambers. Also 164 Jews from Bolzano would arrive. 137 of them would be immediately gassed.
October 31, 1944: Birkenau; The gas chambers are silenced and cease operating. The Germans begin to take them apart. All must be destroyed to hide their evil deeds.
November 1, 1944: The Russian army has driven the Germans from eastern Poland and from most of Hungary. Jews would begin to emerge from their hiding places.
November 4, 1944: Gyor, Hungary; The ‘Death March' from Bor, Hungary, makes its way to Gyor after a six week journey. Here hundreds of survivors are beaten or shot to death. The bodies are thrown into massive graves that the prisoners dug just before their extermination. 5,000 people would start the march, nine would survive to the end of the war. Many other similar marches would follow.
November 6, 1944: Hungary; Thousands of more Jews are sent Westward to Austria, to march to their deaths. Exposure, exhaustion and bullets would kill many. Wives would bury their husbands and then shot dead themselves into the same graves.
November 7, 1944: Birkenau; Birkenau's gas chambers are no longer operational. Jews who arrive there are given tattoo numbers (usually reserved practice for those who are not selected for death).
November 15, 1944: Budapest; Deportations continue. In the meantime they authorities establish an ‘international ghetto' consisting of dozens of buildings that housed Jews under Swiss protection as engineered by Charles Lutz.
November 18, 1944: Dachau; Individual deaths continue to happen. Enzo Serini is killed. So is Havivah Reik and Raffi Reiss and Zvi Ben Ya'acov. They were all Jews from Palestine who parachuted behind German lines.
November 25, 1944: Birkenau; Crematorium II is dismantled. Its remains are buried.
November 26, 1944: Birkenau; The remaining 206 Sonderkommando were killed. Those Jewish witness who were forced to assist the Germans, Poles, Lithuanians, and others perform the horrific work associated with the murder of millions of Jews are silenced.
November 28, 1944: Budapest; Fascist gangs attack a hospital of Jews, killing 28.
December 2, 1944: Budapest; Nyilas gangs attack a building of Jews that are under Swiss Protection. Three Jews are killed.
December 11, 1944: Chanukah; The surviving 2,000 Jews of Monowitz light candles in remembrance of the 12,000 who perished.
December 1944: Birkenau; The remaining crematoriums and gas chambers are dismantled, demolished and buried. The Germans continue to destroy the evidence. Pits filled with human ash are covered and planted with grass. At Treblinka, the Russian army liberates the camp. They are shocked by what they see.
December 25, 1944: Christmas, Upper Silesia labor camp; 60 Jews are selected to be shot. They no longer were able to work.