October 2. Danish Jews are rescued
The Danish resistance movement succeeds in an operation rescuing 7,000 Jews for freedom in Sweden. The Nazis are able to arrest only 475 Danish Jews.

October 14. Sobibor closes
The extermination camp Sobibor in Poland closes. 250,000 prisoners were murdered there. Again, only a few prisoners survived to see the end of the war.

Winter
The tattered and frozen German forces on the eastern front surrender to the Soviets at Stalingrad.

1944
March 19. Hungary is occupied
Germany occupies Hungary with a population of 725,000 Jews. For several years, Hungary has had anti-Semitic legislation, however, the government had long resisted any Jewish deportations. After the German occupation, though, Eichmann visits Hungary and Budapest in person. Within seven weeks from that visit, over 400,000 Hungarian Jews are sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

June. Quick massmurders
In Auschwitz-Birkenau the extermination rate is accelerated. Now as many as 9,000 die each day in the gas chambers.

July. Jews are rescued
The Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg arrives in Budapest where he succeeds in saving tens of thousands Jews from deportation.

July 24. Majdanek is liberated
The soviet troops liberate the prisoners in the Majdanek concentration camp. A total of 60,000 Jews have already been gassed. The news reaches the media and is telegraphed throughout the world.

September. Gypsies are killed
The Gypsies remaining in the Polish ghettos and camps are killed. A total of 35,000 Gypsies are believed to have been killed in Poland during the German occupation.

25 November, Auschwitz is destroyed
Himmler now gives order that the gas chambers in Auschwitz must be destroyed so that no evidence will be found by the Allies or the media. The order was carried out in mid January prior to the Soviet Red Army liberating the camp.

January 27. The Auschwitzand Birkenau Camps are liberated
By now over one million people have been murdered in this camp alone. When the Russian Red Army finally reached the concentration camp, only a few thousand were alive. They had been left behind as the Nazis sought to flee the approaching Russian Army.

April 15. Bergen-Belsen is liberated
The English soldiers reach Bergen-Belsen where they are able to free nearly 40,000 prisoners. Many of them arrived here from the death marches and were packed into this camp. Severe famine resulted in many deaths due to these crowded conditions.

April 30. Hitler commits suicide
Adolph Hitler commits suicide in a bunker along with Eva Braun whom he had married the day before.

May 8. Day of peace.
Peace in Europe.

November 20. Nuremberg trials
Those Nazis responsible for crimes against humanity were brought to trial. The prosecution covers three main areas: Crime against peace, general war crimes and crimes against humanity. The latter includes racial and religious persecutions, exterminations and enslavement. The judges decree 12 death sentences and 3 life imprisonment's.