Wow it's that digging hole thing again...I've actually heard that in some countries, if you don't agree with the "popular" opinion, they dig a hole for you and put you in it....can you imagine such a thing!!
Rock, you're a victim, face it. The whole Soulstrut community is against you. Fight the power!
I didn't invent the phrase "Victim Of Soulstrut"...was here long before I got here.
Umm.. Are you saying that the US knew all along at what the nazis were doing?
I was under the impression that the US was trying to get into the war long before anyone knew the horrors.
If I remember correctly nobody knew what was happening in the concentration camps for sure until they were liberated although some intelligence had been recieved hinting at the situation, but I think this was after the US joined the war.
I actually think that is incorrect, because there were questions about why the allies didnt bomb the camps to put them out of operation
But I was talking about before the US entered the war. Not during...
The poster kinda made it seem like the US knew what was going on and didn't care about jews dying, which may have been the reason they didn't enter the war sooner.
Exactly, that was what I was trying to get across as well.
A short review from the Inter Press Service highlights the rise of neo-Nazism in 2000 in Europe and suggests that ???far from being a fringe activity, racism, violence and neo-nationalism have become normal in some communities. The problems need to tackled much earlier, in schools and with social programmes.???
Ethnic minorities and different cultures in one country can often be used as a scapegoat for the majority during times of economic crisis. That is one reason why Nazism became so popular.
In France, May 2002, the success of far right politician Le Pen in the run for leadership (though he lost out in the end) sent a huge shockwave throughout Europe, about how easy it was for far right parties to come close to getting power if there is complacency in the democratic processes and if participation is reduced.
In various places throughout Western Europe, in 2002, as Amnesty International highlights, there has been a rise in racist attacks and sentiments against both Arabs and Jews, in light of the increasing hostilities in the Middle East.
Earlier in 1998, in an area of Germany a right wing racist party won an unprecedented number of votes.
In Austria, the Freedom Party was able to secure the majority of the cabinet posts. The party is an extreme far right party, whose leader, Jorg Heider, has been accused of sympathetic statements towards the Nazis. The European Union has reacted to this indicating that Austria???s participation may be in jeopardy. This Guardian Special Report has much more in-depth coverage.
In Italy, there are attempts to try and deal with the rise in undocumented immigrants from Tunisia. The reactions from the right wing have been labeled by some as being ???openly racist???.
In 1997, Human Rights Watch noted that, ???The U.K. has one of the highest levels of racially-motivated violence and harassment in Western Europe, and the problem is getting worse.??? In April 1999, London saw two bombs explode in predominantly ethnic minority areas, in the space of one week, where a Nazi group has claimed responsibility. The summer of 2001 saw many race-related riots in various parts of northern England.
Spain has seen increased racial violence lately. The growing economy invites immigrants from North African countries such as Morocco. However, the poor conditions that immigrants have had to endure and the already racially charged region has led to friction and confrontations.
Greece has one of the worst records in the European Union for racism against ethnic minorities, according to the BBC. Anti-immigrant sentiment has long been high, especially against ethnic Albanians, who form the largest minority. Until the 1990s, the BBC notes, Greece had been an extremely homogenous society. With the fall of communism many immigrants from Eastern Europe came to Greece. Albanians especially have been targetted by a lot of racist sentiment. Some hostage taking by a few Albanians in recent years has not helped the situation.
So far, the above represents an incredibly tiny number of examples and details. Many, many more events haven???t been mentioned, as it is admittedly difficult to keep up with all the different items. For more details and up-to-date information, one web site to check out the UK-based Institute of Race Relations and their subsection attemping to document the rising support for the extreme-Right in local and central government in Europe, building on a platform of populist anti-immigrant policies.
Rock,
How do you know that these reports are REAL or not? What kind of slant did these writers have? What were their biases? How do you know whether they were based upon heresay or not?
You just told someone on another post:
One thing you won't see me do is pull quotes and paragraphs from the Internet to try to make a point. Biased opinions can be found everywhere, so all I can do is form MY OWN opinion based on what I see and hear directly from the mouths of those taking and living these actions.
A short review from the Inter Press Service highlights the rise of neo-Nazism in 2000 in Europe and suggests that ???far from being a fringe activity, racism, violence and neo-nationalism have become normal in some communities. The problems need to tackled much earlier, in schools and with social programmes.???
Ethnic minorities and different cultures in one country can often be used as a scapegoat for the majority during times of economic crisis. That is one reason why Nazism became so popular.
In France, May 2002, the success of far right politician Le Pen in the run for leadership (though he lost out in the end) sent a huge shockwave throughout Europe, about how easy it was for far right parties to come close to getting power if there is complacency in the democratic processes and if participation is reduced.
In various places throughout Western Europe, in 2002, as Amnesty International highlights, there has been a rise in racist attacks and sentiments against both Arabs and Jews, in light of the increasing hostilities in the Middle East.
Earlier in 1998, in an area of Germany a right wing racist party won an unprecedented number of votes.
In Austria, the Freedom Party was able to secure the majority of the cabinet posts. The party is an extreme far right party, whose leader, Jorg Heider, has been accused of sympathetic statements towards the Nazis. The European Union has reacted to this indicating that Austria???s participation may be in jeopardy. This Guardian Special Report has much more in-depth coverage.
In Italy, there are attempts to try and deal with the rise in undocumented immigrants from Tunisia. The reactions from the right wing have been labeled by some as being ???openly racist???.
In 1997, Human Rights Watch noted that, ???The U.K. has one of the highest levels of racially-motivated violence and harassment in Western Europe, and the problem is getting worse.??? In April 1999, London saw two bombs explode in predominantly ethnic minority areas, in the space of one week, where a Nazi group has claimed responsibility. The summer of 2001 saw many race-related riots in various parts of northern England.
Spain has seen increased racial violence lately. The growing economy invites immigrants from North African countries such as Morocco. However, the poor conditions that immigrants have had to endure and the already racially charged region has led to friction and confrontations.
Greece has one of the worst records in the European Union for racism against ethnic minorities, according to the BBC. Anti-immigrant sentiment has long been high, especially against ethnic Albanians, who form the largest minority. Until the 1990s, the BBC notes, Greece had been an extremely homogenous society. With the fall of communism many immigrants from Eastern Europe came to Greece. Albanians especially have been targetted by a lot of racist sentiment. Some hostage taking by a few Albanians in recent years has not helped the situation.
So far, the above represents an incredibly tiny number of examples and details. Many, many more events haven???t been mentioned, as it is admittedly difficult to keep up with all the different items. For more details and up-to-date information, one web site to check out the UK-based Institute of Race Relations and their subsection attemping to document the rising support for the extreme-Right in local and central government in Europe, building on a platform of populist anti-immigrant policies.
the source for this, www.globalissues.org, lists examples of racism in all continents. an important read for all of us.
they also have lengthy & interesting articles about the actual topic at hand.
i was in switzerland a little over a year ago, and the racism was really bad. worse than anything i ever saw living in the south. shit, look at austailia right now.
Saddam with WMD's scares me alot more than Hitler and his limited forces.
You obviously don't know a thing about Hitler and the Third Reich, about what they did and what they wanted to do.
He has a problem with facts.
Especially "facts" like this...
1996 - Intelligence
Al Qaeda and Iraq met again in Afghanistan but nothing came of it.
CIA report that Iraq had given Al Qaeda bomb training.
Read that timeline again. No one disputes the fact that Iraq and Al Qaeda met in 1996 to 1997. What you DIDN'T seem to read is that nothing came of the meetings, no cooperation, nothing.
The report that the CIA gave Iraq bomb training? Keep on reading the timeline. It turns out it came from an Iraqi defector who was considered a liar to begin with, and later took back his story.
See Rock,
Here's where you seem to coming from in this post.
1) For me, this is a slam dunk....If I knew 100% for sure that Saddam, one of the most evil men on the face of the planet, a man who killed 100,000+ of his own people as confirmed by the many mass graves in Iraq. A man who has directly and indirectly supported and praised terrorist attacks across the earth. A man who at least on the surface appears psychologically capable of using WMD's. A man who would not cooperate with the U.N. on 18 occasions had WMD's, I would feel that he would have to be stopped at any cost, even War. But only after we asked him pretty please with sugar on top to turn over these weapons. If you're going to argue that even if he had these weapons he couldn't effectively use them, then I change my answer to declaring war 15 minutes after he attains this ability
Saddam was a bad guy. Evil in fact. I won't argue that. He pretty much ran a totalitarian state.
Since these questions were hypothetical I really don't see any point in telling me how stupid or incorrect my opinion is or 23 page Internet articles proving that Saddam is just a misunderstood, peace loving, Dorito eating nice guy.. I respect your right to see things the way you do...it just scares me that so many appear unwilling to rid the planet of such obvious evil. Could it be that your blind hatred for George Bush just makes it impossible to suggest that even under hypothetical circumstances, you might agree with something/anything he does??
And since this is your hypothetical situation, you don't want anyone telling you about what happened in the real Iraq situation.
And yet, here's your opening question:
1) If WMD's had been found in Iraq would you then support the decision to go to War in Iraq? (Just the decision to go, not the tactics used once we were there)
Here's where I'm coming from. What Bush was claiming Iraq had was battlefield WMD. So if the U.S. actually found all that VX and sarin and other stuff that Bush was talking about, it was still battlefield WMD. So my answer to that question, is no, because even if what Bush was talking about was real, it wouldn't really be a threat for a number of reasons which I won't bore you with.
It seems like you put 1) Saddam bad guy, with 2) WMD are bad together, Saddam is a bad guy and he has bad weapons. Simple enough. Can't argue with that. When you look deeper into the situation, maybe you'll have a deeper perspective however.
First, the final solution started in summer of 41, death camps operational dec 41. Second, the US was very aware of what was going on. Furthermore, the Jewish community here in the US wrote many appeals to Roosevelt to destroy the rail lines to the death camps and he never acted to do so. Why? Probably considered militarily significant and certainly there was no real internal political pressure to save the Jews.
First, the final solution started in summer of 41, death camps operational dec 41. Second, the US was very aware of what was going on. Furthermore, the Jewish community here in the US wrote many appeals to Roosevelt to destroy the rail lines to the death camps and never acted on this. Why? Probably considered militarily significant and certainly there was no real internal political pressure to save the Jews.
First, the final solution started in summer of 41, death camps operational dec 41. Second, the US was very aware of what was going on. Furthermore, the Jewish community here in the US wrote many appeals to Roosevelt to destroy the rail lines to the death camps and never acted on this. Why? Probably considered militarily significant and certainly there was no real internal political pressure to save the Jews.
You really believe this?
Even if you don't believe the US was aware, at least marginally, of the death camps, there's no denying the US was aware of a cruel and systematic persecution of Jews being commited by the Nazis.
First, the final solution started in summer of 41, death camps operational dec 41. Second, the US was very aware of what was going on. Furthermore, the Jewish community here in the US wrote many appeals to Roosevelt to destroy the rail lines to the death camps and never acted on this. Why? Probably considered militarily significant and certainly there was no real internal political pressure to save the Jews.
You really believe this?
The letters from American Jewish leaders appealing for US intervention are on display in the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. You can check it out.
Here is a fairly thorogh timeline of the Holocaust. There is quite a bit of information on when exterminations were publicly known. For the complete timeline 1933 on click here
1941
In 1941 - Hans Frank, Gauleiter of Poland, states, "I ask nothing of the Jews except that they should disappear."
In Jan - Quote from Nazi newspaper, Der St??rmer, published by Julius Streicher - "Now judgment has begun and it will reach its conclusion only when knowledge of the Jews has been erased from the earth."
In Jan - A pogrom in Romania results in over 2,000 Jews killed.
Feb 22, 1941 - 430 Jewish hostages are deported from Amsterdam after a Dutch Nazi is killed by Jews.
In March - Hitler's Commissar Order authorizes execution of anyone suspected of being a Communist official in territories about to be seized from the Soviets.
March 1, 1941 - Himmler makes his first visit to Auschwitz, during which he orders Kommandant H??ss to begin massive expansion, including a new compound to be built at nearby Birkenau that can hold 100,000 prisoners.
March 2, 1941 - Nazis occupy Bulgaria (Jewish pop. 50,000).
March 7, 1941 - German Jews ordered into forced labor.
March 26, 1941 - The German Army High Command gives approval to RSHA and Heydrich on the tasks of SS murder squads (Einsatzgruppen) in occupied Poland.
March 29, 1941 - A 'Commissariat' for Jewish Affairs is set up in Vichy France.
April 6, 1941 - Nazis invade Yugoslavia (Jewish pop. 75,000) and Greece (Jewish pop. 77,000).
May 14, 1941 - 3,600 Jews arrested in Paris.
May 16, 1941 - French Marshal Petain issues a radio broadcast approving collaboration with Hitler.
June 22, 1941 - Nazis invade the Soviet Union (Jewish pop. 3 million).
June 29/30 - Romanian troops conduct a pogrom against Jews in the town of Jassy, killing 10,000.
Summer - Himmler summons Auschwitz Kommandant H??ss to Berlin and tells him, "The F??hrer has ordered the Final Solution of the Jewish question. We, the SS, have to carry out this order...I have therefore chosen Auschwitz for this purpose."
In July - As the German Army advances, SS Einsatzgruppen follow along and conduct mass murder of Jews in seized lands.
In July - Ghettos established at Kovno, Minsk, Vitebsk and Zhitomer. Also in July, the government of Vichy France seizes Jewish owned property.
July 17, 1941 - Nazi racial 'philosopher' Alfred Rosenberg is appointed Reich Minister for the Eastern Occupied Territories to administer territories seized from the Soviet Union.
July 21, 1941 - In occupied Poland near Lublin, Majdanek concentration camp becomes operational.
July 25/26 - 3,800 Jews killed during a pogrom by Lithuanians in Kovno.
July 31, 1941 - G??ring instructs Heydrich to prepare for Final Solution.
In Aug - Jews in Romania forced into Transnistria. By December, 70,000 perish.
In Aug - Ghettos established at Bialystok and Lvov.
Aug 26, 1941 - The Hungarian Army rounds up 18,000 Jews at Kamenets-Podolsk.
Sept 3, 1941 - The first test use of Zyklon-B gas at Auschwitz.
Sept 1, 1941 - German Jews ordered to wear yellow stars.
Sept 6, 1941 - The Vilna Ghetto is established containing 40,000 Jews.
Sept 17, 1941 - Beginning of general deportation of German Jews.
Sept 19, 1941 - Nazis take Kiev.
Sept 27/28 - 23,000 Jews killed at Kamenets-Podolsk, in the Ukraine.
Sept 29/30 - SS Einsatzgruppen murder 33,771 Jews at Babi Yar near Kiev.
In Oct - 35,000 Jews from Odessa shot.
Oct 2, 1941 - Beginning of the German Army drive on Moscow.
Oct 23, 1941 - Nazis forbid emigration of Jews from the Reich.
In Nov - SS Einsatzgruppe B reports a tally of 45,476 Jews killed.
Nov 24, 1941 - Theresienstadt Ghetto is established near Prague, Czechoslovakia. The Nazis will use it as a model ghetto for propaganda purposes.
Nov 30, 1941 - Near Riga, a mass shooting of Latvian and German Jews.
Dec 7, 1941 - Japanese attack United States at Pearl Harbor. The next day the U.S. and Britain declare war on Japan.
Dec 8, 1941 - In occupied Poland, near Lodz, Chelmno extermination camp becomes operational. Jews taken there are placed in mobile gas vans and driven to a burial place while carbon monoxide from the engine exhaust is fed into the sealed rear compartment, killing them. The first gassing victims include 5,000 Gypsies who had been deported from the Reich to Lodz.
Dec 11, 1941 - Hitler declares war on the United States. Roosevelt then declares war on Germany saying, "Never before has there been a greater challenge to life, liberty and civilization." The U.S.A. then enters the war in Europe and will concentrate nearly 90 percent of its military resources to defeat Hitler.
Dec 12, 1941 - The ship "Struma" leaves Romania for Palestine carrying 769 Jews but is later denied permission by British authorities to allow the passengers to disembark. In Feb. 1942, it sails back into the Black Sea where it is intercepted by a Soviet submarine and sunk as an "enemy target."
Dec 16, 1941 - During a cabinet meeting, Hans Frank, Gauleiter of Poland, states - "Gentlemen, I must ask you to rid yourselves of all feeling of pity. We must annihilate the Jews wherever we find them and wherever it is possible in order to maintain there the structure of the Reich as a whole..."
1942 Return to Top of Page
In Jan - Mass killings of Jews using Zyklon-B begin at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Bunker I (the red farmhouse) in Birkenau with the bodies being buried in mass graves in a nearby meadow.
Jan 20, 1942 - Wannsee Conference to coordinate the "Final Solution."
Jan 31, 1942 - SS Einsatzgruppe A reports a tally of 229,052 Jews killed.
In March - In occupied Poland, Belzec extermination camp becomes operational. The camp is fitted with permanent gas chambers using carbon monoxide piped in from engines placed outside the chamber, but will later substitute Zyklon-B.
March 17, 1942 - The deportation of Jews from Lublin to Belzec.
March 24, 1942 - The start of deportation of Slovak Jews to Auschwitz.
March 27, 1942 - The start of deportation of French Jews to Auschwitz.
March 28, 1942 - Fritz Sauckel named Chief of Manpower to expedite recruitment of slave labor.
March 30, 1942 - First trainloads of Jews from Paris arrive at Auschwitz.
In April - First transports of Jews arrive at Majdanek.
April 20, 1942 - German Jews are banned from using public transportation.
In May - In occupied Poland, Sobibor extermination camp becomes operational. The camp is fitted with three gas chambers using carbon monoxide piped in from engines, but will later substitute Zyklon-B.
May 18, 1942 - The New York Times reports on an inside page that Nazis have machine-gunned over 100,000 Jews in the Baltic states, 100,000 in Poland and twice as many in western Russia.
May 27, 1942 - SS leader Heydrich is mortally wounded by Czech Underground agents.
In June - Gas vans used in Riga.
June 1, 1942 - Jews in France, Holland, Belgium, Croatia, Slovakia, Romania ordered to wear yellow stars.
June 4, 1942 - Heydrich dies of his wounds.
June 5, 1942 - SS report 97,000 persons have been "processed" in mobile gas vans.
June 10, 1942 - Nazis liquidate Lidice in retaliation for Heydrich's death.
June 11, 1942 - Eichmann meets with representatives from France, Belgium and Holland to coordinate deportation plans for Jews.
June 30, 1942 - At Auschwitz, a second gas chamber, Bunker II (the white farmhouse),
is made operational at Birkenau due to the number of Jews arriving.
June 30 and July 2 - The New York Times reports via the London Daily Telegraph that over 1,000,000 Jews have already been killed by Nazis.
Summer - Swiss representatives of the World Jewish Congress receive information from a German industrialist regarding the Nazi plan to exterminate the Jews. They then pass the information on to London and Washington.
July 2, 1942 - Jews from Berlin sent to Theresienstadt.
July 7, 1942 - Himmler grants permission for sterilization experiments at Auschwitz.
July 14, 1942 - Beginning of deportation of Dutch Jews to Auschwitz.
July 16/17 - 12,887 Jews of Paris are rounded up and sent to Drancy Internment Camp located outside the city. A total of approximately 74,000 Jews, including 11,000 children, will eventually be transported from Drancy to Auschwitz, Majdanek and Sobibor.
July 17/18 - Himmler visits Auschwitz-Birkenau for two days, inspecting all ongoing construction and expansion, then observes the extermination process from start to finish as two trainloads of Jews arrive from Holland. Kommandant H??ss is then promoted. Construction includes four large gas chamber/crematories.
July 19, 1942 - Himmler orders Operation Reinhard, mass deportations of Jews in Poland to extermination camps.
July 22, 1942 - Beginning of deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to the new extermination camp, Treblinka. Also, beginning of the deportation of Belgian Jews to Auschwitz.
July 23, 1942 - Treblinka extermination camp opened in occupied Poland, east of Warsaw. The camp is fitted with two buildings containing 10 gas chambers, each holding 200 persons. Carbon monoxide gas is piped in from engines placed outside the chamber, but Zyklon-B will later be substituted. Bodies are burned in open pits.
In Aug - The start of deportations of Croatian Jews to Auschwitz.
Aug 23, 1942 - Beginning of German Army attack on Stalingrad.
Aug 26-28 - 7,000 Jews arrested in unoccupied France.
Sept 9, 1942 - Open pit burning of bodies begins at Auschwitz in place of burial. The decision is made to dig up and burn those already buried, 107,000 corpses, to prevent fouling of ground water.
Sept 18, 1942 - Reduction of food rations for Jews in Germany.
Sept 26, 1942 - SS begins cashing in possessions and valuables of Jews from Auschwitz and Majdanek. German banknotes are sent to the Reichs Bank. Foreign currency, gold, jewels and other valuables are sent to SS Headquarters of the Economic Administration. Watches, clocks and pens are distributed to troops at the front. Clothing is distributed to German families. By Feb. 1943, over 800 boxcars of confiscated goods will have left Auschwitz.
Oct 5, 1942 - Himmler orders all Jews in concentration camps in Germany to be sent to Auschwitz and Majdanek.
Oct 5, 1942 - A German eyewitness observes SS mass murder.
Oct 14, 1942 - Mass killing of Jews from Mizocz Ghetto in the Ukraine.
Oct 22, 1942 - SS put down a revolt at Sachsenhausen by a group of Jews about to be sent to Auschwitz.
Oct 25, 1942 - Deportations of Jews from Norway to Auschwitz begin.
Oct 28, 1942 - The first transport from Theresienstadt arrives at Auschwitz.
In Nov - The mass killing of 170,000 Jews in the area of Bialystok.
Dec 10, 1942 - The first transport of Jews from Germany arrives at Auschwitz.
In Dec - Exterminations at Belzec cease after an estimated 600,000 Jews have been murdered. The camp is then dismantled, plowed over and planted.
Dec 17, 1942 - British Foreign Secretary Eden tells the British House of Commons the Nazis are "now carrying into effect Hitler's oft repeated intention to exterminate the Jewish people of Europe." U.S. declares those crimes will be avenged.
Dec 28, 1942 - Sterilization experiments on women at Birkenau begin.
Map of Concentration/Death Camps
1943 Return to Top of Page
In 1943 - The number of Jews killed by SS Einsatzgruppen passes one million. Nazis then use special units of slave laborers to dig up and burn the bodies to remove all traces.
Jan 18, 1943 - First resistance by Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Jan 29, 1943 - Nazis order all Gypsies arrested and sent to extermination camps.
Jan 30, 1943 - Ernst Kaltenbrunner succeeds Heydrich as head of RSHA.
In Feb - The Romanian government proposes to the Allies the transfer of 70,000 Jews to Palestine, but receives no response from Britain or the U.S.
In Feb - Greek Jews are ordered into ghettos.
Feb 2, 1943 - Germans surrender at Stalingrad in the first big defeat of Hitler's armies.
Feb 27, 1943 - Jews working in Berlin armaments industry are sent to Auschwitz.
In March - The start of deportations of Jews from Greece to Auschwitz, lasting until August, totaling 49,900 persons.
March 1, 1943 - In New York, American Jews hold a mass rally at Madison Square Garden to pressure the U.S. government into helping the Jews of Europe
March 14, 1943 - The Krakow Ghetto is liquidated.
March 17, 1943 - Bulgaria states opposition to deportation of its Jews.
March 22, 1943 - Newly built gas chamber/crematory IV opens at Auschwitz.
March 31, 1943 - Newly built gas chamber/crematory II opens at Auschwitz.
April 4, 1943 - Newly built gas chamber/crematory V opens at Auschwitz.
April 9, 1943 - Exterminations at Chelmno cease. The camp will be reactivated in the spring of 1944 to liquidate ghettos. In all, Chelmno will total 300,000 deaths.
April 19-30 - The Bermuda Conference occurs as representatives from the U.S. and Britain discuss the problem of refugees from Nazi-occupied countries, but results in inaction concerning the plight of the Jews.
April 19, 1943 - Waffen SS attacks Jewish Resistance in Warsaw Ghetto.
In May - SS Dr. Josef Mengele arrives at Auschwitz.
May 13, 1943 - German and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allies.
May 19, 1943 - Nazis declare Berlin to be Judenfrei (cleansed of Jews).
June 11, 1943 - Himmler orders liquidation of all Jewish ghettos in occupied Poland.
June 25, 1943 - Newly built gas chamber/crematory III opens at Auschwitz. With its completion, the four new crematories at Auschwitz have a daily capacity of 4,756 bodies.
July 9/10 - Allies land in Sicily.
Aug 2, 1943 - Two hundred Jews escape from Treblinka extermination camp during a revolt. Nazis then hunt them down one by one.
Aug 16, 1943 - The Bialystok Ghetto is liquidated.
In Aug - Exterminations cease at Treblinka, after an estimated 870,000 deaths.
In Sept - The Vilna and Minsk Ghettos are liquidated.
Sept 11, 1943 - Germans occupy Rome, after occupying northern and central Italy, containing in all about 35,000 Jews.
Sept 11, 1943 - Beginning of Jewish family transports from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz.
In Oct - The Danish Underground helps transport 7,220 Danish Jews to safety in Sweden by sea.
Oct 4 - Himmler talks openly about the Final Solution at Posen.
Oct 14, 1943 - Massive escape from Sobibor as Jews and Soviet POWs break out, with 300 making it safely into nearby woods. Of those 300, fifty will survive. Exterminations then cease at Sobibor, after over 250,000 deaths. All traces of the death camp are then removed and trees are planted.
Oct 16, 1943 - Jews in Rome rounded up, with over 1,000 sent to Auschwitz.
In Nov - The Riga Ghetto is liquidated.
In Nov - The U.S. Congress holds hearings regarding the U.S. State Department's inaction regarding European Jews, despite mounting reports of mass extermination.
Nov 3, 1943 - Nazis carry out Operation
Harvest Festival in occupied Poland, killing 42,000 Jews.
Nov 4, 1943 - Quote from Nazi newspaper, Der St??rmer, published by Julius Streicher - "It is actually true that the Jews have, so to speak, disappeared from Europe and that the Jewish 'Reservoir of the East' from which the Jewish pestilence has for centuries beset the peoples of Europe has ceased to exist. But the F??hrer of the German people at the beginning of the war prophesied what has now come to pass."
Nov 11, 1943 - Auschwitz Kommandant H??ss is promoted to chief inspector of concentration camps. The new kommandant, Liebehenschel, then divides up the vast Auschwitz complex of over 30 sub-camps into three main sections.
Dec 2, 1943 - The first transport of Jews from Vienna arrives at Auschwitz.
Dec 16, 1943 - The chief surgeon at Auschwitz reports that 106 castration operations have been performed.
1944 Return to Top of Page
Jan 3, 1944 - Soviet troops reach former Polish border.
Jan 24, 1944 - In response to political pressure to help Jews under Nazi control, Roosevelt creates the War Refugee Board.
Jan 25, 1944 - Diary entry by Hans Frank, Gauleiter of Poland, concerning the fate of 2.5 million Jews originally under his jurisdiction - "At the present time we still have in the General Government perhaps 100,000 Jews."
In Feb - Eichmann visits Auschwitz.
March 19, 1944 - Nazis occupy Hungary (Jewish pop. 725,000). Eichmann arrives with Gestapo "Special Section Commandos."
March 24, 1944 - President Roosevelt issues a statement condemning German and Japanese ongoing "crimes against humanity."
April 5, 1944 - A Jewish inmate, Siegfried Lederer, escapes from Auschwitz-Birkenau and makes it safely to Czechoslovakia. He then warns the Elders of the Council at Theresienstadt about Auschwitz.
April 6, 1944 - Nazis raid a French home for Jewish children.
April 7, 1944 - Two Jewish inmates escape from Auschwitz-Birkenau and make it safely to Czechoslovakia. One of them, Rudolf Vrba, submits a report to the Papal Nuncio in Slovakia which is forwarded to the Vatican, received there in mid June.
April 14, 1944 - First transports of Jews from Athens to Auschwitz, totaling 5,200 persons.
In May - Himmler's agents secretly propose to the western Allies to trade Jews for trucks, other commodities or money.
May 8, 1944 - Rudolf H??ss returns to Auschwitz, ordered by Himmler to oversee the extermination of Hungarian Jews.
May 15, 1944 - Beginning of deportation of Jews from Hungary to Auschwitz.
May 16, 1944 - Jews from Hungary arrive at Auschwitz. Eichmann arrives to personally oversee and speed up the extermination process. By May 24, an estimated 100,000 have been gassed. Between May 16 and May 31, the SS report collecting 88 pounds of gold and white metal from the teeth of those gassed. By the end of June, 381,661 persons - half of the Jews in Hungary - arrive at Auschwitz.
In June - A Red Cross delegation visits Theresienstadt after the Nazis have carefully prepared the camp and the Jewish inmates, resulting in a favorable report.
June 6, 1944 - D-Day: Allied landings in Normandy.
June 12, 1944 - Rosenberg orders Hay Action the kidnapping of 40,000 Polish children aged ten to fourteen for slave labor in the Reich.
Summer - Auschwitz-Birkenau records its highest-ever daily number of persons gassed and burned at just over 9,000. Six huge pits are used to burn bodies, as the number exceeds the capacity of the crematories.
In July - Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg arrives in Budapest, Hungary, and proceeds to save nearly 33,000 Jews by issuing diplomatic papers and establishing 'safe houses.'
July 24, 1944 - Soviet troops liberate first concentration camp at Majdanek where over 360,000 had been murdered.
Aug 4, 1944 - Anne Frank and family arrested by Gestapo in Amsterdam, then sent to Auschwitz. Anne and her sister Margot are later sent to Bergen-Belsen where Anne dies of typhus on March 15, 1945.
Aug 6, 1944 - The last Jewish ghetto in Poland, Lodz, is liquidated with 60,000 Jews sent to Auschwitz.
Oct 7, 1944 - A revolt by Sonderkommando (Jewish slave laborers) at Auschwitz-Birkenau results in complete destruction of Crematory IV.
Oct 15, 1944 - Nazis seize control of the Hungarian puppet government, then resume deporting Jews, which had temporarily ceased due to international political pressure to stop Jewish persecutions.
Oct 17, 1944 - Eichmann arrives in Hungary.
Oct 28, 1944 - The last transport of Jews to be gassed, 2,000 from Theresienstadt, arrives at Auschwitz.
Oct 30, 1944 - Last use of gas chambers at Auschwitz.
Nov 8, 1944 - Nazis force 25,000 Jews to walk over 100 miles in rain and snow from Budapest to the Austrian border, followed by a second forced march of 50,000 persons, ending at Mauthausen.
Nov 25, 1944 - Himmler orders the destruction of the crematories at Auschwitz.
Late 1944 - Oskar Schindler saves 1200 Jews by moving them from Plaszow labor camp to his hometown of Brunnlitz.
1945 Return to Top of Page
In 1945 - As the Allies advance, the Nazis conduct death marches of concentration camp inmates away from outlying areas.
Jan 6, 1945 - Soviets liberate Budapest, freeing over 80,000 Jews.
Jan 14, 1945 - Invasion of eastern Germany by Soviet troops.
Jan 17, 1945 - Liberation of Warsaw by the Soviets.
Jan 18, 1945 - Nazis evacuate 66,000 from Auschwitz.
Jan 27, 1945 - Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz. By this time, an estimated 2,000,000 persons, including 1,500,000 Jews, have been murdered there.
April 4, 1945 - Ohrdruf camp is liberated, later visited by General Eisenhower.
April 10, 1945 - Allies liberate Buchenwald.
April 15, 1945 - Approximately 40,000 prisoners freed at Bergen-Belsen by the British, who report "both inside and outside the huts was a carpet of dead bodies, human excreta, rags and filth."
April 23, 1945 - Berlin reached by Soviet troops.
April 29, 1945 - U.S. 7th Army liberates Dachau.
April 30, 1945 - Hitler commits suicide in his Berlin bunker.
April 30, 1945 - Americans free 33,000 inmates from concentration camps.
May 2, 1945 - Theresienstadt taken over by the Red Cross.
May 5, 1945 - Mauthausen liberated.
May 7, 1945 - Unconditional German surrender signed by Gen. Jodl at Reims.
May 9, 1945 - Hermann G??ring captured by members of U.S. 7th Army.
May 23, 1945 - SS Reichsf??hrer Himmler commits suicide.
Nov 20, 1945 - Opening of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal.
I'm not debating on when did or didn't leaders know what was going on. I mean... I think you could debate more on why many countries either closed their borders fully or tightened them.
But the idea of the US could have just bombed rail lines would have saved lives... Maybe at best you would have slowed down the process (Maybe...). But you weren't stopping the death marches until you got to them.
Just reading up on Churchill and what he knew and what he wanted to do tells you quite a bit on the matter.
I'm not debating on when did or didn't leaders know what was going on. I mean... I think you could debate more on why many countries either closed their borders fully or tightened them.
But the idea of the US could have just bombed rail lines would have saved lives... Maybe at best you would have slowed down the process (Maybe...). But you weren't stopping the death marches until you got to them.
Your logic implies that the Allies were actually interested in stopping the death marches. If that were the case, why did they later refuse to bomb military targets near death camps, citing fuel and ammo conservation concerns, I believe, yet had no qualms about devastating Dresden? Why didn't they move Jewish prisoners to healthier quarters once the camps were liberated, rather than keeping them in conditions only marginally better than when the Nazis were in control?
I'm not debating on when did or didn't leaders know what was going on. I mean... I think you could debate more on why many countries either closed their borders fully or tightened them.
But the idea of the US could have just bombed rail lines would have saved lives... Maybe at best you would have slowed down the process (Maybe...). But you weren't stopping the death marches until you got to them.
Your logic implies that the Allies were actually interested in stopping the death marches. If that were the case, why did they later refuse to bomb military targets near death camps, citing fuel and ammo conservation concerns, I believe, yet had no qualms about devastating Dresden? Why didn't they move Jewish prisoners to healthier quarters once the camps were liberated, rather than keeping them in conditions only marginally better than when the Nazis were in control?
Dude, what were the conditions of forces on the front line??? Very few were living it up anything special... Most were living in their own hell.
And I was under the impression that when the camps were first encountered, that they didn't release them right away from those hell holes for a reason. Same reason they didn't give them tons of food and water... It probably ended up saving many lives.
Are you implying the allies were anti-semetic ? That seems to be the line you are taking...
Plaese to stop with the "either/or" rhetoric, it's getting old. I'm not saying the Allied forces as a whole, meaning every single soldier, officer or politician, was anti-semetic. I am saying that anti-semetism was high among various individuals and organizations (i.e. big business) in the US prior to entering the war and the US and British Militaries had little or no interest in making the saving of Jews a priority.
To put this back into the context of my larger argument, I'm saying that WWII propaganda led the US public to wrongly believe that they were entering a "just" war in order to fight facism. Our current administration is also using propaganda (e.g. citing Saddam's ruthless mistreatment of his people as justification for bombing the shit out of the same people) in order to win over a wary public.
And I was under the impression that when the camps were first encountered, that they didn't release them right away from those hell holes for a reason. Same reason they didn't give them tons of food and water... It probably ended up saving many lives.
Now it's my turn to be confused. How exactly did they save lives by not releasing them from "hell holes" or giving them ample food and water?
And I was under the impression that when the camps were first encountered, that they didn't release them right away from those hell holes for a reason. Same reason they didn't give them tons of food and water... It probably ended up saving many lives.
Now it's my turn to be confused. How exactly did they save lives by not releasing them from "hell holes" or giving them ample food and water?
You do know what happens to a human who is almost dead and severely malnourish and you give them "ample" amounts of food and water right?
And I was under the impression that when the camps were first encountered, that they didn't release them right away from those hell holes for a reason. Same reason they didn't give them tons of food and water... It probably ended up saving many lives.
Now it's my turn to be confused. How exactly did they save lives by not releasing them from "hell holes" or giving them ample food and water?
Of all the things to base this upon, but on that series "Band Of Brothers" which was based upon the book on a regiment of the 101st Airborne, they had an episode where they liberated a concentration camp. A medical officer told them they should only be given the basics in food and water because they'd been starved so much they could overeat and die. Don't know how. They were also concerned with the spread of diseases and sickness from the prisoners so they kept them in the camp until they could check em all and find places to house them. Bad thing to base a resonse upon I know, but perhaps that's what happened in that situation.
And I was under the impression that when the camps were first encountered, that they didn't release them right away from those hell holes for a reason. Same reason they didn't give them tons of food and water... It probably ended up saving many lives.
Now it's my turn to be confused. How exactly did they save lives by not releasing them from "hell holes" or giving them ample food and water?
Of all the things to base this upon, but on that series "Band Of Brothers" which was based upon the book on a regiment of the 101st Airborne, they had an episode where they liberated a concentration camp. A medical officer told them they should only be given the basics in food and water because they'd been starved so much they could overeat and die. Don't know how. They were also concerned with the spread of diseases and sickness from the prisoners so they kept them in the camp until they could check em all and find places to house them. Bad thing to base a resonse upon I know, but perhaps that's what happened in that situation.
Umm.. Thats not what I was thinking... It's more from things I've read from dealing with people dying of hunger in Africa. but ok...
Comments
I didn't invent the phrase "Victim Of Soulstrut"...was here long before I got here.
Exactly, that was what I was trying to get across as well.
Rock,
How do you know that these reports are REAL or not? What kind of slant did these writers have? What were their biases? How do you know whether they were based upon heresay or not?
You just told someone on another post:
How things change.
even in the Boston Globe
Wow, nice come back from your own apparent laziness to look up two studies. It's the liberal medias fault that I can't look something up.
the source for this, www.globalissues.org, lists examples of racism in all continents. an important read for all of us.
they also have lengthy & interesting articles about the actual topic at hand.
Oh, for certain. But Bush's foreign policy has certainly amplified that hostility quite a bit and even added a lot of new voices to the chorus.
You obviously don't know a thing about Hitler and the Third Reich, about what they did and what they wanted to do.
He has a problem with facts.
Especially "facts" like this...
1996 - Intelligence
Al Qaeda and Iraq met again in Afghanistan but nothing came of it.
CIA report that Iraq had given Al Qaeda bomb training.
Read that timeline again. No one disputes the fact that Iraq and Al Qaeda met in 1996 to 1997. What you DIDN'T seem to read is that nothing came of the meetings, no cooperation, nothing.
The report that the CIA gave Iraq bomb training? Keep on reading the timeline. It turns out it came from an Iraqi defector who was considered a liar to begin with, and later took back his story.
See Rock,
Here's where you seem to coming from in this post.
Saddam was a bad guy. Evil in fact. I won't argue that. He pretty much ran a totalitarian state.
And since this is your hypothetical situation, you don't want anyone telling you about what happened in the real Iraq situation.
And yet, here's your opening question:
Here's where I'm coming from. What Bush was claiming Iraq had was battlefield WMD. So if the U.S. actually found all that VX and sarin and other stuff that Bush was talking about, it was still battlefield WMD. So my answer to that question, is no, because even if what Bush was talking about was real, it wouldn't really be a threat for a number of reasons which I won't bore you with.
It seems like you put 1) Saddam bad guy, with 2) WMD are bad together, Saddam is a bad guy and he has bad weapons. Simple enough. Can't argue with that. When you look deeper into the situation, maybe you'll have a deeper perspective however.
First, the final solution started in summer of 41, death camps operational dec 41. Second, the US was very aware of what was going on. Furthermore, the Jewish community here in the US wrote many appeals to Roosevelt to destroy the rail lines to the death camps and he never acted to do so. Why? Probably considered militarily significant and certainly there was no real internal political pressure to save the Jews.
You really believe this?
Even if you don't believe the US was aware, at least marginally, of the death camps, there's no denying the US was aware of a cruel and systematic persecution of Jews being commited by the Nazis.
The letters from American Jewish leaders appealing for US intervention are on display in the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. You can check it out.
1941
In 1941 - Hans Frank, Gauleiter of Poland, states, "I ask nothing of the Jews except that they should disappear."
In Jan - Quote from Nazi newspaper, Der St??rmer, published by Julius Streicher - "Now judgment has begun and it will reach its conclusion only when knowledge of the Jews has been erased from the earth."
In Jan - A pogrom in Romania results in over 2,000 Jews killed.
Feb 22, 1941 - 430 Jewish hostages are deported from Amsterdam after a Dutch Nazi is killed by Jews.
In March - Hitler's Commissar Order authorizes execution of anyone suspected of being a Communist official in territories about to be seized from the Soviets.
March 1, 1941 - Himmler makes his first visit to Auschwitz, during which he orders Kommandant H??ss to begin massive expansion, including a new compound to be built at nearby Birkenau that can hold 100,000 prisoners.
March 2, 1941 - Nazis occupy Bulgaria (Jewish pop. 50,000).
March 7, 1941 - German Jews ordered into forced labor.
March 26, 1941 - The German Army High Command gives approval to RSHA and Heydrich on the tasks of SS murder squads (Einsatzgruppen) in occupied Poland.
March 29, 1941 - A 'Commissariat' for Jewish Affairs is set up in Vichy France.
April 6, 1941 - Nazis invade Yugoslavia (Jewish pop. 75,000) and Greece (Jewish pop. 77,000).
May 14, 1941 - 3,600 Jews arrested in Paris.
May 16, 1941 - French Marshal Petain issues a radio broadcast approving collaboration with Hitler.
June 22, 1941 - Nazis invade the Soviet Union (Jewish pop. 3 million).
June 29/30 - Romanian troops conduct a pogrom against Jews in the town of Jassy, killing 10,000.
Summer - Himmler summons Auschwitz Kommandant H??ss to Berlin and tells him, "The F??hrer has ordered the Final Solution of the Jewish question. We, the SS, have to carry out this order...I have therefore chosen Auschwitz for this purpose."
In July - As the German Army advances, SS Einsatzgruppen follow along and conduct mass murder of Jews in seized lands.
In July - Ghettos established at Kovno, Minsk, Vitebsk and Zhitomer. Also in July, the government of Vichy France seizes Jewish owned property.
July 17, 1941 - Nazi racial 'philosopher' Alfred Rosenberg is appointed Reich Minister for the Eastern Occupied Territories to administer territories seized from the Soviet Union.
July 21, 1941 - In occupied Poland near Lublin, Majdanek concentration camp becomes operational.
July 25/26 - 3,800 Jews killed during a pogrom by Lithuanians in Kovno.
July 31, 1941 - G??ring instructs Heydrich to prepare for Final Solution.
In Aug - Jews in Romania forced into Transnistria. By December, 70,000 perish.
In Aug - Ghettos established at Bialystok and Lvov.
Aug 26, 1941 - The Hungarian Army rounds up 18,000 Jews at Kamenets-Podolsk.
Sept 3, 1941 - The first test use of Zyklon-B gas at Auschwitz.
Sept 1, 1941 - German Jews ordered to wear yellow stars.
Sept 6, 1941 - The Vilna Ghetto is established containing 40,000 Jews.
Sept 17, 1941 - Beginning of general deportation of German Jews.
Sept 19, 1941 - Nazis take Kiev.
Sept 27/28 - 23,000 Jews killed at Kamenets-Podolsk, in the Ukraine.
Sept 29/30 - SS Einsatzgruppen murder 33,771 Jews at Babi Yar near Kiev.
In Oct - 35,000 Jews from Odessa shot.
Oct 2, 1941 - Beginning of the German Army drive on Moscow.
Oct 23, 1941 - Nazis forbid emigration of Jews from the Reich.
In Nov - SS Einsatzgruppe B reports a tally of 45,476 Jews killed.
Nov 24, 1941 - Theresienstadt Ghetto is established near Prague, Czechoslovakia. The Nazis will use it as a model ghetto for propaganda purposes.
Nov 30, 1941 - Near Riga, a mass shooting of Latvian and German Jews.
Dec 7, 1941 - Japanese attack United States at Pearl Harbor. The next day the U.S. and Britain declare war on Japan.
Dec 8, 1941 - In occupied Poland, near Lodz, Chelmno extermination camp becomes operational. Jews taken there are placed in mobile gas vans and driven to a burial place while carbon monoxide from the engine exhaust is fed into the sealed rear compartment, killing them. The first gassing victims include 5,000 Gypsies who had been deported from the Reich to Lodz.
Dec 11, 1941 - Hitler declares war on the United States. Roosevelt then declares war on Germany saying, "Never before has there been a greater challenge to life, liberty and civilization." The U.S.A. then enters the war in Europe and will concentrate nearly 90 percent of its military resources to defeat Hitler.
Dec 12, 1941 - The ship "Struma" leaves Romania for Palestine carrying 769 Jews but is later denied permission by British authorities to allow the passengers to disembark. In Feb. 1942, it sails back into the Black Sea where it is intercepted by a Soviet submarine and sunk as an "enemy target."
Dec 16, 1941 - During a cabinet meeting, Hans Frank, Gauleiter of Poland, states - "Gentlemen, I must ask you to rid yourselves of all feeling of pity. We must annihilate the Jews wherever we find them and wherever it is possible in order to maintain there the structure of the Reich as a whole..."
1942 Return to Top of Page
In Jan - Mass killings of Jews using Zyklon-B begin at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Bunker I (the red farmhouse) in Birkenau with the bodies being buried in mass graves in a nearby meadow.
Jan 20, 1942 - Wannsee Conference to coordinate the "Final Solution."
Jan 31, 1942 - SS Einsatzgruppe A reports a tally of 229,052 Jews killed.
In March - In occupied Poland, Belzec extermination camp becomes operational. The camp is fitted with permanent gas chambers using carbon monoxide piped in from engines placed outside the chamber, but will later substitute Zyklon-B.
March 17, 1942 - The deportation of Jews from Lublin to Belzec.
March 24, 1942 - The start of deportation of Slovak Jews to Auschwitz.
March 27, 1942 - The start of deportation of French Jews to Auschwitz.
March 28, 1942 - Fritz Sauckel named Chief of Manpower to expedite recruitment of slave labor.
March 30, 1942 - First trainloads of Jews from Paris arrive at Auschwitz.
In April - First transports of Jews arrive at Majdanek.
April 20, 1942 - German Jews are banned from using public transportation.
In May - In occupied Poland, Sobibor extermination camp becomes operational. The camp is fitted with three gas chambers using carbon monoxide piped in from engines, but will later substitute Zyklon-B.
May 18, 1942 - The New York Times reports on an inside page that Nazis have machine-gunned over 100,000 Jews in the Baltic states, 100,000 in Poland and twice as many in western Russia.
May 27, 1942 - SS leader Heydrich is mortally wounded by Czech Underground agents.
In June - Gas vans used in Riga.
June 1, 1942 - Jews in France, Holland, Belgium, Croatia, Slovakia, Romania ordered to wear yellow stars.
June 4, 1942 - Heydrich dies of his wounds.
June 5, 1942 - SS report 97,000 persons have been "processed" in mobile gas vans.
June 10, 1942 - Nazis liquidate Lidice in retaliation for Heydrich's death.
June 11, 1942 - Eichmann meets with representatives from France, Belgium and Holland to coordinate deportation plans for Jews.
June 30, 1942 - At Auschwitz, a second gas chamber, Bunker II (the white farmhouse), is made operational at Birkenau due to the number of Jews arriving.
June 30 and July 2 - The New York Times reports via the London Daily Telegraph that over 1,000,000 Jews have already been killed by Nazis.
Summer - Swiss representatives of the World Jewish Congress receive information from a German industrialist regarding the Nazi plan to exterminate the Jews. They then pass the information on to London and Washington.
July 2, 1942 - Jews from Berlin sent to Theresienstadt.
July 7, 1942 - Himmler grants permission for sterilization experiments at Auschwitz.
July 14, 1942 - Beginning of deportation of Dutch Jews to Auschwitz.
July 16/17 - 12,887 Jews of Paris are rounded up and sent to Drancy Internment Camp located outside the city. A total of approximately 74,000 Jews, including 11,000 children, will eventually be transported from Drancy to Auschwitz, Majdanek and Sobibor.
July 17/18 - Himmler visits Auschwitz-Birkenau for two days, inspecting all ongoing construction and expansion, then observes the extermination process from start to finish as two trainloads of Jews arrive from Holland. Kommandant H??ss is then promoted. Construction includes four large gas chamber/crematories.
July 19, 1942 - Himmler orders Operation Reinhard, mass deportations of Jews in Poland to extermination camps.
July 22, 1942 - Beginning of deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to the new extermination camp, Treblinka. Also, beginning of the deportation of Belgian Jews to Auschwitz.
July 23, 1942 - Treblinka extermination camp opened in occupied Poland, east of Warsaw. The camp is fitted with two buildings containing 10 gas chambers, each holding 200 persons. Carbon monoxide gas is piped in from engines placed outside the chamber, but Zyklon-B will later be substituted. Bodies are burned in open pits.
In Aug - The start of deportations of Croatian Jews to Auschwitz.
Aug 23, 1942 - Beginning of German Army attack on Stalingrad.
Aug 26-28 - 7,000 Jews arrested in unoccupied France.
Sept 9, 1942 - Open pit burning of bodies begins at Auschwitz in place of burial. The decision is made to dig up and burn those already buried, 107,000 corpses, to prevent fouling of ground water.
Sept 18, 1942 - Reduction of food rations for Jews in Germany.
Sept 26, 1942 - SS begins cashing in possessions and valuables of Jews from Auschwitz and Majdanek. German banknotes are sent to the Reichs Bank. Foreign currency, gold, jewels and other valuables are sent to SS Headquarters of the Economic Administration. Watches, clocks and pens are distributed to troops at the front. Clothing is distributed to German families. By Feb. 1943, over 800 boxcars of confiscated goods will have left Auschwitz.
Oct 5, 1942 - Himmler orders all Jews in concentration camps in Germany to be sent to Auschwitz and Majdanek.
Oct 5, 1942 - A German eyewitness observes SS mass murder.
Oct 14, 1942 - Mass killing of Jews from Mizocz Ghetto in the Ukraine.
Oct 22, 1942 - SS put down a revolt at Sachsenhausen by a group of Jews about to be sent to Auschwitz.
Oct 25, 1942 - Deportations of Jews from Norway to Auschwitz begin.
Oct 28, 1942 - The first transport from Theresienstadt arrives at Auschwitz.
In Nov - The mass killing of 170,000 Jews in the area of Bialystok.
Dec 10, 1942 - The first transport of Jews from Germany arrives at Auschwitz.
In Dec - Exterminations at Belzec cease after an estimated 600,000 Jews have been murdered. The camp is then dismantled, plowed over and planted.
Dec 17, 1942 - British Foreign Secretary Eden tells the British House of Commons the Nazis are "now carrying into effect Hitler's oft repeated intention to exterminate the Jewish people of Europe." U.S. declares those crimes will be avenged.
Dec 28, 1942 - Sterilization experiments on women at Birkenau begin.
Map of Concentration/Death Camps
1943 Return to Top of Page
In 1943 - The number of Jews killed by SS Einsatzgruppen passes one million. Nazis then use special units of slave laborers to dig up and burn the bodies to remove all traces.
Jan 18, 1943 - First resistance by Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Jan 29, 1943 - Nazis order all Gypsies arrested and sent to extermination camps.
Jan 30, 1943 - Ernst Kaltenbrunner succeeds Heydrich as head of RSHA.
In Feb - The Romanian government proposes to the Allies the transfer of 70,000 Jews to Palestine, but receives no response from Britain or the U.S.
In Feb - Greek Jews are ordered into ghettos.
Feb 2, 1943 - Germans surrender at Stalingrad in the first big defeat of Hitler's armies.
Feb 27, 1943 - Jews working in Berlin armaments industry are sent to Auschwitz.
In March - The start of deportations of Jews from Greece to Auschwitz, lasting until August, totaling 49,900 persons.
March 1, 1943 - In New York, American Jews hold a mass rally at Madison Square Garden to pressure the U.S. government into helping the Jews of Europe
March 14, 1943 - The Krakow Ghetto is liquidated.
March 17, 1943 - Bulgaria states opposition to deportation of its Jews.
March 22, 1943 - Newly built gas chamber/crematory IV opens at Auschwitz.
March 31, 1943 - Newly built gas chamber/crematory II opens at Auschwitz.
April 4, 1943 - Newly built gas chamber/crematory V opens at Auschwitz.
April 9, 1943 - Exterminations at Chelmno cease. The camp will be reactivated in the spring of 1944 to liquidate ghettos. In all, Chelmno will total 300,000 deaths.
April 19-30 - The Bermuda Conference occurs as representatives from the U.S. and Britain discuss the problem of refugees from Nazi-occupied countries, but results in inaction concerning the plight of the Jews.
April 19, 1943 - Waffen SS attacks Jewish Resistance in Warsaw Ghetto.
In May - SS Dr. Josef Mengele arrives at Auschwitz.
May 13, 1943 - German and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allies.
May 19, 1943 - Nazis declare Berlin to be Judenfrei (cleansed of Jews).
June 11, 1943 - Himmler orders liquidation of all Jewish ghettos in occupied Poland.
June 25, 1943 - Newly built gas chamber/crematory III opens at Auschwitz. With its completion, the four new crematories at Auschwitz have a daily capacity of 4,756 bodies.
July 9/10 - Allies land in Sicily.
Aug 2, 1943 - Two hundred Jews escape from Treblinka extermination camp during a revolt. Nazis then hunt them down one by one.
Aug 16, 1943 - The Bialystok Ghetto is liquidated.
In Aug - Exterminations cease at Treblinka, after an estimated 870,000 deaths.
In Sept - The Vilna and Minsk Ghettos are liquidated.
Sept 11, 1943 - Germans occupy Rome, after occupying northern and central Italy, containing in all about 35,000 Jews.
Sept 11, 1943 - Beginning of Jewish family transports from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz.
In Oct - The Danish Underground helps transport 7,220 Danish Jews to safety in Sweden by sea.
Oct 4 - Himmler talks openly about the Final Solution at Posen.
Oct 14, 1943 - Massive escape from Sobibor as Jews and Soviet POWs break out, with 300 making it safely into nearby woods. Of those 300, fifty will survive. Exterminations then cease at Sobibor, after over 250,000 deaths. All traces of the death camp are then removed and trees are planted.
Oct 16, 1943 - Jews in Rome rounded up, with over 1,000 sent to Auschwitz.
In Nov - The Riga Ghetto is liquidated.
In Nov - The U.S. Congress holds hearings regarding the U.S. State Department's inaction regarding European Jews, despite mounting reports of mass extermination.
Nov 3, 1943 - Nazis carry out Operation Harvest Festival in occupied Poland, killing 42,000 Jews.
Nov 4, 1943 - Quote from Nazi newspaper, Der St??rmer, published by Julius Streicher - "It is actually true that the Jews have, so to speak, disappeared from Europe and that the Jewish 'Reservoir of the East' from which the Jewish pestilence has for centuries beset the peoples of Europe has ceased to exist. But the F??hrer of the German people at the beginning of the war prophesied what has now come to pass."
Nov 11, 1943 - Auschwitz Kommandant H??ss is promoted to chief inspector of concentration camps. The new kommandant, Liebehenschel, then divides up the vast Auschwitz complex of over 30 sub-camps into three main sections.
Dec 2, 1943 - The first transport of Jews from Vienna arrives at Auschwitz.
Dec 16, 1943 - The chief surgeon at Auschwitz reports that 106 castration operations have been performed.
1944 Return to Top of Page
Jan 3, 1944 - Soviet troops reach former Polish border.
Jan 24, 1944 - In response to political pressure to help Jews under Nazi control, Roosevelt creates the War Refugee Board.
Jan 25, 1944 - Diary entry by Hans Frank, Gauleiter of Poland, concerning the fate of 2.5 million Jews originally under his jurisdiction - "At the present time we still have in the General Government perhaps 100,000 Jews."
In Feb - Eichmann visits Auschwitz.
March 19, 1944 - Nazis occupy Hungary (Jewish pop. 725,000). Eichmann arrives with Gestapo "Special Section Commandos."
March 24, 1944 - President Roosevelt issues a statement condemning German and Japanese ongoing "crimes against humanity."
April 5, 1944 - A Jewish inmate, Siegfried Lederer, escapes from Auschwitz-Birkenau and makes it safely to Czechoslovakia. He then warns the Elders of the Council at Theresienstadt about Auschwitz.
April 6, 1944 - Nazis raid a French home for Jewish children.
April 7, 1944 - Two Jewish inmates escape from Auschwitz-Birkenau and make it safely to Czechoslovakia. One of them, Rudolf Vrba, submits a report to the Papal Nuncio in Slovakia which is forwarded to the Vatican, received there in mid June.
April 14, 1944 - First transports of Jews from Athens to Auschwitz, totaling 5,200 persons.
In May - Himmler's agents secretly propose to the western Allies to trade Jews for trucks, other commodities or money.
May 8, 1944 - Rudolf H??ss returns to Auschwitz, ordered by Himmler to oversee the extermination of Hungarian Jews.
May 15, 1944 - Beginning of deportation of Jews from Hungary to Auschwitz.
May 16, 1944 - Jews from Hungary arrive at Auschwitz. Eichmann arrives to personally oversee and speed up the extermination process. By May 24, an estimated 100,000 have been gassed. Between May 16 and May 31, the SS report collecting 88 pounds of gold and white metal from the teeth of those gassed. By the end of June, 381,661 persons - half of the Jews in Hungary - arrive at Auschwitz.
In June - A Red Cross delegation visits Theresienstadt after the Nazis have carefully prepared the camp and the Jewish inmates, resulting in a favorable report.
June 6, 1944 - D-Day: Allied landings in Normandy.
June 12, 1944 - Rosenberg orders Hay Action the kidnapping of 40,000 Polish children aged ten to fourteen for slave labor in the Reich.
Summer - Auschwitz-Birkenau records its highest-ever daily number of persons gassed and burned at just over 9,000. Six huge pits are used to burn bodies, as the number exceeds the capacity of the crematories.
In July - Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg arrives in Budapest, Hungary, and proceeds to save nearly 33,000 Jews by issuing diplomatic papers and establishing 'safe houses.'
July 24, 1944 - Soviet troops liberate first concentration camp at Majdanek where over 360,000 had been murdered.
Aug 4, 1944 - Anne Frank and family arrested by Gestapo in Amsterdam, then sent to Auschwitz. Anne and her sister Margot are later sent to Bergen-Belsen where Anne dies of typhus on March 15, 1945.
Aug 6, 1944 - The last Jewish ghetto in Poland, Lodz, is liquidated with 60,000 Jews sent to Auschwitz.
Oct 7, 1944 - A revolt by Sonderkommando (Jewish slave laborers) at Auschwitz-Birkenau results in complete destruction of Crematory IV.
Oct 15, 1944 - Nazis seize control of the Hungarian puppet government, then resume deporting Jews, which had temporarily ceased due to international political pressure to stop Jewish persecutions.
Oct 17, 1944 - Eichmann arrives in Hungary.
Oct 28, 1944 - The last transport of Jews to be gassed, 2,000 from Theresienstadt, arrives at Auschwitz.
Oct 30, 1944 - Last use of gas chambers at Auschwitz.
Nov 8, 1944 - Nazis force 25,000 Jews to walk over 100 miles in rain and snow from Budapest to the Austrian border, followed by a second forced march of 50,000 persons, ending at Mauthausen.
Nov 25, 1944 - Himmler orders the destruction of the crematories at Auschwitz.
Late 1944 - Oskar Schindler saves 1200 Jews by moving them from Plaszow labor camp to his hometown of Brunnlitz.
1945 Return to Top of Page
In 1945 - As the Allies advance, the Nazis conduct death marches of concentration camp inmates away from outlying areas.
Jan 6, 1945 - Soviets liberate Budapest, freeing over 80,000 Jews.
Jan 14, 1945 - Invasion of eastern Germany by Soviet troops.
Jan 17, 1945 - Liberation of Warsaw by the Soviets.
Jan 18, 1945 - Nazis evacuate 66,000 from Auschwitz.
Jan 27, 1945 - Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz. By this time, an estimated 2,000,000 persons, including 1,500,000 Jews, have been murdered there.
April 4, 1945 - Ohrdruf camp is liberated, later visited by General Eisenhower.
April 10, 1945 - Allies liberate Buchenwald.
April 15, 1945 - Approximately 40,000 prisoners freed at Bergen-Belsen by the British, who report "both inside and outside the huts was a carpet of dead bodies, human excreta, rags and filth."
April 23, 1945 - Berlin reached by Soviet troops.
April 29, 1945 - U.S. 7th Army liberates Dachau.
April 30, 1945 - Hitler commits suicide in his Berlin bunker.
April 30, 1945 - Americans free 33,000 inmates from concentration camps.
May 2, 1945 - Theresienstadt taken over by the Red Cross.
May 5, 1945 - Mauthausen liberated.
May 7, 1945 - Unconditional German surrender signed by Gen. Jodl at Reims.
May 9, 1945 - Hermann G??ring captured by members of U.S. 7th Army.
May 23, 1945 - SS Reichsf??hrer Himmler commits suicide.
Nov 20, 1945 - Opening of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal.
But the idea of the US could have just bombed rail lines would have saved lives... Maybe at best you would have slowed down the process (Maybe...). But you weren't stopping the death marches until you got to them.
Just reading up on Churchill and what he knew and what he wanted to do tells you quite a bit on the matter.
Your logic implies that the Allies were actually interested in stopping the death marches. If that were the case, why did they later refuse to bomb military targets near death camps, citing fuel and ammo conservation concerns, I believe, yet had no qualms about devastating Dresden? Why didn't they move Jewish prisoners to healthier quarters once the camps were liberated, rather than keeping them in conditions only marginally better than when the Nazis were in control?
That seems to be the line you are taking...
In history class we were taught that the allies thought that the most effective plan was to use resources to stop the Nazis all together.
Dude, what were the conditions of forces on the front line??? Very few were living it up anything special... Most were living in their own hell.
And I was under the impression that when the camps were first encountered, that they didn't release them right away from those hell holes for a reason. Same reason they didn't give them tons of food and water... It probably ended up saving many lives.
But, like Mao said. It's what ur implying...
Plaese to stop with the "either/or" rhetoric, it's getting old. I'm not saying the Allied forces as a whole, meaning every single soldier, officer or politician, was anti-semetic. I am saying that anti-semetism was high among various individuals and organizations (i.e. big business) in the US prior to entering the war and the US and British Militaries had little or no interest in making the saving of Jews a priority.
To put this back into the context of my larger argument, I'm saying that WWII propaganda led the US public to wrongly believe that they were entering a "just" war in order to fight facism. Our current administration is also using propaganda (e.g. citing Saddam's ruthless mistreatment of his people as justification for bombing the shit out of the same people) in order to win over a wary public.
Best post ever...
Dude... Is that tape on her nipple? To keep it on eh?
Now it's my turn to be confused. How exactly did they save lives by not releasing them from "hell holes" or giving them ample food and water?
You do know what happens to a human who is almost dead and severely malnourish and you give them "ample" amounts of food and water right?
Of all the things to base this upon, but on that series "Band Of Brothers" which was based upon the book on a regiment of the 101st Airborne, they had an episode where they liberated a concentration camp. A medical officer told them they should only be given the basics in food and water because they'd been starved so much they could overeat and die. Don't know how. They were also concerned with the spread of diseases and sickness from the prisoners so they kept them in the camp until they could check em all and find places to house them. Bad thing to base a resonse upon I know, but perhaps that's what happened in that situation.
Umm.. Thats not what I was thinking... It's more from things I've read from dealing with people dying of hunger in Africa. but ok...