June 13 – On This Day in Holocaust History
1942—Approximately 3,000 Jews are deported from the Theresienstadt ghetto-camp to the East, where most are ultimately murdered.
Context: Theresienstadt served as both a ghetto and a transit camp. The Nazis later used it for propaganda purposes, but for most inmates it was a waystation to Auschwitz and other killing centers. Of the approximately 140,000 Jews sent to Theresienstadt during the war, tens of thousands died there and most of the remainder were deported eastward.
1942—British Ambassador to the Vatican Sir Francis d'Arcy Osborne criticizes Pope Pius XII's response to Nazi atrocities, observing that the Pope's moral leadership was not assured merely by repeating moral principles without action.
Context: Reports of mass murder of Jews were increasingly reaching Allied governments and the Vatican during late 1941 and 1942. Debate over Pope Pius XII's response to the Holocaust remains one of the most controversial historical questions of the era.
——Operation Reinhard deportations continue across occupied Poland. During the summer of 1942, Bełżec, Sobibór, and Treblinka become the principal centers for the extermination of Polish Jewry. Entire Jewish communities are being destroyed within weeks of deportation.
1944—Germany launches its first V-1 flying bomb attacks against England.
Holocaust context:
The attacks come as Germany faces mounting military defeats on both the Eastern and Western fronts. Even after the Allied landings in Normandy, deportations and mass murder continue, particularly at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where Hungarian Jews are still arriving daily.
——The deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz remains at its peak. By mid-June, hundreds of thousands have already been deported. Auschwitz is operating at unprecedented killing capacity. The mass murder continues even as Allied troops advance through Western Europe.