Calendar of remembrance · March
Anniversaries in March: 16 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.
Auschwitz II-Birkenau began operating on 1 March 1942.
The creation of Birkenau formed part of the evolution of the wider Auschwitz complex and its changing functions.
The date helps distinguish the different parts of the complex and explain Birkenau's place in its history.
Institutional source: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
Permanent link to this entryOn 3 March 1941, the German authorities established the Kraków ghetto.
The ghetto's history extends from its establishment to its liquidation on 13–14 March 1943.
Placing the dates of establishment and liquidation together defines the chronological framework of the Kraków ghetto's history.
Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Permanent link to this entryOn 7 March 1936, German troops entered the demilitarised Rhineland in breach of the postwar agreements.
The move tested the strength of Hitler's aggressive policy on German territory.
The failure to stop the decision effectively strengthened the regime's sense of impunity.
Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Permanent link to this entryOn 7 March 1945, United States troops captured the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen and crossed the Rhine.
The event shows the war's final phase from the west and the entry of United States forces deeper into Germany.
Crossing the Rhine was a clear sign of the approaching military end of the Third Reich.
Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Permanent link to this entryOn 9 March 1942, the Slovak authorities ordered Jews to wear the yellow Star of David.
The Slovak authorities' order was one means of publicly marking and persecuting Jews outside Germany.
The Slovak case enables comparison of methods used to stigmatise Jews publicly outside Germany.
Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Permanent link to this entryBetween 11 and 13 March 1938, Germany took control of and annexed Austria.
After the Anschluss, Austrian Jews immediately faced public humiliation and dispossession.
The pace of repression shows how quickly the regime's territorial expansion led to persecution of the Jewish population.
Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Permanent link to this entryOn 13–14 March 1943, the SS and police liquidated the Kraków ghetto, murdering some residents on the spot and deporting others.
The fate of the ghetto's residents connects the history of Kraków with Płaszów, Bełżec and Auschwitz.
The liquidation reveals the mechanism by which local violence and deportations led to further places of imprisonment and extermination.
Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Permanent link to this entryOn 16 March 1935, the Third Reich restored universal military conscription, openly violating the restrictions imposed at Versailles.
The decision was an important stage in Germany's militarisation before its further expansion.
Conscription showed that the regime was openly abandoning the postwar limits on armaments.
Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Permanent link to this entryOn 17 March 1942, mass deportations from Lublin and Lviv to Bełżec began, along with systematic murder under Operation Reinhard.
The event connected the ghettos of Lublin and Lviv with the Bełżec extermination camp.
This is one of the most important dates in the history of the Holocaust of Polish Jews.
Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Permanent link to this entryOn 19 March 1944, Germany occupied Hungary, placing hundreds of thousands of Jews in direct danger.
The occupation preceded the deportations that began on 15 May 1944.
This date marks the transition from mounting danger to preparations for a mass deportation operation.
Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Permanent link to this entryOn 22 March 1933, the first prisoners arrived at Dachau, and the camp became a model for the SS concentration camp system.
The admission of the first prisoners was distinct from the earlier decision to establish the camp.
Distinguishing between these stages helps describe precisely the beginning of the institutional camp system.
Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Permanent link to this entryFrom 22 March to 25 June 1943, four crematoria with gas chambers were put into operation at Auschwitz II-Birkenau.
This was a process of commissioning successive facilities over time, not a single technical moment.
The chronology of this process shows the material organisation of mass murder at Birkenau.
Institutional source: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
Permanent link to this entryOn 24 March 1944, Germans murdered the Ulma family and the Jews they were hiding; the date is now Poland's National Day of Remembrance of Poles who rescued Jews.
The crime in Markowa shows one form of assistance provided to Jews and the extent of German terror against those who helped them.
Remembering this event requires recognizing the diversity of assistance without projecting one story onto an entire society.
Institutional source: Institute of National Remembrance
Permanent link to this entryOn 26 March 1942, the first large transport of women arrived at Auschwitz, and two thousand female prisoners were registered.
Their experience encompassed imprisonment, labour and violence, as well as individual biographies.
This date brings the fate of women into the history of the growth of Auschwitz's prisoner population.
Institutional source: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
Permanent link to this entryOn 27 March 1942, deportations of more than 65,000 Jews from Drancy began, mainly to Auschwitz.
The transports from France were connected with the actions of the French administration and collaboration.
Drancy shows how a local administrative and transport apparatus was incorporated into the European machinery of deportation.
Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Permanent link to this entryOn 30 March 1940, the German AB-Aktion began, targeting Polish elites and leadership circles in the General Government.
Its geography includes Palmiry, Firlej and Rury Jezuickie, among other places, as well as repression of the intelligentsia.
The operation shows the occupier's deliberate attack on people capable of organising Polish public life.
Institutional source: Institute of National Remembrance
Permanent link to this entry