10 May 1940Germany extends the war to Western Europe; the Wehrmacht invades Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
8 November 1940Joseph Toloche, his wife Flore Boudin and their children Marguerite and Bernard are arrested in Rouen (German-occupied France), where they had fled during the invasion of Belgium by German troops. They are interned in detention camps and Flore Boudin dies of a miscarriage. Father and children flee back to Belgium and are deported from there to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. Only Joseph Toloche survives.
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.
