TheSecondWar.pl
Timeline
Battles
People
Places
Series
Glossary
pl
Timeline
Battles
People
Places
Series
Glossary
← Timeline
concentration camps
Tag
(34)
1933
February
28
The Reichstag Fire Decree
On 28 February 1933 Hindenburg signed a decree suspending civil rights. It allowed people to be locked up without trial and underpinned Nazi terror until 1945.
March
20
The Dachau concentration camp
On 20 March 1933 Himmler announced a concentration camp near Dachau. Two days later the first prisoners arrived, and the camp became the SS model.
November
24
The persecution of “asocials”
On 24 November 1933 Germany passed the Habitual Criminals Act. Indefinite detention, workhouses and castration struck beggars, vagrants and the poor.
1938
November
09
Key event
Kristallnacht
On 9–10 November 1938 the Nazis burned synagogues across the Reich, wrecked thousands of shops, killed hundreds of Jews and sent 30,000 men to camps.
1939
October
28
Demonstrations in Prague
On 28 October 1939, the anniversary of Czechoslovak independence, Czechs took to the streets. Shots in Prague killed Václav Sedláček and wounded Jan Opletal.
30
The British White Paper on concentration camps
On 30 October 1939 London published diplomats’ reports of 1938–1939 on terror in Germany, describing the beating and starving of Dachau and Buchenwald inmates.
November
17
Sonderaktion Prag
On 17 November 1939 the Germans closed the Czech universities, shot nine student leaders without trial and deported some 1,200 students to Sachsenhausen.
1940
September
19
Witold Pilecki arrives at Auschwitz
On 19 September 1940 Witold Pilecki let himself be caught in a Żoliborz roundup to enter Auschwitz. As prisoner no. 4859 he built a camp resistance network.
1941
March
01
Himmler orders the expansion of Auschwitz
On 1 March 1941 Himmler first visited Auschwitz. He ordered the camp enlarged for 30,000 prisoners and 10,000 prisoners provided to build the IG Farben plant.
July
20
Himmler in Lublin
On 20 July 1941 in Lublin Himmler ordered Globocnik to build a concentration camp for 25,000–50,000 prisoners. The history of Majdanek begins with this order.
October
01
The camp at Majdanek
From 1 October 1941 the SS was to build a camp near Lublin for 50,000 Soviet prisoners of war. So began Majdanek, where nearly 80,000 people died.
December
07
The Night and Fog decree
On 7 December 1941 Keitel signed Hitler's guidelines, later called the Nacht und Nebel decree. Suspected resisters in the West vanished secretly into the Reich.
1943
May
24
Mengele at Auschwitz
On 24 May 1943 Josef Mengele was posted to Auschwitz. From 30 May he was doctor of the Gypsy camp at Birkenau, conducting selections and criminal experiments.
July
07
Dornberger and von Braun meet Hitler
On 7 July 1943 at the Wolf’s Lair Dornberger and von Braun showed Hitler a film of an A4 launch. Hitler gave the programme top armaments priority.
August
02
The Gypsy family camp at Auschwitz
From February 1943 the Germans held whole Roma and Sinti families in section BIIe of Birkenau. About 23,000 people were sent there; most did not survive.
October
19
The order for 12,000 V-2 rockets
On 19 October 1943 the German Army Ordnance Office ordered 12,000 A4 rockets from Mittelwerk. They were to be assembled by prisoners of the Dora camp.
November
03
Key event
Operation Harvest Festival
On 3–4 November 1943 the SS and police shot about 42,000 Jews at Majdanek, Trawniki and Poniatowa – the last forced labourers of the Lublin region.
15
Himmler's order on the Roma
On 15 November 1943 a circular for the occupied USSR equated “itinerant” Roma with Jews and sent them to camps. The Auschwitz decree dated from December 1942.
19
The Janowska camp uprising
On 19 November 1943 the Germans murdered the Jewish prisoners of the Janowska camp in Lwów. That evening the “Death Brigade” of Sonderkommando 1005 revolted.
1944
March
01
The strikes in northern Italy
On 1 March 1944 a general strike began in Turin, Milan, Genoa and other cities of occupied Italy. The Germans and the Salò Fascists replied with deportations.
July
24
Key event
The liberation of Majdanek
During the fighting for Lublin, Soviet soldiers entered the abandoned camp at Majdanek. Its gas chambers and crematorium were left almost intact.
August
06
Black Sunday in Kraków
On 6 August 1944 the Germans carried out the largest round-up of the occupation in Kraków. Some 6,000–8,000 men were held as hostages in Płaszów camp.
20
Allied airmen at Buchenwald
On 20 August 1944, 168 downed Allied airmen were brought to Buchenwald, branded “terrorists” by the Germans rather than treated as prisoners of war.
October
07
Key event
The Sonderkommando revolt at Auschwitz
On 7 October 1944 Sonderkommando prisoners at Birkenau rose against the SS and set Crematorium IV on fire. About 450 prisoners and three SS men died.
November
26
Key event
The end of the gas chambers at Birkenau
In autumn 1944 the SS stopped gassing at Birkenau. On 26 November, by the accepted date, Himmler ordered the crematoria destroyed to hide the crime.
1945
January
27
Key event
The liberation of Auschwitz
On 27 January 1945 soldiers of the Soviet 60th Army entered Auschwitz. They found some 7,000 prisoners, hundreds of bodies and stores of victims’ belongings.
April
04
The liberation of Ohrdruf
On 4 April 1945 soldiers of the US Third Army entered Ohrdruf, a Buchenwald subcamp in Thuringia – the first Nazi camp liberated by the Americans.
09
The execution of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
At dawn on 9 April 1945 Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged at Flossenbürg, together with Admiral Canaris, General Oster and three other conspirators.
11
The liberation of Buchenwald
On 11 April 1945 the US 6th Armored Division reached Buchenwald near Weimar. The camp, taken over by the prisoners' underground, held some 21,000 inmates.
13
The Gardelegen massacre
On 13 April 1945, near Gardelegen in the Altmark, Germans burned and shot 1,016 concentration camp prisoners evacuated ahead of the front in a barn.
15
The liberation of Bergen-Belsen
On 15 April 1945 British troops entered the Bergen-Belsen camp. They found some 60,000 sick prisoners and more than 13,000 unburied bodies.
29
The liberation of Dachau
On 29 April 1945 soldiers of the US Seventh Army entered Dachau, the first concentration camp of the Third Reich, and freed more than 30,000 prisoners.
May
04
Neuengamme and the Cap Arcona
On 3 May 1945 the RAF sank ships holding Neuengamme prisoners in the Bay of Lübeck, killing some 7,000. On 4 May the British entered the empty camp.
05
The liberation of Mauthausen
On 5 May 1945 a patrol of the US 11th Armored Division reached Gusen and Mauthausen. At least 90,000 people died in the camp complex.