The Holocaust Journal (Lest We Forget)

Germany - 1939 (I)

In 1939, the German war against Europe's Jews began in earnest. It was given its first definition in a secret message by Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Nazi Security Police. The message ordered
that Jews be concentrated in large urban areas where railroad transportation was available. Heydrich's plan began the
ghettoization of Polish Jewry, but would eventually be applied throughout Europe and "doom millions of Jewish children, women, and men."

* During 1939, almost 80,000 Jews leave Germany and Jewish valuables throughout the country are confiscated (stolen) by the Nazis.

* The Jewish World Plague, an anti-Semitic book by Hermann Esser, is published.

* In order to increase the Aryan birthrate, SS chief Heinrich Himmler orders his SS men to impregnate their wives and to serve as "conception assistants" to women over 29 without children.

* In the U.S., the HUAC (House UnAmerican Activities Committee) begins an investigation into the activities of the pro-Nazi German-American Bund.

* A poll by Elmo Roper shows that 53% of Americans believe Jews to be "different," and need "social and economic restrictions."

* Another poll, this one by Gallup, indicates 83% of Americans are against admitting large numbers of Jewish refugees.

* January - By the end of 1940, about 27,000 Jews will have "illegally" immigrated to Palestine from Germany.

* January 1 - Arthur Rodl, the Deputy Commandand at the Buchenwald concentration camp, orders thousands of inmates to line up for inspection at midnight. He then chooses five men and has them whipped to a melody played by the inmate orchestra. The whipping continues through the night.

* January 24 - Gestapo boss Heinrich Muller is made head of the Jewish Emigration Office.

* January 30 - In a speech in the Reichstag, Hitler says that if there is war in Europe, all European Jews will be exterminated.

* February 3 - In Budapest, Hungary, a bomb destroys a synagogue, killing one worshipper.

* February 7-20 - A conference is held in London to try to resolve the situation in Palestine. Arab delegates refuse to meet with their Jewish counterparts and the Jewish delegates withdraw when the British support the Arab position.

* February 9 - Anti-Jewish laws are enacted in Italy.

* February 10 - Pope Pius XI dies. His encyclical on racism and anti-Semitism goes unpublished. It did not, however, say anything new but was based on St. Augustine's writings that said "Jews are Cains who must not be killed but who must wander in suffering for all eternity, until they see the light and choose conversion to Roman Catholicism."

* February 20 - An anti-Jewish rally is held in New York City. Some 20,000 attend.

* February 21 - German Jews must give all their gold and silver to the government.

* February (through June) - Robert F. Wagner, a Democratic senator from New York, along with Edith Nourse Rogers, a Democratic representative from Massachusetts, propose a bill to allow 20,000 German Jewish children into the U.S. over a period of two years. This bill eventually dies for lack of support and the rampant anti-Semitism in Congress.

Senator Robert Reynolds of North Carolina has a secret relationship with August Gausebeck, a German-American Nazi agent. Gausebeck's partner is Walter Schellenberg, coordinator of Gestapo activities in the U.S.

* March 2 - Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli is elected as Pope Pius XII.

* March 15 - Nazi troops cross into Czechoslovakia and take over Prague. Only 19,000 of the 50,000 Jews in Prague will escape to freedom. Thousands more Jews are trapped when the Nazis occupy Bohemia and Moravia. Slovakia becomes a German satellite.

* March 21 - The Germans take over Memel, Lithuania. The Jews there flee for their lives. Also on this date the French government passes a law forbidding "incitement to race hatred."

* March 25 - Over 20,000 protestors march through New York City in a "Stop Hitler" parade. About 500,000 spectators lined the parade route.

* March 31 - The United Kingdom and France promise to guarantee Polish sovereignty.

* April 1 - Franco's Fascists win the Spanish Civil War.

* April 7 - Great Britain sets up a draft. The Italian military occupies Albania.

* April 15 - President Roosevelt asks Hitler to respect the independence of European nations.

* April 28 - Hitler responds "mockingly" to Roosevelt's request.

* April 30 - German Jews no longer have "tenancy," which means they may be moved to "communal Jewish homes."

* May - Hungary passes discriminatory laws affecting Jewish lawyers and doctors. Jews can only constitute 6% of Hungary's economy.

* May 15 - Ravensbruck, a women's concentration camp opens 50 miles north of Berlin. Also on this date the German refugee ship St. Louis departs from Hamburg. The ship carries about 1,000 Jewish escapees from Nazi Germany. They hold landing passes for Cuba.

* May 17 - The English government puts out what came to be known as the MacDonald White Paper, that limited Jewish immigration to 10,000 per year for five years. It also allowed some 75,000 Jewish immigrants to enter Palestine. It further restricts Jewish land purchases in Palestine. Actually, the British government worked to keep the actual number of Jewish immigrants far below the quotas for both England and Palestine.

* May 22 - Italy and Germany sign a "Pact of Steel."

* June - The German refugee ship St. Louis reaches Cuba. The Cuban government tries to extort huge sums of money so the ship leaves and sails along the eastern U.S. coast. FDR orders the U.S. Coast Guard to prohibit any passengers from landing in the U.S.

* June 2 - In Boston, the Christian Science Church newspaper says that Jewish refugees are causing their own problems. Many important Protestant journals took the same line.

* June 17 - The German refugee ship St. Louis docks in Antwerp, Belgium. Belgium offers to take 214 passengers. The Netherlands took 181, Britain 287, and France 224. In the end, many, if not most of these people will be murdered in the Nazi killing centers in Eastern Europe.