Concentration Camps Events

1929 Jun 12 Anne Frank is Born in Frankfurt
Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank was born on 12 June 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany, the second daughter of Otto Frank (1889–1980) and Edith Frank-Holländer (1900–45). Margot Frank (1926–45) was h...
1936 Nazi Germany Establishes Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
Sachsenhausen (German pronunciation: [zaksənˈhaʊzən]) or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 ...
1937 Jul Nazi Germany Establishes Buchenwald Concentration Camp
Buchenwald concentration camp (German: Konzentrationslager or 'KZ' Buchenwald) was a Nazi concentration camp established on the Ettersberg (Etter Mountain) near Weimar, Thuringia, Germany...
1938 Dec SS Establishes Neuengamme Concentration Camp
The SS established Neuengamme in December 1938 as a subcamp of Sachsenhausen concentration camp. It was located on the grounds of an abandoned brickworks on the banks of the Dove-Elbe, a ...
1939 May Ravensbrück, the Largest Concentration Camp for Women, Opens
Ravensbrück or Ravensbrueck (German pronunciation: [ʁaːfənsˈbʁʏk]) was a notorious women's concentration camp during World War II, located in northern Germany, 90 km north of Berlin at a ...
1939 Sep 2 Construction on Stutthof Concentration Camp is Completed
In September 1939, the Germans established the Stutthof camp in a wooded area west of Stutthof (Sztutowo), a town about 22 miles east of Danzig (Gdansk). The area was secluded: to the nor...
1940 Apr 27 Heinrich Himmler Establishes a Concentration Camp at Auchwitz
Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest of Nazi Germany's concentration camps and extermination camps, operational during World War II. The camp took its German name from the hosting town o...
1940 May 25 First Transport of Prisoners to the Mauthausen-Gusen Nazi Concentration Camp Complex
Mauthausen Concentration Camp and its sub Labor camp Gusen, combined to form the Mauthausen-Gusen Nazi concentration camp, were located near the villages of Mauthausen and Gusen in Upper ...
1940 Jun 10 The Gestapo Takes Control of Theresienstadt Fortress, Converting it to a Concentration Camp
Theresienstadt concentration camp (often referred to as Terezín) was a Nazi German concentration camp during World War II. It was established by the Gestapo in the fortress and garrison c...
1941 May 1 Gross-Rosen Becomes Independent Concentration Camp
KL Gross-Rosen (Groß-Rosen) was a German concentration camp, located in Gross-Rosen, Lower Silesia (now Rogoźnica, Poland). It was located directly on the rail line between Jauer (now Jaw...
1941 Aug Jasenovac, the Largest Extermination Camp in the Independent State of Croatia, is Established by the Ustasha Regime, with Direction from Nazi Germany
Jasenovac concentration camp (Croatian, Serbian: Logor Jasenovac; Cyrillic script: Логор Јасеновац. Yiddish: יאסענאוואץ, Hebrew: יסנובץ) was the largest extermination camp in the Independ...
1941 Oct Soviet Prisoners of War Prepare Salaspils Nazi Concentration Camp
Salaspils concentration camp was established at the end of 1941 at a point 18 km southeast of Riga,in the country of Latvia. The Nazi bureaucracy drew distinctions between different types...
1941 Oct The Nazis Set Up Janowska Concentration Camp Next Door to a Factory Housing Forced Laborers
Janowska was a German Nazi labor, transit and concentration camp established in occupied Poland September 1941 on the outskirts of Lvov, (Poland, today Ukraine).
1941 Oct 1 Majdanek Concentration Camp Begins Operation
Majdanek was a German Nazi concentration camp on the outskirts of Lublin, Poland, established during German Nazi occupation of Poland. The camp operated from October 1, 1941 until July 22...
1941 Dec Sajmište Nazi Concentration Camp is Established in the Independent State of Croatia
Sajmište concentration camp (Serbian Cyrillic: Концентрациони логор Сајмиште) was a Nazi concentration camp, located in the Independent State of Croatia, on the outskirts of Belgrade. It ...
1941 Dec 7 Chełmno Extermination Camp Begins Operation
Chełmno extermination camp (German name Kulmhof) was an extermination camp of Nazi Germany that was situated 70 kilometres (43 mi) from Łódź, near a small village called Chełmno nad Nerem...
1942 Jan 14 Inter-Allied Resolution on German War Crimes
On January 14, 1942, representatives from the nine occupied countries met in London to draft the Inter-Allied Resolution on German War Crimes. At the meetings in Tehran (1943), Yalta (194...
1942 Mar Belzec Extermination Camp Begins Operation
Belzec, Polish spelling Bełżec [ˈbɛu̯ʐɛt​͡s], was the first of the Nazi German extermination camps created for implementing Operation Reinhard during the Holocaust. Operating in 1942, the...
1942 May Mass Gassing Operations Begin at Sobibor Nazi Extermination Camp
Sobibor was a Nazi German extermination camp set up in the Lublin region of occupied Poland as part of Operation Reinhard; the official German name was SS-Sonderkommando Sobibor. Jews, in...
1942 Jul SS Assumes Control of Westerbork Refugee Camp, Converting it to a Concentration Camp
Westerbork concentration camp (Dutch: Kamp Westerbork, German: Durchgangslager Westerbork) was a World War II concentration camp in Hooghalen, ten kilometers north of Westerbork, in the n...
1942 Jul 6 Anne Frank and her Family Move into their Amsterdam Hiding Place to Evade the Nazis
On the morning of Monday, 6 July 1942, the family moved into the hiding place. Their apartment was left in a state of disarray to create the impression that they had left suddenly, and Ot...
1942 Jul 13 Anne Frank and her Family are Joined by the Pels Family at the Achterhuis
On 13 July, the Franks were joined by the van Pels family: Hermann, Auguste, and 16-year-old Peter, and then in November by Fritz Pfeffer, a dentist and friend of the family. Anne wrote o...
1942 Jul 24 Construction of Treblinka Nazi Extermination Camp is Completed
Treblinka II was a Nazi German extermination camp in occupied Poland during World War II. Around 850,000 people - more than 99.5 percent of whom were Jews, but also other victims (among t...
1942 Nov Anne Frank and her Family and the Pels Family are Joined by Fritz Pfeffer at the Achterhuis
On 13 July, the Franks were joined by the van Pels family: Hermann, Auguste, and 16-year-old Peter, and then in November by Fritz Pfeffer, a dentist and friend of the family. Anne wrote o...
1943 Jan Herzogenbusch Concentration Camp Begins Operation
Herzogenbusch concentration camp (Dutch: Kamp Vught, German: Konzentrationslager Herzogenbusch) was a Nazi concentration camp located in Vught near the city of 's-Hertogenbosch, in the Ne...
1943 Mar Construction is Completed on Kaiserwald Concentration Camp
Kaiserwald was a Nazi German concentration camp near the Riga suburb of Mežaparks in Latvia. Kaiserwald was built in March, 1943, during the period that the German army occupied Latvia...
1943 Jun Belzec Extermination Camp is Dismantled by Jewish Forced Laborers
By late spring 1943, Jewish forced laborers, guarded by the SS and police and their auxiliaries, had completed the task of exhuming the bodies and burning them and had dismantled the camp...
1943 Aug Prisoners at Treblinka Nazi Concentration Camp Stage a Revolt, Allowing Several Hundred to Escape
Jewish inmates organized a resistance group in Treblinka in early 1943. When camp operations neared completion, the prisoners feared they would be killed and the camp dismantled. During t...
1943 Oct 14 Jewish Prisoners Stage Successful Uprising at Sobibor Extermination Camp
Sobibor was the site of one of two successful uprisings by Jewish prisoners in a Nazi extermination camp — there was a similar revolt at Treblinka on August 2, 1943. A revolt at Auschwitz...
1943 Nov Dismantling and Liquidation of Prisoners at Sobibor Extermination Camp Following Partially-Successful Jewish Uprising
After the revolt, the Germans and the Trawniki-trained guards dismantled the killing center and shot the Jewish prisoners who had not escaped during the uprising. Pursuant to discussions ...
1943 Nov SS Evacuates and Liquidates Janowska Concentration Camp
The evacuation of the Janowska camp began in November 1943. As the Germans attempted to destroy the traces of mass murder (Aktion 1005), they forced the prisoners to open the mass graves ...
1944 Sajmište Nazi Concentration Camp is Destroyed by U.S. Bombers
In November 1943 SS-Standartenführer Paul Blobel, the officer in charge of Aktion 1005 (later executed for his numerous crimes against humanity) came to Belgrade to organize the destructi...
1944 Mar Anne Frank Hears of a Plan to Create Public Record of German Occupation on Radio Broadcast and Begins Reworking Diary in Hopes of Publication
Anne's diary began as a private expression of her thoughts and she wrote several times that she would never allow anyone to read it. She candidly described her life, her family and compan...
1944 Jul Soviet Troops Overrun Treblinka Concentration Camp
The Germans had ordered that Treblinka II be dismantled in the fall of 1943. From July 1942 through November 1943, the Germans killed between 870,000 and 925,000 Jews at the killing cente...
1944 Jul 24 Majdanek Concentration Camp is Liberated by Soviet Troops
In late July 1944, as Soviet forces approached Lublin, the Germans hastily evacuated Majdanek. The SS had evacuated most of the prisoners to concentration camps further west during the sp...
1944 Aug 4 Anne Frank and her Family are Arrested by the Gestapo
On the morning of 4 August 1944, the Achterhuis was stormed by the German Security Police (Grüne Polizei) following a tip-off from an informer who was never identified. Led by Schutzstaff...
1944 Aug 6 Nazis Begin Evacuation of Kaiserwald Concentration Camp Preceding Arrival of Soviet Forces
On August 6, 1944, as the Red Army advanced westwards and entered Latvia, the Germans began to evacuate the inmates of Kaiserwald to Stutthof, in Poland. Those who were not thought to be ...
1944 Aug 7 Anne Frank and her Family are Transported to Westerbork Concentration Camp
On the morning of 4 August 1944, the Achterhuis was stormed by the German Security Police (Grüne Polizei) following a tip-off from an informer who was never identified. Led by Schutzstaff...
1944 Sep Herzogenbusch Concentration Camp is Liberated by the 4th Canadian Armored Division and the 96th Battery of the 5th Anti-Tank Division
Due to hunger, sickness and abuse at least 749 children, women and men died in the concentration camp. 329 of them were executed at the execution site, just outside the camp. When allied ...
1944 Sep 3 Anne Frank is Transported from Westerbork to Auschwitz Concentration Camp
On September 3, the group was deported on what would be the last transport from Westerbork to the Auschwitz concentration camp, and arrived after a three-day journey. In the chaos that ma...
1944 Oct Anne Frank is Transported from Auschwitz Concentration Camp to Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp
On 28 October, selections began for women to be relocated to Bergen-Belsen. More than 8,000 women, including Anne and Margot Frank and Auguste van Pels, were transported, but Edith Frank ...
1944 Oct 13 Salaspils Concentration Camp Closes with the Liberation of Riga by the Red Army
In 1944, in an attempt to destroy evidence of mass murder, the Germans forced prisoners to reopen mass graves in Rumbula and burn the bodies. Once the work was completed, the Germans then...
1944 Dec Bergen-Belsen, Once a Holding Camp for Prisoners, Becomes a Full-Fledged Concentration Camp
Bergen-Belsen (or Belsen) was a Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as the prisoner of war ...
1945 Jan 17 Chełmno Extermination Camp is Abandoned by SS with the Approach of the Red Army
Beginning in September 1944, a group of Jewish prisoners, presumably brought from outside the Wartheland District, was forced to exhume and cremate any remaining corpses from the mass gra...
1945 Jan 27 Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp Liberated by the 322nd Rifle Division of the Red Army
The last selection took place on October 30, 1944. The next month, Heinrich Himmler ordered the crematoria destroyed before the Red Army reached the camp. The gas chambers of Birkenau wer...
1945 Feb 14 Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp is Liberated by Soviet Forces
At its peak activity in 1944, the Gross-Rosen complex had up to sixty subcamps located in eastern Germany and occupied Poland. In its final stage, the population of the Gross-Rosen camps ...
1945 Mar Anne Frank Dies of Typhus, Along with Her Sister, at Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp
Both sisters died of typhus in March 1945, just a few weeks before British troops liberated Bergen-Belsen on April 15, 1945. SS officials also selected Anne's parents for labor. Anne's mo...
1945 Apr Partisan Units Liberate Jasenovac Concentration Camp from the Ustaše
In April 1945, as Partisan units approached the camp, the Ustaše camp supervisors attempted to erase traces of the atrocities by working the death camp at full capacity. On April 22, 600 ...
1945 Apr 4 U.S. 89th Infantry Division Liberates Ohrdruf, the First Sub-Camp of Buchenwald Concentration Camp Complex
". . .the most interesting--although horrible--sight that I encountered during the trip was a visit to a German internment camp near Gotha. The things I saw beggar description. While I was..." —Dwight D. Eisenhower
1945 Apr 12 Westerbok Concentration Camp is Liberated by the Canadian 2nd Infantry Division
The Westerbork camp had a "double life." While most inmates stayed in the camp for only short periods of time before being deported, there was also a "permanent" camp population of 2,000 ...