1940

JANUARY-FEBRUARY
First underground activities by Jewish youth movements in Poland.

APRIL 9, 1940
German Army occupies Denmark and Southern Norway. Copenhagen and Oslo taken.

APRIL 27, 1940
Himmler directive to establish a concentration camp at Auschwitz

MAY 10, 1940
Massive German invasion of Holland, Belgium and France begins.

JUNE 4, 1940
Evacuation of British army from Dunkirk is completed.

JUNE 22, 1940
French army surrenders. Marshal Petain signs armistice with Germany.

SEPTEMBER 27 1940
Establishment of Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis

NOVEMBER 20-24, 1940
Hungary, Rumania and Slovakia join the Axis.

AUGUST 10, 1940
Anti-Jewish racist laws passed in Rumania.

AUGUST 17
Mass demonstrations by starving people in Lodz Ghetto. Organization of "Forteresse Juive" (later "Arm6e Juive") begins in France.

OCTOBER 3, 1940
Anti-Jewish laws (Statut des Juifs) passed by Vichy (France) Government.

NOVEMBER 15, 1940
Warsaw Ghetto sealed off.

DECEMBER
Dr. Emanuel Ringelblum founds "Oneg Shabbat" secret archives in the Warsaw Ghetto

[main]