August 1939—Soviet-German pact is signed by Molotov and
Ribbentrop.
September 1939—On September 1, Hitler invades Poland, marking
the beginning of World War II. Two days later, Britain and France,
obligated by treaty to help Poland, declare war on Germany. In
less than four weeks, Poland collapses. Heydrich orders ghettos
to be established in occupied Poland. German Jews are forbidden
to own radios and a nighttime curfew is imposed.
October 1939—Germany makes murder by medical personnel an
official policy; sick and crippled people are to be exterminated.
Forced labor is decreed for Polish Jews aged fourteen to sixty,
and the first Polish ghetto is established in Piotrkow, hometown
of Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau.
November 1939—Nazis destroy the Yeshiva (Talmudic Academy)
in Lublin, burning its huge library of holy books in a brazen public
display. All Jews in Central Poland are required to wear a distinctive
yellow armband. Hitler narrowly escapes assassination when a
bomb explodes in the historic Buergenbraeu Hall in Munich.
December 1939—Adolf Eichmann becomes the head of the
Gestapo wing dealing with Jewish affairs and evacuations. The
Adult Euthanasia Program, known as “T4,” becomes systemized
with the gassing of Jewish mental patients.
1940
January 1940—First underground activities by Jewish youth
movements in Poland begin.
February 1940—The first deportation of Jews from Germany
to Poland.
April 1940—Himmler issues directive to establish a concentration
46 | Never Again: A Holocast Remembered