15 March 1939German troops occupy the remaining territory of the Czech part of Czechoslovakia, i.e. the territory of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, which Germany and Poland have not occupied and annexed until then. The day after that, the newly occupied territories are established as ‘Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia’.
April 1939Alois Paffner and Antonia Růžičková live together with their seven children in Česká Třebová, Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia (German occupied Czech Lands). The family is deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp in 1943. Only the son Emil Růžička survives.
1942
1 – 3 August 1942In the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (German-occupied Czech Lands), people defined as ‘Gypsies’ are registered.
16 December 1942‘Auschwitz Decree’: Heinrich Himmler, head of the Schutzstaffel (‘Reichsführer-SS’), orders the deportation of Sinti and Roma from the German Reich to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp.
1943
10 March 1943 The second mass transport from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (German-occupied Czech Lands) on the basis of the ‘Auschwitz decree’, departing from the city of Prague and numbering approx. 650 Roma men, women, and children, arrives in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. They are registered on 11 March.
19 March 1943About 1,050 men, women and children deported from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (German-occupied Czech lands) on the basis of the ‘Auschwitz decree’ are registered on arrival in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. They arrive on the third mass transport from the Protectorate, departing from the city of Olomouc.
1944
14 September 1944Vaclav Ferda, Josef Florian, Willi Rose, Emil Růžička and Johann Stojka are transferred from the Auschwitz I concentration camp to Flossenbürg concentration camp in a transport with a total of 100 prisoners. The five men had previously been transferred from camp section BIIe in Auschwitz-Birkenau to the main camp, some of them as early as 1943.