1939-1941

  • Einsatzgruppen formed

    role was to combat all anti-reich and anti-german elements in enemy territory behind the front-line troops and to 'render harmless' the leadership class in Poland
  • Hitler invades Poland

  • The Lublin Reservation

    • Jews and other undesireables should be sent to the Lublin district, the furtherest coroner of the German empire
  • Madagascar Plan

  • Warsaw ghetto sealed

    • 500,000 Jews, over 100,000 people per square kilometre
    • food rations fell below an average of 300 calories a day