Soviet forces liberate Lodz
Approximately 900 Jews remain in Lodz, in hiding, when Soviet troops arrive. Of the c. 230,000 Jews who lived in Lodz in 1940, only an estimated 10,000 survived the war.
Auschwitz "Death March"
Nazi SS units evacuate around 60,000 prisoners from the camps at Auschwitz, in a forced "Death March" westward. Prisoners who are unable to keep up are shot. In the days preceding the march, thousands of prisoners had been killed in the camps.
Gas chambers dismantled at Auschwitz-Birkenau
Heinrich Himmler orders the dismantling of gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau for relocation to Gross-Rosen. Sonderkommando are ordered to conceal open-air pits used for mass burning of corpses when crematoria were overwhelmed.
Paratrooper Hannah Szenes executed
Hannah Szenes, one of 32 volunteers from paramilitary groups active in British Mandate Palestine, is tortured and executed after parachuting into Hungary to organize armed resistance to the Nazis.
Final transport from Theresienstadt
Approximately 18,000 Jews are transported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz-Birkenau.