10 May 1940Germany extends the war to Western Europe; the Wehrmacht invades Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
1942
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
29 March 1943The Reich Security Main Office orders the deportation of Roma and Sinti from German-occupied territories and countries (Belgium, Bialystok district, Alsace, Lorraine, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and northern France) to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp.
9 December 1943The German criminal police in the area of the German Military Commander for Belgium and Northern France draw up a list with the name of 351 Sinti and Roma who are destined for deportation. One woman, Jeanne Royenne Vados, is later deported without having been registered on this list.
1944
15 April 1944473 Sinti and Roma, women and girls, are transferred from Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp to Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany.
1945
26 April 1945Gervaise Schmitt-Vinstretin and Marie-Madeleine Vinstretin are registered in a hospital in Malmö, Sweden, where they are evacuated shortly before the liberation of the Ravensbrück concentration camp thanks to the Red Cross.
30 April 1945The Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany is liberated by soldiers of the Soviet Red Army.
