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September: dates we remember
Anniversaries in September: 17 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.
1 September 1939 War and occupation Poland / Europe
German invasion of Poland Germany invades Poland, beginning the Second World War in Europe.
The beginning of the war encompassed events at Westerplatte and Wieluń, air raids and the development of a criminal occupation.
The first of September opens the history of the Second World War in Europe and of German terror in the Polish territories.
Related profiles (6) Adolf Hitler direct or functional connection: Dictator of the Third Reich; principal architect of the war of aggression, the Holocaust and other genocides.Wilhelm Keitel direct or functional connection: Head of the Armed Forces High Command (OKW); endorsed criminal orders.Alfred Jodl direct or functional connection: Chief of the OKW Operations Staff; signatory to criminal orders; executed in Nuremberg.Hermann Göring direct or functional connection: Second-ranking figure in the Third Reich, founder of the Gestapo and commander of the Luftwaffe.Alexander Löhr direct or functional connection: Commander of Luftflotte 4 during the invasion of Poland.Wolfram von Richthofen direct or functional connection: Luftwaffe commander who directed air operations during the invasion of Poland.Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Permanent link to this entry 1 September 1939 Camps and the Holocaust Germany / annexed territories
War as cover for the programme to murder people with disabilities Hitler backdates authorisation for the programme to murder people with disabilities to the day the war began.
Hitler's backdated authorisation connected the programme's beginning with the day of Germany's invasion of Poland.
The document shows how wartime conditions provided cover for the radicalisation of state violence.
Related profiles Adolf Hitler direct or functional connection: Dictator of the Third Reich; principal architect of the war of aggression, the Holocaust and other genocides.Philipp Bouhler direct or functional connection: Head of the Führer's Chancellery of the Nazi Party and co-organiser of Aktion T4.Karl Brandt direct or functional connection: Hitler's personal physician and co-director of Aktion T4; executed in 1948.Viktor Brack direct or functional connection: Office head in the Führer's Chancellery and organiser of the Aktion T4 “euthanasia” killings.Richard von Hegener direct or functional connection: Official in the Führer's Chancellery and deputy head of the Reich Committee, responsible for the administrative organisation of the murder of children and patients.Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Permanent link to this entry 1 September 1941 Law and persecution Reich / Wartheland / Czech lands
Compulsory badge for Jews Jews over the age of six in the Reich and parts of the occupied territories are required to wear a badge.
The order covered the Reich, the Wartheland and the Czech lands, while the form of the badge and the timing of its introduction varied between areas.
Publicly marking people facilitated their isolation, control and further persecution.
Related profiles Wilhelm Frick direct or functional connection: Reich Minister of the Interior and architect of the legal foundations of terror and the exclusion of Jews.Wilhelm Stuckart direct or functional connection: State secretary in the Reich Ministry of the Interior; co-author of the Nuremberg Laws and participant in the Wannsee Conference.Reinhard Heydrich direct or functional connection: Head of the RSHA and one of the principal architects of the Holocaust.Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Permanent link to this entry 3 September 1939 War and occupation Western Europe
United Kingdom and France declare war on Germany The United Kingdom and France declare war on Germany.
The declarations of war turned commitments to Poland into an open European conflict.
The third of September marks the expansion of the German invasion into a war involving the powers of Western Europe.
Institutional context Adolf Hitler institutional context: Dictator of the Third Reich; principal architect of the war of aggression, the Holocaust and other genocides.Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Permanent link to this entry 3 September 1941 Camps and the Holocaust Auschwitz
First mass murder with Zyklon B at Auschwitz At Auschwitz, the Germans carry out the first mass murder using Zyklon B, killing Soviet prisoners of war and Polish prisoners.
The victims of this experimental crime were Soviet prisoners of war and Polish prisoners.
The event foreshadowed the later use of gas in the system of mass murder at Auschwitz.
Related profiles Rudolf Höss direct or functional connection: Commandant of Auschwitz; creator of its industrial machinery of mass murder; executed in 1947.Institutional source: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
Permanent link to this entry 5 September 1942 Law and persecution Warsaw / General Government
Death penalty for helping Jews from the Warsaw ghetto A German notice reiterates the death penalty for helping Jews escaping from the Warsaw ghetto.
The German notice reminded Warsaw residents of the punishment prescribed under occupation law.
The document shows the legal instruments of terror directed both against Jews and against people prepared to help them.
Related profiles Ludwig Fischer direct or functional connection: Governor of the Warsaw District and administrative perpetrator responsible for the Warsaw ghetto.Hans Frank direct or functional connection: Governor-General of occupied Poland from 1939 to 1945; executed after the Nuremberg trial.Heinz Auerswald direct or functional connection: Commissioner for the Jewish residential district in Warsaw.Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Permanent link to this entry 7 September 1940 War and occupation United Kingdom
Beginning of the Blitz Germany begins the Blitz, a prolonged bombing campaign against British cities.
The prolonged bombing shifted the weight of Germany's air war to British cities and their residents.
The Blitz is an important example of warfare against civilians in the West.
Related profiles Hermann Göring direct or functional connection: Second-ranking figure in the Third Reich, founder of the Gestapo and commander of the Luftwaffe.Adolf Hitler direct or functional connection: Dictator of the Third Reich; principal architect of the war of aggression, the Holocaust and other genocides.Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Permanent link to this entry 8 September 1943 War and occupation Italy
Italy's surrender and German occupation of the north Italy surrenders to the Allies; Germany occupies the north of the country and intensifies the deportation of Jews.
Surrender to the Allies did not end persecution, because Germany occupied northern Italy and intensified the deportation of Jews.
The event shows that a change in the military situation could create a new threat to civilians.
Related profiles Theodor Dannecker direct or functional connection: Eichmann's specialist responsible for deporting Jews from France, Bulgaria, Italy and Hungary.Herbert Kappler direct or functional connection: Commander of the Sipo and SD in occupied Rome.Ernst Kaltenbrunner direct or functional connection: Head of the RSHA, the central authority for the Gestapo, SD and police; jointly responsible for the Holocaust.Adolf Hitler direct or functional connection: Dictator of the Third Reich; principal architect of the war of aggression, the Holocaust and other genocides.Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Permanent link to this entry 9 September 1943 Camps and the Holocaust Auschwitz II-Birkenau / Terezín
So-called family camp for Jews from Theresienstadt at Birkenau A so-called family camp for Jews deported from the Theresienstadt ghetto is established at Birkenau.
For a time, the deported families were not subjected to selection, distinguishing this section from other parts of Birkenau.
The history of the so-called family camp helps explain why the deported families were not selected for a time.
Related profiles Rudolf Höss direct or functional connection: Commandant of Auschwitz; creator of its industrial machinery of mass murder; executed in 1947.Institutional source: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
Permanent link to this entry 15 September 1935 Law and persecution Nuremberg / Germany
Nuremberg Laws The Nuremberg Laws deprive Jews of full citizenship rights and define them according to racist criteria.
The new provisions deprived Jews of full citizenship rights and subjected their status to the state's racist definitions.
The laws became one of the most important stages in the legal exclusion of Jews in Nazi Germany.
Related profiles Wilhelm Frick direct or functional connection: Reich Minister of the Interior and architect of the legal foundations of terror and the exclusion of Jews.Wilhelm Stuckart direct or functional connection: State secretary in the Reich Ministry of the Interior; co-author of the Nuremberg Laws and participant in the Wannsee Conference.Adolf Hitler direct or functional connection: Dictator of the Third Reich; principal architect of the war of aggression, the Holocaust and other genocides.Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Permanent link to this entry 17 September 1939 War and occupation eastern Poland
Soviet invasion of Poland The Soviet Union invades Poland from the east.
The attack from the east followed from the pact concluded on 23 August and subjected the Polish territories to two occupations.
The seventeenth of September is essential to a complete account of Poland's partition by Germany and the USSR.
Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Permanent link to this entry 19 September 1941 War and occupation Kyiv, occupied Ukraine
Capture of Kyiv before the Babyn Yar massacre German forces capture Kyiv; the massacre at Babyn Yar begins ten days later.
The military operation created the conditions in which the mass murder at Babyn Yar began ten days later.
The chronology shows the direct sequence from the city's occupation to the crime at Babyn Yar.
Related profiles Walter von Reichenau direct or functional connection: Wehrmacht field marshal, commander of the 6th Army and author of the Severity Order.Otto Rasch direct or functional connection: Commander of Einsatzgruppe C in Ukraine; co-organiser of the Babyn Yar massacre.Paul Blobel direct or functional connection: Commander of Sonderkommando 4a of Einsatzgruppe C; perpetrator of the Babyn Yar massacre and Aktion 1005.Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Permanent link to this entry 20 September–October 1943 Resistance and rescue Denmark / Sweden
Escape of Danish Jews to Sweden The Danish underground and wider society help approximately 7,200 Jews escape to Sweden.
The operation succeeded through the work of the underground, public support and an aid network that risked rescuing those who were persecuted.
The Danish operation remains an exceptional example of successful collective assistance to Jews during the Holocaust.
Related profiles Werner Best direct or functional connection: Lawyer and senior Sipo and SD official who helped organise Einsatzgruppen for the 1939 campaign.Günther Pancke direct or functional connection: Higher SS and Police Leader in occupied Denmark.Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Permanent link to this entry 21 September 1942 Ghettos and deportations Warsaw / Treblinka
End of the main phase of deportations from the Warsaw ghetto The Germans end the main phase of the deportation of approximately 265,000 Jews from Warsaw to Treblinka.
Two months of transports to Treblinka left a residual ghetto and radically changed the situation of the surviving residents.
This date makes it possible to summarise the scale of the Grossaktion and its consequences for Jewish Warsaw.
Related profiles (7) Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg direct or functional connection: SS and police leader in the Warsaw District; directed deportations during the Grossaktion and the first assault on the ghetto on 19 April 1943.Hermann Höfle direct or functional connection: Chief of staff of Operation Reinhard and coordinator of deportations to extermination camps.Ludwig Fischer direct or functional connection: Governor of the Warsaw District and administrative perpetrator responsible for the Warsaw ghetto.Heinz Auerswald direct or functional connection: Commissioner for the Jewish residential district in Warsaw.Georg Michalsen direct or functional connection: Operation Reinhard staff member who participated in deportations from Warsaw and Białystok.Josef Blösche direct or functional connection: Field officer of the Sipo in Warsaw; took part in deportations and executions in the Warsaw ghetto.Franz Konrad direct or functional connection: Head of Werterfassung, the apparatus responsible for plundering property in the Warsaw ghetto.Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Permanent link to this entry 23 September 1943 Ghettos and deportations Vilnius / Lithuania / occupied Poland
Liquidation of the Vilnius ghetto The SS liquidates the Vilnius ghetto, deporting residents to Sobibór and labour camps.
Residents were deported to Sobibór and labour camps, ending the principal stage in the history of the Vilnius ghetto.
The anniversary belongs simultaneously to Polish, Lithuanian and Jewish remembrance of the German occupation.
Institutional context Friedrich Jeckeln institutional context: Higher SS and Police Leader; organiser of mass shootings in the East.Karl Jäger institutional context: Commander of Einsatzkommando 3 and author of the Jäger Report documenting the Holocaust in Lithuania.Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Permanent link to this entry 29 September 1938 Origins of Nazism Munich / Czechoslovakia
Munich Agreement and the loss of the Sudetenland The Munich Agreement forces Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland to Germany.
Czechoslovakia was forced to cede part of its territory to Germany as a result of the policy of appeasement.
The agreement shows the cost of decisions made at the expense of a state denied influence over its own partition.
Related profiles Adolf Hitler direct or functional connection: Dictator of the Third Reich; principal architect of the war of aggression, the Holocaust and other genocides.Karl Hermann Frank direct or functional connection: Higher SS and Police Leader and state minister in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia; perpetrator of the destruction of Lidice.Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Permanent link to this entry 29–30 September 1941 Mass murder Babyn Yar, Kyiv
Babyn Yar massacre German SS, police and auxiliary formations murder approximately 34,000 Jews from Kyiv at Babyn Yar.
German SS, police and auxiliary formations murdered Kyiv's Jews as part of mass executions carried out in the occupied East.
Babyn Yar is one of the central dates in the remembrance of the Holocaust by bullets.
Related profiles Paul Blobel direct or functional connection: Commander of Sonderkommando 4a of Einsatzgruppe C; perpetrator of the Babyn Yar massacre and Aktion 1005.Otto Rasch direct or functional connection: Commander of Einsatzgruppe C in Ukraine; co-organiser of the Babyn Yar massacre.Walter von Reichenau direct or functional connection: Wehrmacht field marshal, commander of the 6th Army and author of the Severity Order.Friedrich Jeckeln direct or functional connection: Higher SS and Police Leader; organiser of mass shootings in the East.Institutional source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
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