Anniversaries in January: 11 events connected with Nazism, the Second World War, the Holocaust, occupation, resistance, liberation and the accountability of perpetrators. Each entry leads to an institutional source and, where the connection is documented, also to profiles in the Nazi Report archive.
06
6 January
6 January1945Camps and the HolocaustAuschwitz, occupied Poland
Four women prisoners executed for helping to prepare the Sonderkommando revolt
On 6 January 1945, the Germans carried out the last public execution at Auschwitz concentration camp, also hanging four women prisoners for helping to prepare the Sonderkommando revolt.
The event took place at Auschwitz in occupied Poland and shows the agency of women prisoners involved in resistance within the camp.
Their deaths recall the cost of solidarity and action undertaken under camp terror.
16 January1942Ghettos and deportationsŁódź–Chełmno, occupied Poland
Mass deportations from the Łódź ghetto to Chełmno begin
On 16 January 1942, mass deportations of Jews from the Łódź ghetto to the Chełmno killing centre began.
The Łódź–Chełmno route became the axis of the first mass deportations of ghetto residents to the place where they were murdered.
The event reveals the logistical mechanism linking isolation in a ghetto, transport and mass murder.
Related profiles (6)
Friedrich Uebelhoerdirect or functional connection: president of the Kalisz administrative district and author of the order establishing the Łódź ghetto
Hans Biebowdirect or functional connection: German head of the Ghetto Administration (Gettoverwaltung) in Łódź (Litzmannstadt).
Arthur Greiserdirect or functional connection: Gauleiter and Reich governor of the Wartheland; responsible for expulsions of Poles and mass murder at Chełmno.
Herbert Langedirect or functional connection: Commander of Sonderkommando Lange and first commandant of Kulmhof.
Günter Fuchsdirect or functional connection: Head of the Łódź Gestapo's Department II B, responsible for Jewish affairs.
Wilhelm Koppedirect or functional connection: Higher SS and Police Leader in the Wartheland and the General Government.
20 January1942Camps and the HolocaustWannsee, Berlin
The Wannsee Conference and the administrative coordination of the Holocaust
On 20 January 1942, the Wannsee Conference coordinated the administrative implementation of the European 'Final Solution of the Jewish question'.
The meeting in Berlin shows the bureaucracy's role in organising a genocide that was already under way.
The conference was significant because it coordinated the state apparatus, not because the first decision to carry out the Holocaust was supposedly taken there.
Related profiles (10)
Reinhard Heydrichdirect or functional connection: Head of the RSHA and one of the principal architects of the Holocaust.
Adolf Eichmanndirect or functional connection: Head of RSHA Section IV B4 and a principal organiser of the logistics of deporting Jews to be murdered.
Wilhelm Stuckartdirect or functional connection: State secretary in the Reich Ministry of the Interior; co-author of the Nuremberg Laws and participant in the Wannsee Conference.
Gerhard Klopferdirect or functional connection: state secretary in the Nazi Party Chancellery, Bormann's deputy and participant in the Wannsee Conference
Josef Bühlerdirect or functional connection: State secretary and Hans Frank's deputy in the General Government.
Rudolf Langedirect or functional connection: Commander of Einsatzkommando 2 and commander of the Security Police and SD in Latvia; participant in the Wannsee Conference.
Eberhard Schöngarthdirect or functional connection: commander of the Security Police and SD in the General Government
Heinrich Müllerdirect or functional connection: head of the Gestapo (RSHA Amt IV), 1939–1945; disappeared in 1945 and was never tried
Otto Hofmanndirect or functional connection: head of the SS Race and Settlement Main Office
Roland Freislerdirect or functional connection: President of the Nazi People's Court; a symbol of judicial political terror.