Timeline
Section under construction. It will be successively expanded, along with the division into camps and other important events which impacted the extermination process and the camps.
1939-09-02 – the first transport of 150 prisoners to Sztutowo - construction of the future KL Stutthof camp started.
1940-04-27 – after a series of inspections of various facilities, the SS commander Heinrich Himmler gives the order to set up a camp in Oświęcim.
1940-06-14 – German authorities direct the first transport of political prisoners to Auschwitz - 728 Poles
1940-06-19 – the first displacement of local people from Oświęcim in order to get rid of the witnesses of the crime, as well as to prevent contact with prisoners and prevent them from escaping.
1941-10-13 – the decision to build the extermination camp in Bełżec was made at the meeting of Heinrich Himmler with Friedrich Krüger and Odilo Globocnik.
1941-10-30 – SS-Hauptsturmführer Richard Thomalla from the SS Central Construction Board in Lublin and SS non-commissioned officers Gottfried Schwarz, Josef Oberhauser and Johann Niemann came to Bełżec and began organizing the construction of the camp.
1941-11-23 – Visit of Heinrich Himmler to check whether Stutthof can be granted the status of a state concentration camp.
1941-12-22 – SS-Obersturmführer Christian Wirth came to Bełżec and took over command of the construction and organization of the camp.
1941-12-08 - The first mass execution of about 700 Jews who arrived a day earlier was carried out to Kulmhof extermination camp
1942-01-27 – a conference was held in Wannsee to discuss the final solution of the Jewish question.
1942-02-XX – around 120 Jews from Lubycza Królewska, who were then murdered in gas chambers, completed the construction of the camp in Bełżec.
1942-03-17 – mass deportations from the ghettos in Lublin and Lviv to the death camp in Bełżec began.
1942-03/04 - In the early spring of 1942, the Judenrat of Włodawa was ordered to provide Jewish workers for construction works at the Sobibór railway station.
1942-04-28 - Franz Stangl becomes the commander of the Sobibór camp, on August 26, 1942 he was transferred to the Treblinka extermination center.
1942-04/05 - At the turn of April and May 1942, the first transports began to reach Sobibór.
1942-05-04 – the first selection of prisoners at Auschwitz Birkenau.
1942-05-09 - The first transports from abroad, the first larger group of Jews from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia were deported to Sobibór.
1942-06-01 - at the beginning of June, deportations of Jews from the Kraków district to Bełżec began.
1942-06-18 – in the Bełżec camp, the Germans built new concrete gas chambers.
1942-07-22 - the first deportation of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka. The President of the Jewish Council, Adam Czerniakow, is informed about the beginning of "resettlement to the east".
1942-07-23 - the first transport with the "displaced" from Warsaw goes to the Treblinka extermination camp. Dr. Irmfried Eberl becomes the first commander of the extermination camp
1942-08-01 - Gottlieb Hering replaces Christian Wirth in Bełżec. Wirth is appointed camp inspector of "Operation Reinhardt".
1942-08-06 - Janusz Korczak and around 200 orphans of the Orphans' Home are sent to the Treblinka extermination camp.
1942-08-17 – Rudolf Reder, who survived the war and testified afterwards, is deported to Bełżec.
1942-08-26 - Odilo Globocnik, Christian Wirth and Josef Oberhauser visit the Treblinka death camp. Irmfried Eberl is dismissed from the command office.
1942-08-31 - Franz Reichleitner becomes the new commander of the Sobibór camp. He served until October 1943, until the camp was liquidated.
1942-09-01 - Franz Stangl officially becomes the second commander of the Treblinka extermination camp.
1942-08/09 - new gas chambers were built in Sobibór, doubling their capacity. The railway line between Chełm and Włodawa was also modernized.
1942-11-01 – Chaim Hirszman, who was one of the few who survived his stay in the extermination camp, was deported to Bełżec.
1942-12-11 – the last deportation to the Bełżec camp. 2.5 thousand people are deported from Rawa Ruska.
1943-02/03 - a special grate was built in the Treblinka II extermination camp, on which bodies were burnt to cover the traces of genocide. It was caused by, among others, overflow of mass graves and the discovery of mass graves in the Katyn forests.
1943-04-11 - the end of the first period of operation of the Kumholf extermination camp.
1943-04-28 – Leon Feldhendler, who came from Żółkiewka, came to Sobibór - later, he would become the founder of the underground group active in the camp and one of the leaders of the uprising.
1943-05-03 – the first direct transport of Dutch Jews reaches Sobibór. A group of 1,105 Jews was deported from the transit camp in Westerbork.
1943-06-26 – a group of the last Jewish prisoners who took part in blurring the traces of the Bełżec camp were deported to Sobibór, where they were murdered.
1943-07-20 – the successful escape from Sobibór occurred near the village of Żłobek, where a group of prisoners from the forest commando worked. Eight prisoners escaped after killing the sentry. The whole group managed to survive until the end of the war.
1943-08-02 - outbreak of the uprising in Treblinka II camp. About 200 prisoners managed to get out of the camp. However, at most 100 people survived until the end of the war. The outbreak of the uprising suspended transports and murders in gas chambers for about a month.
1943-08-23 – the last transport of Jews to the extermination camp. There were Jews from Białystok.
1943-09-23 – in the second half of September, several transports of Jews from Minsk reached Sobibór. A group of prisoners was chosen from them to work on the construction of the IV camp, including prisoners of war. Among them was Alexander Pechersky, later the leader of the uprising.
1943-10-14 – An armed prisoners' rebellion breaks out in the Sobibór camp. After the liquidation of part of the German crew, the prisoners began to flee, as a result of which about 300 people escaped.
1943-11-17 - liquidation of the Treblinka extermination camp. All camp buildings and installations were demolished. A farm was built for a Ukrainian family, and the camp area was plowed and planted with lupine.
1943-12-XX – liquidation of the Sobibór camp. After the prisoners' uprising, the Germans decided to completely liquidate the camp and erase all traces of its existence.
1944-06-23 - Kulmhof extermination camp resumes operations. Extermination was carried out within the Rzuchowski Forest, where barracks were built and the area was adapted to receive subsequent transports of victims.
1944-08-06 - a railwayman, Franciszek Ząbecki, takes documents confirming the crimes committed in the camp from the Treblinka railway station. The materials were used in trials against German torturers.
1945-01-17 - beginning of Death Marches - the SS evacuate almost 60,000 KL Auschwitz prisoners.
1945-01-18 - evacuation of the Kulmhof extermination camp, during which SS men carried out the last execution of the Sonderkommando crew.
1945-01-25 – the walking evacuation of prisoners of the Stutthof camp and sub-camps, called the Death March, began.
1945-01-27 - 7,000 prisoners witnesses the liberation of Auschwitz by troops of the Soviet army.
1945-05-09 - Stutthof concentration and extermination camp is liberated by soldiers of the 48th Army of the 3rd Belorussian Front. Soldiers find a group of about 150 prisoners in the camp.