May 31, 1943:
- "May 30: "Dr. Josef Mengele, an SS captain, arrives at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp to begin his medical duties.
- May 31: "SS General Friedrich Wilhelm Krüger tells associates at a meeting in Kraków, Poland, that, although the elimination of Jews is unpleasant, it is "necessary from the standpoint of European interests."
- "Nazi prison administrator in Minsk, Belorussia, reports that 516 German and Russian Jews have been killed in late May, their gold crowns and fillings taken from their mouths before their deaths."
"Headstonesremoved from the Jewish cemetery at Salonika served as walkways, and Nazis desecrated and destroyed the remainder of the cemetery."
June 1, 1943:
- "June 1943: Jews of Dalmatia, Serbia, are transferred to the island of Rab, which is off the coast of Croatia.
- Early June: "In a combination of street assaults and killings at Janówska, Ukraine, 10,000 Jews from Lvov lose their lives.
- June 1-6: "During liquidation of the ghetto at Sosnowiec, Poland, a spirited resistance is led by Zvi Dunski.
Ill-armed Jews fight back as deportations proceed. - "The Jewish ghetto at Buczacz, Ukraine, is liquidated.
Some Jews resist and escape."
"A glum Joseph Goebbels sits before the text of a radio broadcast to the German people.
The German defeat at Stalingrad, Russia, and Allied victories in Tunisia made Goebbels's job increasingly difficult during 1943.
Victory communiqués, which had been a staple of German national radio in the early years of the war, were now rare occurrences. "
"Following a reprisal at Pancero, Serbia, a German soldier blithely waves to the photographer as the victims twist nearby.
Mindful of the need to maintain the upper hand in conquered territories, the Nazis reacted swiftly to local revolt.
Executions --- often indiscriminate -- became commonplace."