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CHRONOLOGY OF THE HOLOCAUST
1944
January 20
Russian troops recapture Novgorod, and will retake Leningrad a week later. By early May, they will have recaptured Odessa and Sevastopol as well. Meanwhile the British Royal Air Force bombs Berlin with more than 2,300 tons of bombs.
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January 29
The Germans announce a plan to breed an Aryan elite by encouraging unmarried women to bear children of German SS officers.
March 19
Hungary's Jews are moved to Auschwitz as the Russian army approaches. The Nazis seem obsessed with the idea that no evidence of exterminations be left behind.
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March 24
335 Italians, at least 255 of whom are civilians, are shot by German troops in the Fosse Ardeantine caves outside of Rome. The massacre is ordered by S.S. Colonel Herbert Kappler, in response to the killing of 35 German soldiers.
April 3
In the case of Smith v. Allwright, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that an American cannot be denied the right to vote because of color.
May 3
In the U.S., meat rationing ends, except for certain select cuts.
June 6
"D-Day": The Allied invasion of Europe commences just after midnight, as more than 175,000 troops land at Normandy. The largest invasion force in history, it includes 4,000 invasion ships, 600 warships, and 10,000 planes.
June 10
More than 600 people are massacred by German troops in the French town of Oradour-sur-Glane. While the men are shot immediately, the women and children are locked in a church the alter of which is set on fire; those who try to escape the flames are shot.
June 12
German V1 remote-controlled rockets begin to hit London. By September, the "improved" V2 rockets will target London as well as Antwerp, killing and maiming thousands.
June 22
In the U.S., President Roosevelt signs the Servicemen's Readjustment Act that will provide funds for housing and education after the war. It is better known as the GI Bill of Rights.
July 3
The Russian city of Minsk is retaken by Russian troops, and 100,000 Germans are captured.
July 8
As a U.S. taking of Saipan becomes certain, hundreds of Japanese civilians commit suicide rather than surrender. Allied B-29 bombers can reach Tokyo from Saipan, thus the capture of the island will be a turning point in the Pacific war. The Tokyo government collapses within 2 weeks.
July 20
An assassination attempt on Adolph Hitler, planned by some of Hitler's generals, is unsuccessful.
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July 24
Russian troops liberate the Maidanek camp. On the same day, The Nazis recorded their largest single total of executions- 46,000 Jews were gassed and burned in one day at Auschwitz.
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August 4
In Amsterdam, Otto Frank and his family (including his daughter Anne, then 15) are captured by the Gestapo. Jewish, they have been in hiding for more than two years, kept by Miep and Jan Gies, but have been betrayed by someone familiar with their hiding place and are put on the last convoy of trucks to Auschwitz.
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August 23
The last gassings at Auschwitz.
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August 25
Paris is liberated by Allied French troops, after four years of German occupation.
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August 27
Reporters visit the liberated camp at Maidanek. Officials estimate that 1.6 million people were put to death there.
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October 20
Allied forces invade the Philippines. Belgrade is captured by Soviet Russian and Yugoslav partisan troops.
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October 26
Himmler orders the destruction of Auschwitz. The Nazis attempt to hide evidence of the exterminations.
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November 7
Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected to a fourth term as U.S. President, and Harry S. Truman becomes the Vice-President.
November 29
In passing the Federal Highway Act, the U.S. Congress establishes the U.S. National System of Interstate Highways that is planned to reach 182 of the 199 U.S. cities with populations above 50,000.
December 16
The Battle of the Bulge begins. It the last major German counteroffensive, as allied troops are pushed back in Belgium's Ardennes Forest. As Allied lines fall back, a "bulge" is created in the center of the line, giving the battle its familiar name (see MAP). Two weeks of intense fighting in brutal winter weather follow before the German offensive is stopped.
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Home -
Introduction -
Prologue -
Preface -
Table of Contents -
Chapter 1 -
Chapter 2 -
Chapter 3 -
Chapter 4 -
Chapter 5 -
Chapter 6 -
Chapter 7 -
Chapter 8 -
Chapter 9 -
Chapter 10 -
Guest Book -
References
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