1937 Holocaust: Swiss officials announce that they are refusing to grant permanent resident permits to German Jewish refugees to avoid flooding the labor market. (THP)

1938 Britain signs a pact of friendship with Italy without giving adequate notice to the United States. (THP)

1939 Church and Reich: After Franco, with the help of fellow Fascist dictators Hitler and Mussolini, had successfully defeated the "Loyalists," Pope Pius XII this day sends the Spanish Catholics his expressions of "immense joy" and "fatherly congratulations for the gift of peace and victory with which God has deigned to crown the Christian heroism of your faith and charity, proved through such great and generous sufferings." (THP)

1941 Holocaust: German troops enter Sarajevo and demolish the main Jewish synagogue. A few Jews escape over the mountains into Italian occupied territory, but the majority of Bosnian Jews are soon deported to concentration camps controlled by the Fascist Croatian "Ustachi." Nearly all will die. (THP) 

1941 WW2:  The Italian convoy Duisburg, directed to Tunisia, is attacked and destroyed by British ships.

1941 Holocaust: At Suresnes, outside Paris, the first executions of Jews in the resistance takes place. During 1941, a total of 133 Jews are shot for resistance in France, according to Gestapo records. (THP)

1942 Holocaust: Berlin is informed by the local SS that "the Crimea is purged of Jews." (THP)

1942 Holocaust: 2,000 Jews from Gostynin are deported to Chelmno (Kulmhof) for execution. (THP)

1943 Katyn Massacre: The Polish government in exile in London asks for a Red Cross investigation of the mass murders in the Katyn Forest.

1943 WW2: From the minutes of a press conference in the Propagandaabteilung: "At the end of the conference the German commentator declared that on Tuesday, 20 April (the Fuehrer's birthday) the newspapers would consist of four pages instead of two, and on Wednesday, 21 April, they would consist of two pages instead of four. He asked the reporters present to stress the European orientation of the Fuehrer's political personality and to treat Franco-German relations very generously. A great deal of tact and reserve are necessary, however, in order not to give the newspapers the appearance of being no longer French, and in this way shocking public opinion."

1944 WW2: Allied bombing of Germany had reduced many German cities to ruins by April 1944, but had not succeeded in stopping the German war effort. Here Goebbels addresses the damage caused by the bombing, and hints at the coming V-weapons: "...We cannot help loving the city of Berlin more today than ever before, even with its heavy wounds. After another night of bombing, public transportation may not be working. We see a stream of men and women walking through the wide avenues for two or three hours to reach their workplaces. The men are unshaven and rumpled. The women may be wearing pants and a simple pullover, carrying a small suitcase with the essentials under their arms. Such a sight makes us appreciate this brave city..."

1945 WW2: The German ship Goya, overfilled with refugees, sinks after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, killing more than 7,000 people.

1945 WW2 Halifax (Washington) to Churchill: "Anthony and I saw Harry Hopkins this morning…He had not been greatly surprised by the Presidents death, and was thankful he had not had a stroke and lost power like Wilson. For some time he had noticed how much the President had failed. He had been able to do only very little work. He judged the President’s death to have created a completely new situation in which we should be starting from scratch. One thing we would be certain of would be that the policy would be very much more the concerted action of the Senate. How this would work it was quite impossible to predict…It may be of interest that Truman’s hobby is history of military strategy, of which he is reported to have read widely…"

1945 WW2 Eden to Churchill: "Edward and I paid our first call on the President this morning. He made a good impression…My impression from the interview is that the new President is honest and friendly. He is conscious of but not overwhelmed by his new responsibilities. His references to you could not have been warmer. I believe we shall have in him a loyal collaborator, and I am much heartened by this first conversation."

1945 WW2: General Zhukov launches his final attack on Berlin. "...Zhukov's 1st Byelorussian Front attacked at 05.00 on the 16th April and Koniev's 1st Ukrainian Front at 06.15. Although Koniev's attack across the River Neisse went well, Zhuvok's forces soon ran into trouble. The battle just west of the River Oder proved to be no walkover as the SeelÃw Heights were a critical defensive position in Army Group Vistula's sector, and the Germans, under no illusions as to what a Soviet breakthrough would mean, fought desperately. The Army Group had been under Col Gen G. Heinrici since the end of March after Hitler replaced Himmler with Heinrici, a veteran of the Eastern Front and expert on defensive tactics. He had pulled his men back from the forward positions just before the start of the attack and thus the artillery bombardment hit only empty positions while the searchlights merely lit up the Soviet tanks and infantry for the German gunners to rake with murderous fire. Stalin was furious at the delay, as well as Zhukov's attempt to overcome it with the deployment of his mobile reserves, the 1st and 2nd Guards Tank Armies that contravened Stavka's (the Soviet High Command) orders. After fierce fighting, Zhukov overcame the positions on the SeelÃw Heights but because of German reinforcements (Col Gen Helmuth Weidling's LVI Panzer Corps) still found the going tough. As a result, Stalin ordered Koniev to direct his armoured forces directly at Berlin with the result that two Soviet Fronts were advancing for the city..."

1945 WW2 Mikolajczryk to Churchill: "1. I consider close and lasting friendship with Russia is the keystone of future Polish policy, within the wider friendship of the United Nations. 2. To remove all doubt as to my attitude, I wish to declare that I accept the Crimea decision in regard to the future of Poland, its sovereign independent position, and the formation of a Provisional Government representative of National Unity. 3. I support the decision arrived at in the Crimea that a conference of leading personalities be called with a view to constituting a Government of National Unity, as widely and fairly representative of the Polish people as possible, and one which will command recognition by the three major Powers."

1945 WW2: In his first speech to Congress, President Harry S. Truman pledges to carry out the war and peace policies of his late predecessor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt. "...So that there can be no possible misunderstanding, both Germany and Japan can be certain, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that America will continue the fight for freedom until no vestige of resistance remains! We are deeply conscious of the fact that much hard fighting is still ahead of us. Having to pay such a heavy price to make complete victory certain, America will never become a party to any plan for partial victory! To settle for merely another temporary respite would surely jeopardize the future security of all the world. Our demand has been, and it remains-Unconditional Surrender! We will not traffic with the breakers of the peace on the terms of the peace. The responsibility for making of the peace-and it is a very grave responsibility-must rest with the defenders of the peace. We are not unconscious of the dictates of humanity. We do not wish to see unnecessary or unjustified suffering. But the laws of God and of man have been violated and the guilty must not go unpunished. Nothing shall shake our determination to punish the war criminals even though we must pursue them to the ends of the earth. Lasting peace can never be secured if we permit our dangerous opponents to plot future wars with impunity at any mountain retreat - however distant. In this shrinking world, it is futile to seek safety behind geographical barriers. Real security will be found only in law and in justice..."

1945 WW2: The United States Army liberates Nazi Sonderlager (high security) Prisoner of War camp Oflag IVc (Colditz Castle). US troops reach the outskirts of Nuremberg, Germany.

1947 Financier and presidential confidant Bernard Baruch (above, right) declares in a speech at the South Carolina statehouse: "Let us not be deceived - we are today in the midst of a cold war." 

1947 Death: Rudolf Hoess, commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Hoess: "...Another improvement we made over Treblinka was that we built our gas chambers to accommodate 2,000 people at one time, whereas at Treblinka their 10 gas chambers only accommodated 200 people each. The way we selected our victims was as follows: we had two SS doctors on duty at Auschwitz to examine the incoming transports of prisoners. The prisoners would be marched by one of the doctors who would make spot decisions as they walked by. Those who were fit for work were sent into the Camp. Others were sent immediately to the extermination plants. Children of tender years were invariably exterminated, since by reason of their youth they were unable to work. Still another improvement we made over Treblinka was that at Treblinka the victims almost always knew that they were to be exterminated and at Auschwitz we endeavored to fool the victims into thinking that they were to go through a delousing process. Of course, frequently they realized our true intentions and we sometimes had riots and difficulties due to that fact. Very frequently women would hide their children under the clothes but of course when we found them we would send the children in to be exterminated. We were required to carry out these exterminations in secrecy but of course the foul and nauseating stench from the continuous burning of bodies permeated the entire area and all of the people living in the surrounding communities knew that exterminations were going on at Auschwitz..."

1948 The Organization for European Economic Cooperation is set up in Paris.

1978 Death: Lucius Clay, American general and military governor best known for his administration of Germany immediately after World War II. Clay is remembered as a hero for ordering and maintaining the airlift (Berlin Crisis), which would ultimately last 324 days, through May of 1949. He resigned his post days after the blockade was lifted. After Clay retired from the military, he went into politics and served several presidents.