The goal of presenting the calendar of events is to tell in a synthetic way the history of the Warsaw Ghetto seen in a perspective of war and occupation. Both - war and occupation were the context of the Ghetto history and significantly influenced moods, attitudes and actions in the closed Jewish quarter. Events connected with the history of the Warsaw Ghetto and the fate of its inhabitants: repressive measures, living conditions, fight and resistance make up "the internal chronology". Selected events from the history of the occupied Poland and from the world history during the war make up "the external chronology". They portray - firstly stages of "The Final Solution" implementation, secondly vital moments of the World War II.

September 1939

  • 1 IX - the German attack on Poland; the outbreak of the second world war.
  • 3 IX - Britain and France declare war on Germany; enthusiasm in the streets of Warsaw. Night from 6 to
  • 7 IX - appeal by Colonel Roman Umiastowski calling on all men to leave the capital. The government and Commander in Chief leave Warsaw.
  • 14 IX - the Co-ordinating Commission for Jewish Charitable Institutions formed (KK), as part of the civil defense organization for Warsaw; this forms the basis for the Jewish Social Self-help - Co-ordinating Commission (SS-KK).
  • 17 IX - the Red Army, putting into effect the provisions of the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, crosses into the eastern Polish territories.
  • 21 IX - telegram from Heydrich to commanders of the Einsatzgruppen on the need to concentrate Jews in larger urban centers and to set up judenrats.
  • 23 IX - the president of Warsaw, Stefan Starzyński, nominates Adam Czerniakow president of the Jewish denominational Commune.
  • 25 IX - the heaviest bombardment of Warsaw ("black Monday"); in the Jewish calendar the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).
  • 28 IX - capitulation of Warsaw.

October 1939

  • 1 X - German divisions enter Warsaw.
  • 7 X - setting up of the Jewish Council (Judenrat) in Warsaw, Czerniaków accepted by the occupation authorities as chairman.
  • 8 X - in Piotrków Trybunalski the first ghetto is set up.
  • Mid-October - bank accounts, deposits and saving accounts of Jews blocked, with a weekly limit of 250 złoty to be withdrawn, and a ban on possession of cash to a sum of more than 2,000 złoty.
  • 26 X - setting up of the General Gouvernement; decree banning ritual slaughter of animals, introduction of compulsory labour for Poles aged 18-60 and compulsory labour for Jews aged from 14 (later aged 12 and over) to 60.
  • 28 X - the Warsaw Judenrat on the orders of the occupation forces makes a census of the Jewish population, according to which in Warsaw there are 359,827 Jews.
  • 30 X - Himmler's order that the Polish and Jewish population from the Polish lands annexed to the Reich are to be resettled to the GG.
  • From November 1939 to October 1940 the first wave of transportations takes place - c. 90,000 Jews come to Warsaw.
  • In October in Warsaw c. 70% of elementary, secondary and technical training schools are opened (Polish and Jewish). Institutions of higher education were not re-opened.

November 1939

  • 4 XI - the inaugural session of the Judenrat; the Germans make their first attempt to set up a ghetto in Warsaw.
  • 13 XI - 53 reidents of a house at 9 Nalewki Street were arrested for the shooting there of a Polish policeman by Pinkus Zylberryng (21 November the hostages were murdered, even though the Judenrat paid 300,000 złoty as a forced contribution).
  • 15 XI - closing of all secondary schools in Warsaw on the pretext of the threat of an epidemic (7 December the Polish schools were re-opened, the Jewish schools remained closed).
  • 17 XI - Jewish enterprises were taken over by a compulsory administration.
  • In November at the entrance to some streets in the Jewish district the first barbed wire fences appear along with plaques with the inscription: "Infection, entry banned to soldiers".

December 1939

  • 1 XII - Jews over 12 years old must wear on their right arm a white band with a blue star of David; Jewish shops and enterprises have to be marked.
  • Mid-December - a system of food rationing is introduced with ration cards (with no distinction between Poles and Jews).
  • In the night from 26 to 27 XII in Wawer near Warsaw 106 men are shot in retaliation for the killing of two German non-commissioned officers in a local restaurant.

January 1940

  • 1 I - a decree comes into force forbidding Jews to change their place of residence without special permission.
  • 14-25 I - after the arrest of Andrzej Kott (who was of Jewish origin) belonging to the underground group PLAN and his escape from the gestapo, particular repressive measures are taken against the Jewish intelligentsia in Warsaw (255 Jews arrested).
  • 23 I - in the office of the head of the district of Warsaw a Department of Relocation opened (Umsiedlung), under Waldemar Schön. This is where work on the organization of a ghetto in Warsaw is concentrated. In January synagogues were closed and collective prayers in private houses were banned. The Jewish Social Self-Help - Co-ordinating Commission (ŻSS-KK) was formed, Polish and Jewish charitable institutions were separated.

February 1940

  • 8 II - publication in "Nowy Kurier Warszawski" (NKW) of Frank's decree (of 26 January) forbidding Jews in the GG to travel by rail.
  • 18 II - the first group of Jewish prisoners of war from the September campaign freed from German camps, and return to Warsaw.
  • In February - the project for opening a ghetto in Praga. Differentiation of ration cards: Jews can make purchases only in Jewish shops (cards marked with the star of David - Jews; pink cards - Poles; blue cards - Germans).

March 1940

  • 22-29 III - anti-Jewish incidents in the streets of Warsaw: shop-windows broken and shops looted, flats plundered, people with an armband beaten, anti-Semitic slogans shouted. Polish hooligans took part in these incidents, which were inspired and photographed by the Germans.
  • In March in cafes and restaurants in Warsaw notices everywhere appeared banning entry to Jews.

April 1940

  • 1 IV - The Judenrat on the orders of the occupation authorities begins building walls around the territory of the "area threatened with an epidemic" ("Seuchensperrgebiet").
  • 1 IV - beginning of the first sanitary blockade in connection with the epidemic of typhoid. For three weeks some of the houses in Krochmalna Street were closed.
  • Mid-April - setting up of a Jewish farm in Grochów, on the land of the old Halutz farm (this was to be closed down in November 1942).
  • 30 IV - the ghetto in Łódź was sealed off. In April, a project is put forward for creating two ghettos in Warsaw: in the area of Wola and Koło and in the area of Grochów.

May 1940

  • 10 V - the German offensive in the West begins; German armies enter Holland, Belgium and Luxemburg.
  • 28 V - the capitulation of Belgium.
  • 29 V - the occupation authorities confirm the statute of the Central Social Council (NRO), made up of the: Polish Central Social Council (RGO), the Ukrainian Social Council (URO) and the Jewish Social Self-help (ŻSS).
  • From May to August, the central German authorities consider the plan to concentrate millions of European Jews in Madagascar.

June 1940

  • 14 VI - the fall of Paris, the German armies enter the city without resistance.
  • 14 VI - setting up the camp at Auschwitz (the first transport of 728 Polish prisoners from Tarnów).
  • In June, the Judenrat finishes building the walls and notices are placed around the "area threatened by epidemic".

July 1940

  • 23 VII - the first number of "Gazeta Żydowska" appears, the official paper for all the ghettos in the General Gouvernement.
  • In July all political, voluntary, charitable and educational organisations were dissolved in the GG. Polish organisations were absorbed by the RGO, Jewish charitable organisations and institutions - through the central ŻSS in Kraków.

August 1940

  • 7 VIII - Leist's decree about the Jewish District in Warsaw: Jews had to move out of the future German District; they could stay temporarily in the Polish District, but Jews moving into Warsaw were only allowed to live in the Jewish District.
  • 14 VIII - the first transport of 1,666 Poles leaves Warsaw for Auschwitz.

September 1940

  • 7-9 IX - a reduction in the weekly bread ration for Poles (to 1,500 g) and for Jews (to 750 g).
  • In the last days of September trams only for Jews appear on the streets of Warsaw. They are painted yellow with a star of David on all sides and the inscription: "Nur für Juden".

October 1940

  • 2 X - Fischer signed the decree on setting up a ghetto in Warsaw (announced 12 October over the street megaphones).
  • 6 X - a change in the curfew to 23.00. Jews were forbidden to leave their houses from 19.00 do 8.00 a.m.
  • 17 X - a Jewish Municipal Charitable Committee set up in Warsaw (ŻKOM), which became the officially recognized Warsaw branch of the central ŻSS in Krakow.
  • In October the Jewish Order Service was set up (SP).

November 1940

  • 4 XI - in the headquarters of the Jewish commune, the German police beat and arrested several people, including the president of the Judenrat, Czerniaków (set free the following day).
  • 16 XI - the ghetto in Warsaw was sealed off. 138,000 Jews and 113,000 Poles had to change their place of residence. The area of the ghetto covers 307 ha of built-up land, and in 1,483 houses there are almost 400,000 Jewish residents.
  • 25 XI - the first concert by the Jewish Symphony Orchestra in a room at the Central Judaic Library in Tłomackie Street.
  • 26 XI - three specially marked tram lines are opened, exclusively for Jews.
  • In November the underground archival and documentation centre is opened under Emanuel Ringelblum (the Oneg Shabbat group), later the Underground Ghetto Archive.

December 1941

  • 1 XII - the Transferstelle begins to function, regulating official trade between the ghetto and the aryan side.
  • 6 XII - the first theatre premiere in the ghetto: In rejdł (In a little circle) in the Eldorado theatre at 1 Dzielna Street.
  • 13 XII - evacuation to the ghetto begun of the Jewish hospital in Czyste. In December, Korczak's Orphan's Home moved from 92 Krochmalna Street to the ghetto at 33 Chłodna Street

January 1941

  • 1 I - The Judenrat takes over from the Municipal Board the distribution of ration cards among the inhabitants of the ghetto.
  • 14 I - punishments increased for leaving the ghetto without a pass (fine, arrest, labour camp).
  • 15 I - the Judenrat takes over the postal services in the ghetto from the German post office.
  • From January to the end of March a second wave of deportees arrives in the ghetto - c. 50,000 Jews deported from the western part of the Warsaw district.

February 1941

  • 21 II - the three tram lines only for Jews are closed down, and in their place a tram is instituted without a number, with a shield with a blue and white star of David.

March 1941

  • 15 III - in the territory of the GG a decree comes into force (issued by Frank on 20 February), forbidding Jews to use the railways, trams, taxis or cabs, without a special pass for each journey.
  • 20 III - the ghetto in Kraków is sealed.
  • In March the number of inhabitants of the ghetto in Warsaw reaches a height - within the walls there are c. 460,000 Jews.

April 1941

  • 19-21 IV - in the ghetto in Warsaw the Jewish police carry out round-ups for labour camps.
  • From April there is a new economic policy towards Jews, and in the ghetto German factories are set up, known as "shops".

May 1941

  • 15 V - Heinz Auerswald is nominated commissar for the Warsaw ghetto.
  • In May news of the terrible conditions in the local labour camps, to which Jews from Warsaw are systematically sent, reaches the ghetto.

June 1941

  • 1 VI - opening of the Great Synagogue in Tłomackie Street.
  • 9 VI - in the ghetto a prison for Jews is set up in Gęsia Street.
  • 22 VI - the beginning of operation "Barbarossa" - the attack by the Third Reich on the Soviet Union. The Germans make a lightning advance to the East, and the special units moving behind the army (Einsatzgruppen) begin systematic murder of Jews.
  • 23 VI - the first Soviet air raid on Warsaw; bombs fall for example on Okęcie, Teatralny Square, Krakowskie Przedmieście, they hit a tram near the Kierbędz bridge; 34 victims among the civilian population.
  • 27 VI - the Germans take Białystok and murder c. 2,000 Jews.
  • 30 VI - the Germans take Lwów, and here the local population begins a pogrom. By 3 July c. 4,000 Jews killed; in the next pogrom from 25-27 July, 2,000 Jews are killed.
  • In June in the streets of the ghetto horse-drawn trams (omnibuses) appear, popularly known as kohnhellerki (Kohn and Heller received a licence from the Germans to run the Towarzystwo Komunikacji Omnibusowej - Society for Omnibus Transport).

July 1941

  • 1 VII-31 VIII - from 150,000 to 160,000 Jews are murdered in Bessarabia.
  • 10 VII - 1600 Jews are murdered by their neighbours in Jedwabne.
  • In July in Ponary, the Germans together with Lithuanian collaborators murder c. 5,000 rural Jews.
  • From July to September - the height of the epidemic of typhoid in the Warsaw ghetto; c. 5,000 people die a month.

August 1941

  • 1 VIII - the ghetto in Białystok is sealed off.
  • 20 VIII - in Paris arrests of Jews begin, and they are gathered for example in the transit camp at Drancy, from where up to 17 August 1944 more than 70,000 Jews are deported to the death camps.
  • 31 VIII - 3 IX in Ponary near Vilnius c. 8,000 Jews are murdered.
  • In August the death rate in the ghetto in Warsaw reaches a height - 5,560 people die.

September 1941

  • 3-6 IX - in Vilnius, two ghettos are set up.
  • 8 IX - the seige of Leningrad by the German army begins (the blockade of the city will last 900 days - to 14 January 1944).
  • 18 IX - Auerswald announces that the ghetto will be reduced in size and more strictly isolated, and also a change in the manner of designating the boundaries (along streets, and not as to date between building plots).
  • 29-30 IX - during the extermination action in Babi Yar, 33,771 Jews from Kiev are killed.
  • End of September - the culminating moment of the campaign to help the starving in the Warsaw ghetto, at this time 128,000 soups were distributed daily.

October 1941

  • 1 X - permission was given to open elementary schools in the Warsaw ghetto.
  • 1 X-22 XII - during the extermination action in Vilnius 33,500 Jews are killed.
  • 15 X - Frank's decree forbidding Jews on pain of the death penalty to leave the housing districts designated for them.
  • 21-26 X - Korczak's Orphans' Home moves from 33 Chłodna Street to the building at 16 Sienna Street/Śliska 9.
  • 23 X - Auerswald's decree on a change in the boundaries (reduction) of the ghetto; to 21 December c. 75,000 Jews change their place of residence.
  • From October all inhabitants of the GG are obliged to black out their windows from 17.50 to 7.0 a.m..

November 1941

  • XI - construction begun of the extermination centre at Bełżec.
  • 10 XI - Fischer's decree on the death penalty for leaving the ghetto without permission; the death penalty will be extended to people helping Jews.
  • 17 XI - in the prison in Gęsia Street 6 Jewesses and 2 Jews are shot for crossing the boundaries of the ghetto.

December 1941

  • 5 XII - the beginning of the counter-offensive by the Red Army at Moscow. The failure of the German operation "Barbarossa".
  • 7 XII - the extermination centre at Chełmno on Ner begins operation, the first transport of 700 Jews from Koło arrives. (In Chełmno up to April 1944 c. 320,000 Jews were killed).
  • 15 XII - in the prison in Gęsia Street 15 Jews are shot for crossing the boundaries of the ghetto.
  • 25-28 XII - Auerswald's decree that Jews should hand over by 28 December all their furs and winter coats, wraps and fur collars, those who are late face the death penalty (finally furs, sheepskins and fur collars were requisitioned in the ghetto to a total value of 50 million złoty).
  • In December, the United States enters the war.

January 1942

  • 20 I - the conference at Wannsee near Berlin took place, on the carrying out of the "final solution of the Jewish question"
  • 26 I - the wooden foot bridge over Chłodna Street, by the crossroads with Żelazna Street, was opened for use.
  • In January - in the Vilnius ghetto the first armed underground organisation was formed, which issued an appeal to all Jews: "Do not let yourselves be led as sheep to the slaughter. Fight to the last breath".

February 1942

  • 19 II - the first transport of 50 people is sent from the prison in Gęsia Street to the labour camp in Treblinka; they were probably employed in constructing the death camp (known as Treblinka II).
  • 23 II - in the Black Sea the SS Struma sinks with 769 Roumanian Jews on board, after being
  • held for two months in Istambul because the British authorities would not give authorisation for it to sail for Palestine; it was turned back out at sea and torpedoed by mistake by a soviet submarine.
  • In February Szlamek Fajner reaches the Warsaw ghetto - an escapee from the extermination centre at Chełmno on Ner. In the ghetto the lowest food rations are noted.

March 1942

  • 1 III - building begun of the extermination centre at Sobibór.
  • 16/17 III - the deportation begins of 30,000 Jews from Lublin to Bełżec (it ended on 17 April). 17 -19 IV rest of the Jews ( 8 k.) resettled to the rest ghetto in Majdan Tatarski
  • 17 III - the extermination centre at Bełżec begins to operate.
  • 28-29 III - the first British carpet air raid on a large German city - Lubeck.
  • In March the first deportees from the eastern part of the district of Warsaw begin to arrive in the ghetto. In the ghetto the underground Antifascist Bloc is formed.

April 1942

  • In mid-April the extermination centre in Sobibór begins to function.
  • In the night from 17 to 18 IV - the gestapo murdered 52 people in the streets of the ghetto; this is the first organised terror action in the territory of the sealed district.
  • 22-24 IV - the first group of gypsies arrives in the prison in Gęsia Street. In April c. 4,000 Jews deported from Frankfurt, Berlin and other towns of the Reich arrive in the ghetto.

May 1942

  • 1 V - a German film team arrives in the ghetto, preparing an anti-Jewish propaganda film.
  • 28 V - the first deportation action begins in the Kraków ghetto, and lasts to 8 June (c. 5,000 Jews are deported to Bełżec, including the chairman of the Kraków Judenrat, Artur Rosenzweig, who refused to carry out the German deportation orders).
  • 30-31 V - a great British air raid on Cologne, seen in the ghetto as an announcement of revenge for the extermination of the Jews.

June 1942

  • In the night from 8 to 9 VI - the gestapo murdered in the ghetto several dozen people, mainly suspected of smuggling.
  • 26 VI - BBC radio broadcasts a programme on the extermination of the Polish Jews, based on materials from Oneg Shabbat.

July 1942

  • 2 VII - 110 Jews deported from the prison in Gęsia Street and shot at Babice.
  • 8 VII - from the ghetto in Lwów 7,000 Jews are deported and exterminated in the Janów camp.
  • 17 VII - Jews who are foreign citizens (c. 200 people), designated for exchange for Germans, are interned in the Pawiak prison (among them Mary Berg with her family).
  • 18 VII - in Korczak?s Orphans? Home there is a performance of The Post Office by Rabindranath Tagore.
  • 22 VII - the beginning of the great deportation action in the Warsaw ghetto; transports leave from the Umschlagplatz for the gas chambers of Treblinka.
  • 23 VII - Adam Czerniaków commits suicide; Marek Lichtenbaum becomes chairman of the Judenrat.
  • 23 VII - the extermination centre at Treblinka begins to function (up to August 1943, 870,000 Jews were killed there).
  • 28 VII - youth organisations formed the Jewish Fighting Organisation - the kernel of the future ŻOB.
  • 29 VII - in the ghetto posters are put up with information that those who report voluntarily to the Umschlagplatz will receive 3 kg of bread and 1 kg of jam each.

August 1942

  • 3 VIII - some of the documents of the Underground Ghetto Archive are placed in ten tin chests, and buried in the cellar of the house at 68 Nowolipki Street (in the territory of the Hallmann ?shop?). The chest will be recovered from under the rubble on 18 September 1946.
  • 5 or 6 VIII - the inmates and personnel of Korczak?s Orphans? Home are taken to the Umschlagplatz.
  • 10 VIII - the liquidation of the ?little ghetto? (to the south of Chłodna Street); the headquarters of the Judenrat moved from 26 Grzybowska Street to 19 Zamenhofa Street.
  • On about 10 VIII - David Nowodworski reaches the Warsaw ghetto - the first escapee from Treblinka. In the first ten days of August, a leaflet entitled "Protest? goes on sale, written by Zofia Kossak, and published by the Catholic Front for the Regeneration of Poland.
  • 10-23 VIII - the liquidation action in the Lwow ghetto, as a result of which 50,000 Jews were taken to Bełżec.
  • 19-25 VIII - the action in Warsaw suspended, the Germans deport Jews from Otwock, Falenica, Miedzeszyn.
  • 20 VIII - Izrael Kanał injures the commander of the Jewish police, Józef Szeryński, making an unsuccessful attempt on his life.

September 1942

  • 3 IX - the arrest of Józef Kapłan, the killing of Szmul Bresław and the discovery of their arms cache is a bad blow for the ŻOB and puts an end to their plans for the ?defence of the honour of the Jews of Warsaw?.
  • 5?12 IX - during the ?searching? nearly 20,000 children, old people and the sick deported from the Łódź ghetto to the extermination centre at Chełmno on Ner.
  • 6?12 IX - what was known as the round-up in Miła Street (c. 50,000 Jews were deported to Treblinka).
  • 7 IX - a sealed ghetto set up in Lwow.
  • 9 IX - 2,000 Jews from Lublin transported to the camp at Majdanek.
  • 21 IX - the last transport departs from the Umschlagplatz; end of the great deportation action in the Warsaw ghetto (the losses: according to the November report of the Jewish underground organisations, c. 275,000 victims, according to the report of Stroop c. 310,000 victims).
  • 25 IX - the chairman of the Judenrat in Kałuszyn, Abraham Gamz, is murdered by the Germans for refusing to draw up a list of those designated for deportation.
  • 27 IX - The Delegation of the Polish Government set up in Warsaw, on the initiative of Zofia Kossak and Wanda Krahelska-Filipowiczow, the Temporary Committee for Extending Help to Jews, named after Konrad Żegota, and turned on 4 December into the Council for Aid to Jews, with the cryptonym ?Żegota? (representatives of Polish and Jewish political organisations joined it).
  • 30 IX - the Judenrat in Tarnopol refuses to supply thousands of Jews for deportations. The Germans themselves catch and deport 800 Jews to Bełżec.

October 1942

  • 13-21 X - 20,000 Jews from the ghetto in Piotrków Trybunalski are transported to Treblinka.
  • 25 X - 1800 Jews from Lublin are taken to the camp in Majdanek.
  • 27-28 X - the second deportation action in the Kraków ghetto (c. 7,000 Jews transported to Bełżec and Auschwitz).
  • 29 X - a death sentence passed by ŻOB is carried out in the prison in Gęsia Street, where an officer of the Jewish police, Jakub Lejkin, notorious for particular brutality during the deportations, is shot. In October the Jewish Fighting Organisation extended its membership: members of the Haszomer Hacair, Dror, Akiba, Gordonia, Bund, Poale Zion-Left, Poale Zion-Right, Hanoar Hacyjoni and PPR joined it. The political leadership of the ŻOB was the Jewish National Committee (ŻKN) which brought together Zionist and socialist parties. The Bund, which did not enter the ŻKN, agreed to work together with them within the framework of the Co-ordinating Commission. In October contact was made between representatives of ŻOB and the section for Jewish Affairs of the Office of Information and Propaganda of the Home Army (AK).

November 1942

  • 15 XI - the report by the united underground organisations of the ghetto for the Polish Government in Exile in London and the Allied Governments, entitled The Liquidation of Jewish Warsaw; it was drawn up under the auspices of Oneg Shabbat by: Emanuel Ringelblum, Eliasz Gutkowski, Hersz Wasser; and taken to the West by Jan Karski.
  • 19 XI - the beginning of the great Russian counter-offensive at Stalingrad. In November 5,000 to 7,000 Jews from the Lwow ghetto were killed at Bełżec and in the camp at Janów. In November the Office of Information and Propaganda of the Warsaw District of the AK published a brochure entitled The Liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto. This report was drawn up by Antoni Szymanowski.

December 1942

  • In the night from 1 to 2 XII - the statute of the Co-ordinating Commission of the Jewish National Committee and the Jewish Fighting Organisation that it had set up was passed. The command of the ŻOB consisted of: Mordechaj Anielewicz (Haszomer Hacair), Hersz Berliński (Poale Zion-Left), Icchak Cukierman (Dror), Marek Edelman (Bund), Johanan Morgensztern (Poale Zion-Right), Michał Rojzenfeld (PPR).

January 1943

  • 9 I - Himmler arrived for an inspection of the Warsaw ghetto; he ordered the deportation of 8,000 Jews and the evacuation of German enterprises to the Lublin area.
  • 18-21 I - the second deportation action in the Warsaw ghetto. The first armed resistance. The Germans deported c. 5,000 people. In January, just after the second deportation action, Józef Szeryński, the commander of the Jewish police, committed suicide.

February 1943

  • 2 II - defeat of the German army at Stalingrad.
  • 5-12 II - liquidation action in the ghetto in Białystok, c. 10,000 Jews sent to Treblinka, c. 2,000 Białystok Jews killed on the spot, there is an attempt at self-defence, several dozen ghetto fighters get out to the neighbouring forests.
  • 16 II - the first transport of Jews from what remains of the Warsaw ghetto to the camp in Trawniki (the next on 23 February). At the end of February, in the cellar of a house at 68 Nowolipki Street the second part of the Underground Ghetto Archive is hidden, placed in two milk churns (they were recovered from the rubble in 1 December 1950).

March 1943

  • 13-14 III - liquidation of the ghetto in Kraków.
  • 17 III - in Lwów 1,500 Jews killed, 800 transported to Aushwitz.
  • 18 III - "Biuletyn Informacyjny" publishes a communiqué from the Command of the Civil Struggle of the Home Army (AK) on blackmail of Jews in hiding, warning the blackmailers, or "greasy palmers", that they will be punished ?with all the severity of the law?.
  • 26 III - the action at the Arsenal: at the corner of Bielańska Street and Długa Street a division of the Storm Groups of the Home Army (AK) freed 25 prisoners from a prison van, including Jan Bytnar ("Rudy").

April 1943

  • 14 IV - in the NKW for the first time information appears about the discovery of mass graves of Polish officers in Katyn. The German propaganda campaign builds up the anti-Jewish and anti-Bolshevik theme.
  • 19 IV - the Germans enter the ghetto, meeting with armed resistance from the ŻOB. The uprising breaks out.
  • 19 IV in the evening - the first diversionary action on the ghetto wall in Bonifraterska Street is carried out by a division of the Home Army (AK) under the command of Captain Józef Pszenny ("Chwacki?). In the fighting, two soldiers of the Home Army (AK) are killed.
  • 26 IV - on the aryan side of Warsaw announcements appear reminding the population that assistance to Jews carries the death penalty. In April a third part of the Underground Ghetto Archive is buried in the territory of the brushmakers? ?shop? at 34 Świętojerska Street (it has never been found).

May 1943

  • 8 V - the bunker of the ŻOB command is found at 18 Miła Street; Anielewicz together with several dozen fighters commits suicide.
  • 12 V - Szmuel Zygielbojm commits suicide in London in protest against the world?s passivity in face of the Holocaust of the Jews.
  • 16 V - the Germans blow up the Great Synagogue in Tłomackie Street as a sign that the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto has been finally crushed.