SEPTEMBER 3, 1939

DEFEATISTS DEPORTED TO CONCENTRATION CAMPS

Three days after the beginning of World War II, Reinhard Heydrich, commander of the Security Service (SD), orders the immediate arrest of any person who publicly voices doubts concerning Germany's victory in the war or the nature of the war being fought. As the war progresses, an increasing number of people are arrested. Many are deported without trial directly to concentration camps.

DECEMBER 7, 1941

HITLER ORDERS "NIGHT AND FOG" POLICY

On Adolf Hitler's orders, Wilhelm Keitel, chief of the German Armed Forces High Command, issues the "Night and Fog" decree. Those who resist German rule in occupied territories are to be arrested and deported to concentration camps in Germany. Those arrested are simply to disappear into the "Night and Fog." Their relatives are not to be informed. About 7,000 people, mostly from France, are arrested under the provisions of this decree. Most are deported to the Gross-Rosen and Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camps.

SEPTEMBER 18, 1942

PRISONERS SUBJECT TO "EXTERMINATION THROUGH WORK"

The ministry of justice and the SS reach agreement on the systematic transfer of prisoners to the jurisdiction of the SS. The ministry of justice agrees that all Jews, Roma (Gypsies), and Ukrainians, as well as Poles sentenced to more than three years, and Czechs and Germans to more than eight years, are under the exclusive jurisdiction of the SS. Prisoners in these categories are subject to "extermination through work"; they are to be worked to death in the concentration camps.