Otto and Elise Hampel were a working class German couple who created a simple method of protest against Nazism in Berlin during the middle years of World War II. They wrote postcards denouncing Hitler's government and left them in public places around the city. After learning that Elise's brother had been killed in action, the Hampels undertook efforts to encourage resistance against the Third Reich. From September 1940 until their arrest in autumn 1942, they hand-wrote over 287 postcards, dropping them into mailboxes and leaving them in stairwells in Berlin, often near Wedding, where they lived. The postcards urged people to refuse to cooperate with the Nazis, to refrain from donating money, to refuse military service, and to overthrow Hitler. Although nearly all the postcards were brought to the Gestapo, it took two years for the authorities to find the couple. The Hampels were denounced in autumn 1942 and were arrested. Otto declared to the police that he was happy to be able to protest against Hitler and the Third Reich. At trial at the Volksgerichtshof, the Nazi "People's Court", the Hampels were convicted of Wehrkraftzersetzung (corroding military strength) and of "preparing for high treason". Photo: One of the Hampels' postcards; in the middle is a postage stamp bearing Hitler's face, scrawled with the words "worker murderer"

April 8, 1943: Otto (45) and Elise (39) Hampel were executed by guillotine in Plötzensee Prison, Berlin for high treason. They had written postcards denouncing Hitler and had left them in public places around the city.

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Benito #Mussolini was shot by Violet Gibson, sister of Lord Ashbourne, but the bullet only grazed his nose. Mussolini had stepped out to the street in Rome after an opening speech to the Seventh International Congress of Surgery, where he had praised surgeons who had treated him when he was wounded during World War One, and joked that Gibson had "chosen the wrong moment" to shoot him since he was in the presence of "several hundred of the greatest surgical scientists in the world." Across Italy, three staffers of anti-Fascist newspapers were murdered, others were beaten, and property was smashed in nighttime "reprisal" attacks following the attempt on Mussolini's life. Photo: Benito Mussolini after the assignation attempt.

April 7, 1926: In Rome, Italian Premier Benito #Mussolini was shot by Violet Gibson, sister of Lord Ashbourne, but the bullet only grazed his nose.

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Ursula stern, recalled in her post testimony the following: "My Parents hiding place was discovered and they were deported to Auschwitz where they died. When our hiding place was discovered, I was sent to Utrecht prison, from there we were transferred to Amstelveen and, finally to Camp Vught where we suffered a lot from repetitive roll calls. Later we were transferred to Westerbork, the gathering place of Dutch Jews, and we remained there for one week. In April 1943, we left for Poland, this journey was dreadful. When we reached Sobibor a selection took place: young girls were placed on the side and the others, including children, were immediately send to the gas chambers. We were given postcards. "Write to your families that you have arrived safely". I wrote a card to some Dutch friends, it reached its destination, and I found it after the war. Sobibor was hell. Selma Wijnberg, the other known survivor from this transport recalled: In 1942, I was arrested with my family and interned in Westerbork. We were 8,000 prisoners, and the German officers announced that were going to work in Poland or the Ukraine, and we were to take with us our shoes, clothes. Letters were arriving from Wladowa, confirming that life was pleasant in Poland. Later I knew it was a lie, as the prisoners were forced to sign printed postcards. A letter from Levie Sluijzer also remained. He did not survive Sobibor, but wrote about the long travel by train from Westerbork to Sobibor and hid his letter in the cattle car where it was retrieved when the train returned to Westerbork for transport #7.

April 6, 1943: The 6th transport for #Sobibor left #Westerbork, it consisted of 2020 deportees. Most of the deportees were murdered upon arrival. There are only two known survivors from this transport. A letter from Levie Sluijzer remained. He did not survive.
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- It is not known how many of the 37 deportees to #Ravensbrück survived. - Out of the 625 Jews who arrived at #Auschwitz from Mechelen 206 men and 146 women were admitted into the camp. The other 273 people were immediately murdered. One hundred and forty one people survived this transport. - When the transport reached #Theresienstadt on April 7, it was entered into the ghetto records as XXIV/5, the Roman numerals denoting the Netherlands. 26 Jews from this transport survived. From all other transports that day it is unknown how many people managed to survive.... Photo: Block 61 Buchenwald concentration camp.

April 5, 1944: 5 transports departed #Westerbork in one deportation train. To #Auschwitz, #BergenBelsen, #Theresienstadt, #Ravensbrück and #Buchenwald.

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Photo: Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. walking across the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis April 3, 1968.

April 4, 1968: At 6:01 p.m, as he stood on the motel's second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot.

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April 3, 1946: An article appeared on the front page of the Dutch newspaper "Het Parool" (The Netherlands). It brought the attention of publishers to the existence of a diary, written by a teenage girl who had died in the Nazi concentration camp #Bergen-Belsen.
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The 5th transport from #Westerbork to #Sobibor arrived in Sobibor on April 2nd. There were 1255 Jewish men, women and children cramped aboard the cattle-trains. Most were murdered within hours of arrival. In this class photo, taken sometime in the second half of the 1930s, two girls, with dark hair and their arms crossed, can be seen sitting in the center. On the left is Ella Lina (Ellie) and to the right is her sister Betsy. They lived with their parents Zadok de Wolf, and Frieda Schlockoff and their little brothers Emanuel, Rudolf and Willy in Amsterdam. Sometime in 1941, Zadok de Wolf entrusted family photos, including this class photo of the two girls, to the family of Leo Künstlinger for safekeeping. The entire de Wolf family was deported to Sobibor and murdered there upon arrival. Willy was 1, Rudolf was 2, Emanuel was 5, Ellie was 7, Betsy was 9, Frieda was 31 and Zadok was 37 years old. Zadok's mother had passed away a few weeks after the Germans invaded The Netherlands, his father, 2 brothers and 3 sisters together with all their spouses and children were murdered in #Auschwitz between 1942 and 1945.

April 2, 1943: Upon arrival at #Sobibor extermination camp the entire "de Wolf" family of 7 is murdered.

Zadok de Wolf (37), his wife Frieda Schlockoff (31) and their children Willy 1, Rudolf 2, Emanuel 5, Ellie 7 (left in photo), Betsy 9 (right).

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Photo: Period postcard from a Heinrich Hoffmann photo showing Adolf Hitler's prison cell in Landsberg fortress, where he was emprisoned for 11 months until 20 December 1924

April 1, 1924: Adolf Hitler was found guilty of treason and sentenced to five years in prison in the Beer Hall Putsch trial. He was taken to Landsberg Prison and was given a large and comfortable room with a fine view.

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Not long after Adolf Hitler came to power at the end of January 1933, censorship authorities of the Nazi state began to significantly impede the work of the Vossische Zeitung. Numerous journalists who were out of favor with them, including many Jews, were expelled from their positions. A few weeks later, the Ullstein publishing house, including the newspapers it still published at the time, was Aryanized and taken over by the Franz Eher Verlag, the publishing house of the Nazi Party. When the National Socialist Schriftleitergesetz (editor law) came into force on 1 January 1934, Nazification of the German press was enforced, and publishers lost their influence on reporting and on the composition of editorial offices. photo: last edition of the Vossische Zeitung

March 31, 1934: The respected German newspaper Vossische Zeitung published its final edition after 230 years of existence. An editorial stated that "in a certain sense it is the victim of the crisis that affects the entire German press."

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The 5th transport from #Westerbork to #Sobibor left on Tuesday, March 30. There were 1255 men, women and children aboard and no one survived the war. The train arrived in Sobibor on April 2nd, 1943. One of the victims was Bernhard Hellmann (39). He was in hiding in Ede, where he thought he was safe but was betrayed nonetheless. His son Paul, in hiding on another address, survived the war. During the trial of camp-guard John (Iwan) Demjanjuk, Paul Hellmann was one of the co-prosecutors. He spoke on behalf of his father. John Demjanjuk, was a Trawniki and Nazi camp guard at Sobibor extermination camp, Majdanek, and Flossenbürg. Photo: Photograph of Trawniki guards at Sobibor, taken in 1943. This was not seen publicly until January 2020, when it was one of numerous photos from Sobibor newly exhibited in Berlin. #Demjanjuk was "inconclusively identified" as the guard in the middle of the front row.

March 30, 1943: The 5th transport from #Westerbork to #Sobibor left on Tuesday, March 30. There were 1255 men, women and children aboard and no one survived the war. The train arrived in Sobibor on April 2nd, 1943.

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The "Law Concerning the Sentence and Execution of the Death Penalty" was issued in Germany to permit the death penalty by hanging for certain offenses committed on or after January 30, when Adolf Hitler had become chancellor. This followed the "Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State", better known as the Reichstag Fire Decree, which President Hindenburg had issued on Hitler's advice on February 28. The offense attracting the death penalty under the new law included arson of public buildings; it was dubbed the "Lex van der Lubbe" because it permitted the execution of Marinus van der Lubbe for the burning of the Reichstag building in February, even though arson had not been a capital offense at the time. It would also be used to justify the executions of any persons who had been arrested for treason in the first two months of Nazi rule. Photo: Marinus van der Lubbe (lower left) stands before the tribunal at the opening of the proceedings of the Reichstag Fire trial in Leipzig (September 21, 1933).

March 29, 1933: A Law was issued in Germany to permit the death penalty by hanging for certain offenses committed on or after January 30. The law was created so Marinus van der Lubbe could be executed for the burning of the Reichstag building.

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Photo: Adolf Hitler with Paul von Hindenburg (left) and Werner von Blomberg (middle) at Potsdam, March 21, 1933.

March 28, 1931: In an attempt to reduce political violence, Germany's President Paul von Hindenburg used Article 48 to pass an emergency decree curtailing freedoms of speech and assembly, as well as privacy rights.

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The young orphan carried a note upon arrival bearing Owen Pratt’s name. “The girl, too young to speak, was of course unable to explain the note she had with her,” reported the Dutch paper "Nieuwsblad van het Zuiden", citing the Sunday Express. The pilot was tracked down, and it turned out he was no stranger to the child. Her parents had sheltered Pratt for weeks after he was shot down over the Netherlands the previous year. He reached the ground wounded but alive and, thanks to their help, avoided falling into German hands. “He owed his freedom to the couple who took him into their home, provided him with food and shelter, and hid him from the ever-watchful Gestapo,” the newspaper wrote. “While he waited in this hospitable home, he befriended his hostess’s baby.” The pilot often played with the girl, and a strong bond formed between them. This note has now secured the child’s future. Eventually, with the help of the resistance, Pratt was able to leave his hiding place and safely return to England. The couple who had helped him, however, paid with their lives—they were executed by the Germans. Neighbors then took in the orphaned girl. “They knew of Officer Pratt’s secret refuge and were the ones who gave the little girl the note she carried to England. This note has now secured her future.” Owen Pratt, originally from the British colony of New Zealand, will raise the child together with his wife, who is also of Dutch descent. Preparations are being made to send the girl to Pratt’s wife, who is currently in New Zealand. Photo: The first group of Dutch children arrived in England, 13 February 1945

March 27, 1945: British pilot Owen Pratt has adopted a two-year-old Dutch girl who arrived last month with the first group of evacuated children to England. Pratt owed his freedom to the parents, who were killed, of the child when he was shot down over The Netherlands.

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Photo: photo: #Eichmann (in uniform, fifth from the right) in front of the Jewish Congregation. Vienna, 18 March 1938.

March 26, 1942: Adolf Eichmann (department IV B4) began the deportation of Jews to Auschwitz concentration camp with the transport of 1000 single women from Slovakia. They were registered in the women's camp and were kept for slave labour.

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March 25, 1934: Italian general elections were held in the form of a referendum on a single list of Fascist Party candidates.
They were the last elections held in Fascist Italy.

The Fascists won 99.84% approval in a foregone conclusion.

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Photo: Adolf Hitler at the opening of the Reichstag, Day of Potsdam, 21 March 1933.

March 24, 1933: Hitler described reports of maltreatment of Jews and Catholics to be "dirty lies" and said that "there has been no discrimination whatsoever between Jews or non-Jews or Christians, or any other creed or race."

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a transport deported from Camp Drancy in France, with 994 men, women and children. Also with destination to Sobibor (non survived). Amongst them was the Dutch artist Max van Dam (March 19, 1910 – c. September 20, 1943). Upon arrival in Sobibor Max van Dam was among the skilled workers selected while the remainder of the deportees were gassed or shot. Van Dam was set up in a studio for craftsmen where he created paintings for the camp staff. Sobibor survivor Kurt Ticho, who had befriended Van Dam in the camp, later recalled that deputy camp commander SS-Oberscharführer (Staff Sergeant) Gustav Wagner had ordered Van Dam to paint him based on the image on a postcard. Ticho testified during the Sobibor trial in Hagen that van Dam had painted portraits for the SS. Another survivor, Ursula Stern, mentioned in her post-war statements that Heinrich Himmler had posed for a portrait by Van Dam on an inspection tour of the extermination camp and its gassing operations. In the craftsmen's workshop Van Dam worked alongside Li van Staden, Moshe Goldfarb and the surviving gold smith Stanislaw Szmajzner. During much of his time in the camp Van Dam had a privileged position. When approximately 70 Dutch men assigned to slave-labour in the camp were murdered, following a betrayed escape attempt, he was exempt from these reprisal killings. SS-Oberscharführer Karl Frenzel stated in 1983 that he had kept one of the paintings by Van Dam but that his family had destroyed it, and everything else that connected Frenzel with the camps, after his 1962 arrest. He further stated that Van Dam had been killed in the revolt and that the paintings in Sobibor's staff quarters had been destroyed at the same time. Photo: Self-portrait Max van Dam at the age of 25. Collection Joods Historisch Museum Amsterdam.

March 23, 1943: On this Tuesday morning the 4th train to #Sobibor left Camp #Westerbork. Non of the 1250 men, women and children survived this extermination camp. At the same time, a transport deported from Drancy in France, with 994 Jews. Also to Sobibor (non survived).

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Dachau received its first prisoners on March 22, as four police trucks brought in 200 inmates from the Stadelheim Prison and Landsberg Prison. The camp, built around a former munitions factory, was originally intended as a camp for ‘political prisoners’ such as communists, trade unionists and other political opponents of the Nazis. This was soon extended to include Jehovah’s Witnesses, Roma and Sinti and gay men. Between the years 1933 and 1945, more than 3.5 million Germans were imprisoned in such concentration camps or prison for political reasons. Approximately 77,000 Germans were killed for one or another form of resistance by Special Courts, courts-martial, and the civil justice system. Many of these Germans had served in government, the military, or in civil positions, which were considered to enable them to engage in subversion and conspiracy against the Nazis. Large numbers of Jews were also interned at Dachau. In the days following the November Pogrom (Kristallnacht) in November 1938, over 10,000 Jewish people were imprisoned in the camp. Prisoners were forced into slave labour, to contribute to the expansion of the camp. Slave labour, medical experimentation and mass killings all took place at Dachau. The living conditions also lead to many deaths, through starvation and typhus epidemics. Hundreds of prisoners suffered and died, or were executed, in medical experiments conducted at KZ Dachau, of which Sigmund Rascher was in charge. Hypothermia experiments involved exposure to vats of icy water or being strapped down naked outdoors in freezing temperatures. Attempts at reviving the subjects included scalding baths, and forcing naked women to have sexual intercourse with the unconscious victim. Nearly 100 prisoners died during these experiments. The original records of the experiments were destroyed "in an attempt to conceal the atrocities". Photo: The first prisoner transport at the gatehouse of the former factory grounds, March 22 1933

March 22, 1933: less than three months after Adolf Hitler was appointed German Chancellor, the first concentration camp of the Nazi regime was established in the town of #Dachau, about 10 miles northwest of Munich, in Southern Germany.

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Gersdorff, who had expected Hitler to spend at least thirty minutes by his side at the Zeughaus, set a ten-minute fuse on a time bomb and made plans to kill himself and Hitler in a suicide bombing. Instead, Hitler rushed through the viewing and left after two minutes; Gersdorff bid his goodbyes, then rushed into a restroom and defused the explosive just in time. After the attempt, Gersdorff immediately transferred back to the Eastern Front where he managed to evade suspicion. Thanks to the silence of his imprisoned and tortured co-conspirators, Gersdorff was able to escape arrest and certain execution. As a result, he was one of the few German military resistors to survive the war. photo: taken during Marshal Rommel's inspection of the Atlantic Wall defenses at Pas de Calais, France, on 18 April 1944. Oberst im Generalstab Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff is the second from the left.

Gersdorff, who had expected Hitler to spend at least thirty minutes by his side at the Zeughaus, set a ten-minute fuse on a time bomb and made plans to kill himself and Hitler in a suicide bombing. Instead, Hitler rushed through the viewing and left after two minutes; Gersdorff bid his goodbyes, then rushed into a restroom and defused the explosive just in time. After the attempt, Gersdorff immediately transferred back to the Eastern Front where he managed to evade suspicion. Thanks to the silence of his imprisoned and tortured co-conspirators, Gersdorff was able to escape arrest and certain execution. As a result, he was one of the few German military resistors to survive the war. photo: Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorfft.

March 21, 1943: The 2nd attempt on Hitler's life in the space of 8 days was made, this time by Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff, who had been given the opportunity to escort Hitler through an exhibition of captured Soviet war equipment at the Zeughaus in Berlin.

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Despite the still enthusiastic voice-over, even German propaganda films can no longer conceal that the country is fighting a war of exhaustion. At a medal ceremony attended by Hitler in Berlin, it is noticeable that the Führer looks worn down. His Aryan fighting force has been reduced to teenagers. Hitler awarded the Iron Cross to twenty members of the Hitler Youth. All had earned the decoration through brave conduct in battle against the Allies. Upon arriving in Berlin, the boys were given baths and proper meals, and were dressed in new uniforms for the ceremony. At just 12 years old, Alfred Zech was the youngest of the group. During the advance of the Red Army in his hometown in Upper Silesia, he had rescued twelve German soldiers from the line of fire. Using his father’s farm cart, Zech brought eight men wounded by a shell to safety. Although under fire, he returned again to retrieve four who had been left behind. “Weren’t you afraid?” Hitler asked as he pinched his “youngest hero” on the cheek during the ceremony. “No, my Führer,” Zech replied enthusiastically. The German dictator said he was proud of all these child soldiers. It is striking how fragile the Nazi leader appears. With a pale face and hollow eyes, he shuffled past the boys, hunched into his collar, a trembling hand pressed against his back. He was no longer able to pin on the medals himself; that task was left to subordinates. After the brief gathering, the boys were allowed to make a request (Zech chose an accordion) during a meal in the Führerbunker. When Hitler then asked whether they wanted to go home or to the front, they answered with full self-sacrifice that they wanted to fight. They would therefore be instructed in how to use a Panzerfaust and then be deployed. Photo: Adolf Hitler (together with Artur Axmann, national leader of the Hitler Youth) meets a group of Hitlerjugend in the chancellery garden during his last public appearance on camera March 20, 1945.

March 20, 1945: Adolf Hitler (together with Artur Axmann, national leader of the Hitler Youth) awarded the Iron Cross to twenty members of the Hitler Youth in the chancellery garden. It was his last public appearance on camera.

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Acting on his view that Germany's military failures meant it had forfeited its right to survive as a nation, Hitler ordered the destruction of all German industrial infrastructure before it could fall into Allied hands. Minister for Armaments Albert Speer was entrusted with executing this scorched earth policy, but he disobeyed the order. In 1933 Hitler had 'dismantled' Germany's democracy in 53 days and promised that the new "Third Empire" would last a 1000 years. It lasted 12 years and had cost an estimated total of 70–85 million deaths, representing about 3% of the estimated global population.

March 19, 1945: Hitler issued the Nero Decree, ordering the destruction of German infrastructure to prevent their use by Allied forces.

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March 18, 1944: German soldiers began a two-day massacre of almost 400 prisoners, Soviet citizens and anti-fascists in the Romanian city of Rîbnița.

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Elias (Alex) Cohen, the only known survivor from this transport, estimated in a post war testimony, that the number of deportees was probably at around 1050 people. He recounted their arrival at Sobibor: "The first thing we heard was all the shouting by the Moffen [Dutch derogatory term for Nazi's]… The women and children had to move on and disappeared through a gate. We could hear the carts the sick people were being thrown into, and a lot of crying and screaming. The men were still lined up in front of the fence… a German asked whether there were any doctors or nurses among us. They had to step forward. I considered pretending to be a medic but decided against it…. Then he asked for workers up to 35 years of age. As there too few of these, he increased the age limit to 40. I joined the queue, and as we were standing there, he asked us what our trade was. I told him I was a metalworker and was made to stand apart from the rest, along with a few others. We had to leave our luggage and get back onto the same train on which we had only just arrived. About 35 to 40 of us as well as the doctors and medics were sent to a transport to Lublin Photo: View of the old officers' dining room at Sobibor (known as the "Kasino") after renovations, summer 1943. The building served as a dining room for the Germans and as lodgings for the camp commanders. Everything was made to look inviting and idilic for the arriving deportees so they would be more willing to follow to the "showers" to be murdered.

March 17, 1943: The 3rd of 19 transports to #Sobibor extermination camp left #Westerbork in occupied the Netherlands. On board were 964 deportees. It arrived on March 20th. Elias (Alex) Cohen is the only known survivor.

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Photo: A convoy arrives in Chełmno

March 16, 1942: A transport left the Łódź ghetto for #Chełmno Extermination Camp with 637 Jews. No one survived.

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Photo: photos: 7-year-old Sieg Maandag from Amsterdam at Bergen Belsen Concentration camp. The photo was taken shortly after the liberation of concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. The Briton George Rodger made a photo reportage of the unimaginable suffering he witnessed there — photos of piles of corpses, of prisoners so weak they barely realized they were free, and of that little boy walking past the many bodies. Rodger didn’t know who the boy was. He didn’t speak to him. He was simply struck by the image of a child seemingly indifferent as he passed the corpses.

March 15, 1944: A transport set out from #Westerbork to #Bergen-Belsen, carrying 210 Jews, including 14 sick people and 44 children.

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The Austrian Legion and Austrian Schutzstaffel soldiers with support from Nazi Germany attempted to depose Dollfuss's Austrofascist regime in favor of a pro-Nazi government under Anton Rintelen of the Christian Social Party. The Nazis attacked the Federal Chancellery and assassinated Dollfuss, but the majority of the Austrian population and the Austrian Army remained loyal to the government. The July Putsch ultimately failed when Adolf Hitler withdrew his support for the coup after Fascist Italy guaranteed to diplomatically support Austria against a German invasion. The Austrian government eventually suppressed the coup, with over 200 people being killed in six days of fighting. A number of Austrian Nazis and collaborators were charged with treason and executed or imprisoned. Kurt Schuschnigg succeeded Dollfuss as Chancellor of Austria and the Fatherland Front remained in power under the Federal State of Austria until the Anschluss in 1938. After the coup failed, Rintelen tried to kill himself via a gunshot to the chest. He was seriously injured, but survived. While Rintelen was in the hospital, an Austrian Jew, Josef Kraus, donated blood to save his life. "The Vienna papers carrying the story commented drily that 'if Dr. Rintelen had become Chancellor he would also have taken Jewish blood, but in a totally different fashion.’" Rintelen was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was released from prison in February 1938, a month before the Anschluss, but took no further part in politics. He died in 1946. Photo: Police car at Ballhausplatz outside the Chancellery building in Vienna, 25 July 1934.

March 14, 1935: Anton Rintelen was sentenced to life imprisonment for his involvement in the July Putsch (a failed coup d'état in Austria by "Austrian" Nazis).

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The Waalsdorpervlakte is a dune area near The Hague. During the Second World War, more than 250 people were executed there by the German occupying forces. 17:30: execution of 18 prisoners by a German firing squad. None of those involved expected that the death sentences would actually be carried out. With this execution, German terror in the Netherlands began. Those executed were: 3 communist participants in the February Strike: Hermanus Coenradi Joseph Eijl Eduard Hellendoorn 15 members of the resistance group De Geuzen: Jan Wernard van den Bergh George den Boon Reijer Bastiaan van der Borden Nicolaas Arie van der Burg Jacob van der Ende Albertus Johannes de Haas Leendert Keesmaat Arij Kop Dirk Kouwenhoven Jan Kijne Leendert Langstraat Frans Rietveld Johannes Jacobus Smit Hendrik Wielenga Bernardus IJzerdraat. Photos: exhumation at the Waalsdorpervlakte in the Meijendel dune area near The Hague 1946.

March 13, 1941: 18 members of the Dutch resistance were executed by Nazi firing squad on the Waalsdorpervlakte, Scheveningen/The Hague.

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Photo: Adolf Hitler crosses his birth town of Braunau am Inn, Austria. March 12, 1938.

March 12, 1938: #Anschluss: The German army crossed the Austrian border at 8:00 a.m.; Hitler's convoy arrived later that day. Arrests of thousands of potential opponents of the Nazis began.

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Rudolf Höss

March 11, 1946: Rudolf Höss, the Nazi Commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, was located and arrested by British military police near the northern German town of Flensburg, where he had been working on a farm under the alias "Franz Lang".

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Cate Polk, a nurse at the Jewish hospital in Rotterdam, recalls the events prior to deportation and the journey to the death camp: We arrived in Sobibor after 5 days … We came through some kind of forest, it looked creepy. We did not know what was going to happen. Disembarking at the station wasn’t too bad for us youngsters but the elderly who weren’t fast enough were thrown from the train…. Those who could not walk were immediately taken in lorries. We, the nurses, were the first to be chosen. Then other women were chosen to do laundry and ironing. Mothers with children were told to stay with the children. Man were also selected, boys between 22-42 years of age. Also male nurses and doctors who had been placed in the first compartment of the train with some Germans. They were not allowed contact with the others. The Germans asked us if we had any diamonds. The train in which we sat now was the same one as before. A part had been disconnected in Sobibor. Some 4 cars returned to Lublin. We had to ‘schlepp’ [carry] our luggage and it made us laugh afterwards. Even in Westerbork some of it had already disappeared. We had to leave the rest in Sobibor. We considered it funny. We had no idea that they wanted to murder us. Thus we arrived in Lublin. All the girls stayed together. We never saw the men again. They were mainly from Rotterdam." Photo: A view of the new "Kasino" or officers' dining room in Sobibor, completed in the summer 1943. It was larger than the previous dining room and, thanks to the L-shape, offered a sheltered terrace. The Germans called the building "Zum lustigen Floh" (The Merry Flea). The furniture on the terrace was made by Jewish prisoners. The dishes and cutlery used there came from the belongings of the camp victims.

March 10, 1943: On Wednesday morning the 2nd of 19 transports to #Sobibor left camp #Westerbork with 1105 Jews. This was a special transport for the number of survivors. 13 people from this transport survived the war, all women. Only 18 people survived the 19 transports.

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