Nazi Germany and Italy declare war on the US
Four days after the US enters the war against Japan, Japan's Axis allies Germany and Italy declare war on the United States. The US Congress then formally declares war on the Axis powers.
Auschwitz-Birkenau established
SS authorities established a second camp at Auschwitz, called Auschwitz-Birkenau or Auschwitz II. Originally designated for the incarceration of large numbers of Soviet prisoners of war and forced laborers, the camp is quickly developed into a Nazi killing center. Auschwitz-Birkenau was central to the Nazi plan for the "Final Solution." The largest of the killing centers, by 1943 four crematoria with gas chambers were in operation. Between 1942-1944, over one million Jews from all over Europe were deported to Auschwitz and murdered, most of them directly upon arrival.
"Great Action" in Kovno ghetto
Nazis and Lithuanian collaborators seize over 9,000 Jews from the Kovno ghetto and shoot them in what was later termed the "Great Action" (Grosse Aktion).
Deportations to Lodz, Minsk, and Riga ghettos
Nazis deport Jews remaining in the German Reich to Lodz, Minsk, and Riga ghettos.
Deportation of Romanian Jews
Romania's Nazi collaborationist government expels about 150,000 Romanian Jews from Bessarabia and Bukovina to Transnistria. Approximately 90,000 of these Jewish deportees ultimately die.