January 1, 1940: Warsaw; Dr. Cooperman shot for being out after eight O'clock.
January 2, 1940: General Gouvernment forbids Jews to post obituaries.
January 5, 1940: Jews forbidden by General Gouvernment be in the streets between 9:00PM and 5:00AM.
January 14, 1940:: 880 Jewish Polish taken prisoner. On march to prison 100 are shot. The next day approximately 400 more killed. 40 escape. The day after, almost 150 more are killed.
January 24, 1940: General Gouvernment orders registration of all Jewish property. The plunder continues.
February 8, 1940: Germany orders the setting up of the LODZ Ghetto. By May 1st 160,000 Jews would be funneled into the Ghetto.
February 18, 1940: Warsaw; Two Jewish girls raped by two German sergeants.
April 9, 1940: Denmark conquered by Germany in a single day.
April 23, 1940: Stutthof Labor Camp; Jews ordered to jump in cesspool. The short ones drown.
April 29, 1940: Rudolf Hoess arrives at Auschwitz to set up camp.
May 1, 1940: The Lodz Ghetto is closed.
May 10, 1940: Germany invades Belgium, Holland, and France. Blitzkrieg against Great Britain begins. Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister.
May 15, 1940: After five days of resistance, Holland surrenders to Germany. At the time 140,000 Jews lived in the country. France shocks Churchill and reports total defeat at the hands of the Germans in only five days of battle. The French have no reserves to put up a credible counter attack.
May 16, 17, 18, 1940: The German forces continue to strike a wedge into the West.
May 2 4, 1940: By this date the Germans are able to isolate French, British, and Belgium troops in the north, forcing them into a vulnerable, and near collapsing, triangle. Suddenly, Hitler orders all troops to halt.
May 26, 1940: British fleet takes advantage of Hitler's moment of hesitation and begin Operation Dynamo; the evacuates the Allied army through the Port of Dunkirk.
May 27 - 30, 1940: 850 vessels evacuate 126,000 Allied troops from Dunkirk.
May 31, 1940: The "Miracle at Dunkirk continues." 68,000 more men are rescued from the beaches and harbor of Dunkirk.
June 1, 1940: 64,429 more Allied soldiers are evacuated from Dunkirk. 4,000 British troops are left. About 100,000 French soldiers remain to defend the perimeter.
June 2, 1940: After rescuing over 250,000 Allied forces, the British evacuate a remaining 60,000 French troops as the "Miracle at Dunkirk" nears completion.
June 4, 1940: Final 40,000 French troops hold off against German attack as long as possible until finally being evacuated down the Channel coast. British and French troops are shattered. Churchill in the House of Commons; "We shall fight in the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air.. WE SHALL NEVER SURRENDER."
June 5, 1940: After the evacuation of Dunkirk, Hitler turns attack to finish off France.
June 10, 1940: Mussolini enters Italy into World War II. French government departs Paris.
June 14, 1940: German Forces enter Paris. At the time France housed 300,000 Jews.
June 16, 1940: French Premier Reynaud, whose government was in exile, resigns. Petain replaces him.
June 18, 1940: Hitler allots Mussolini only a small part of Southern France. The new French Premier Petain, asks Germany (through the Spanish ambassador) for terms of armistice.
June 22, 1940: French Government led by 84 year old Marshal Henri-Philippe Petain and Pierre Laval signs cease-fire agreement with Germany.
June 24, 1940: Armistice signed between France and Germany. In World War I, France held out for four years. This time, it held out for all of six weeks.
June 28, 1940: Rumania cedes Bessarabia and other territories to the Soviet Union.
July 15, 1940: 500 Jews had been taken from Szczebrzeszyn, Poland and sent to various work camps. From then on a policy of all Jews between the ages of sixteen and fifty must report daily for selection.
July 16, 1940: Hitler issues Directive No. 16, calling for a landing operation against England. Code named, "Sea Lion." But Germany, never expecting such rapid and overwhelming success, fails to have an overall military strategy beyond its present goals. This hesitation, lack of military imagination and strategy helped turn the tide of the war. Yet, the blackest days of the Jewish Holocaust were yet to begin. And that held much attention of the German high command.
July 17, 1940: Vichy France orders prohibiting employment of aliens (Jews) not born in France.
July 23, 1940: Hans Frank issues order revoking the autonomy of all Jewish, Ukrainian and Jewish independent aid organizations in the General Gouvernment.
July 28, 1940: Hitler calls for an intensification of anti-Jewish actions in Slovakia.
August 1, 1940: Cracow; Jewish expulsions begin. One-third would be sent to Warsaw and other Polish towns.
August 3, 1940: Vichy France passes anti-Jewish racial laws.
August 10v, 1940: Rumania; Passes anti-Jewish racial laws.
August 16, 1940: Vichy France prohibiting aliens from practicing as physicians, dentists or pharmacists.
August 25, 1940: First British air raids on Berlin.
August 27, 1940: One of first to reprise against the Germans, Israel Karp was shot by Germany military authority in France. Vichy French government rescinds law forbidding racial hatred.
August 30, 1940: Registration of all Jewish property becomes mandatory in Slovakia.
September 1, 1940: Soviets expel the Japanese Consul. He had issued 3,400 visas for Jews.
September 7, 1940: Himmler in speech to special SS Squad; There is only one goal, ". . . To create an order that will spread a consciousness of Nordic blood until we draw to us all the Nordic blood in the world."
September 9, 1940: Slovakia; Ordinance Judenkodex (Jewish Code) was passed. Part of a series of law designed to strip Jews of their sources of livelihood.
September 16, 1940: Slovakia enacts laws establishing authority for the Aryanization of the country.
September 26, 1940: Slovakia; Center of Jews (UHU) was founded to organize Jewish life. The UHU was a government apparatus to determine the fate of Jews in that country. UHU disbanded all 175 Jewish organizations in Slovakia.
October 3, 1940: Warsaw, Poland: Rosh Hashona, 150,000 Jews ordered to move into the predominantly Jewish area. The Warsaw Ghetto is opened. 100,000 Poles ordered to move into a predominantly Polish district. Vichy France adopts the definition of a Jew established in the Nuremberg Laws.
October 13, 1940: Jews from Warsaw's suburbs are ordered into the Warsaw Ghetto.
October 22, 1940: 2,500 Jews from Baden, the Saar and Palatinate are sent by train to internment camps in the French Pyrenees. Some Jewish families had settled in the former homelands in 1301.
October 23, 1940: The Jewish Hospital in Warsaw is forced to close and move into the Warsaw Ghetto.
October 25, 1940: General Government forbids the granting of any more visas to Polish Jews.
October 28, 1940: Italy invades Greece.
October 31, 1940: The French authorities in Morocco try to impose the Vichy racial laws on its own Jewish population of over 150,000
November 15, 1940: Warsaw ghetto is officialy declared to be in existence. Work begins to build walls to circle district.
November 12, 1940: Vichy Frances orders all Jewish businesses to be sold or expropriated for Aryanization. (France joins Germany in the plundering of Jewish assets.)
November 16, 1940: Warsaw ghetto is permanently closed . Jews no longer had access to anything, or business, outside of ghetto.
November 19, 1940: A Christian is killed by German soldiers for throwing bread into the Warsaw ghetto. Close to 400,000 Jews would be contained within approximately 37,200 apartments.
November 28, 1940: The anti-Jewish film Der Ewige Jude, The Eternal Jew, is released.
December 12, 1940: The refugee ship Salvador, after being denied entrance by to Palestine by the British, sinks. 250 Jews, including 75 Children are drowned.
December 18, 1940: Hitler prepares his directive for war with Russia. He changes the name from Fritz to "Operation Barbarossa." Barbarossa was the mythic Emperor of Medieval Germany, destined to rise again and lead Germany in glory and victory. Hitler fixes May 15, 1941 as the date of invading Russia.