January
Approximately 500 Sinti and Romas (Gypsies) are transported from Lodz to Chelmno and are gassed there.
Deportations from Germany to Theresienstadt begin.
A special tax is enacted for "workers from the east."
January 26
Himmler announces that within the next four weeks 100,000 Jewish men and 50,000 Jewish women will be sent to concentration camps as forced laborers.
January 31
The report from the SS Einsatzgruppe A summarizes that during the massacre of 70,000 Latvian Jews, 3,750 skilled tradesmen were left alive. During November and December 1941 alone, Einsatzgruppe A murdered the following number of Latvian Jews: 11,034 in D?g (Daugavpils), 27,800 in Riga, and 2,350 in Libau.
The number of Jews living in Polish ghettos is estimated to be between 1.2 to 1.5 million.
February 2
"Geschaeftsgruppe Arbeitseinsatz" (Business Unit for Labor Placement) head Mansfeld complains that each week 8,000 to 10,000 civilian laborers come to Germany whose health rapidly deteriorates because of bad nutrition and housing.
February 20
Edicts issued that pertain to workers from the east.
March
Demands are made for the improvement of the quality of life for workers from the east.
Construction of the extermination camp Sobibor begins.
Exterminations continue at the Belzec camp.
March 16
Concentration camps are subordinated to the WVHA (Chief Office of Economic Administration). The number of slave laborers from the concentration camps working in the armamentss industry grows rapidly. At this time, approximately 100,000 prisoners are in concentration camps.
March 17
Start of "Aktion Reinhard" with the deportation of Jews from Lublin to Belzec.
March 20
Gassings start at Auschwitz II (Birkenau) in Bunker 1, and as of June, in Bunker 2. Both are considered temporary installations with insufficient capacity. Construction will begin mid-year on larger and faster installations, which will go into operation in early 1943.
March 27
Joseph Goebbels' daybook entry about the "resettlement of Jews": "Here a fairly barbaric process is utilized. Of the Jews themselves, not much remains."
March 30
First mass deportations from the west (Compiegne) arrive at Auschwitz.
April
Test gassings conducted in the completed gas chambers at Sobibor.
The "edicts pertaining to workers from the east" are somewhat reduced by the RSHA, while at the same time the penalties are increased for "insubordination" at the work place.
April 17
Due to general difficulties in obtaining provisions, the extremely low subsistence amounts for Soviet prisoners of war are further reduced.
May
Selections start at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Those capable of work are temporarily spared from being gassed.
Jews in Semlin, a police detention camp near Belgrade, are gassed in a van transferred from Berlin.
Construction of the extermination camp Treblinka begins.
May 5
The deaths of concentration camp prisoners no longer have to be reported to the next of kin, only to the responsible Stapo (State Police) station.
May 31
Labor camp Monowitz (later to become Auschwitz III) is opened and stocked with prisoners used for the construction of the Buna-Works (I. G. Farben).
June
Except for the Lodz ghetto, all other ghettos in the Reichsgau (Federal Territory) Wartheland are dissolved through "resettlements." Major deportations of Jews from France and Austria to Auschwitz begin.
Due to the construction caused by expansion, gassings are suspended at Belzec.
To date, twenty vans for gas killings have been delivered by the RSHA (Central Security Office of the Reich).
June 30
The pay schedule for laborers from the east comes under new regulations. No foreign worker can receive higher wages or enjoy better working conditions than German workers.
July
Transports to Auschwitz of Jews from German territory (beginning with Berlin and Hamburg) and Holland begin.
Soviet prisoners of war are killed at Chelmno.
Due to the construction caused by expansion, gassings at Sobibor are suspended until October.
July 19
Himmler orders that the extermination of the Jewish population in the Generalgouvernement, dubbed "Aktion Reinhard," is to be completed by December 31, 1942. The objective was not quite reached by this date. The three death camps (Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka) built and used to accomplish this goal are closed one by one between late 1942 and late 1943.
July 23
Mass gassings in the extermination camp Treblinka begin.
July 28
Albert Ganzenm?(Director of National Railroads) reports to Himmler that since July 22, a train carrying 5,000 Jews from Warsaw arrives each day in Treblinka and a train carrying 5,000 Jews from Przemysl arrives each week in Belzec.
July 31
1,000 Jews from Theresienstadt are taken to Baranowitsche and gassed in vans.
August
Transports of Jews from Belgium (Malines) to Auschwitz begin.
Transports of Jews from Vienna and Theresienstadt to the extermination camp Maly Trostinec begin.
In spite of the dire consequences, the desperate situation of the prisoners leads to increases in the number of escape attempts: 14,583 prisoners of war in August 1942 and a monthly average of 45,000 foreign workers, primarily workers from the east.
August 22
The work week for foreign workers is increased to 54 hours.
September 18
The ghetto Theresienstadt reaches its maximum number of inmates: 58,491 men, women, and children.
Edict by Himmler: Prisoners of the justice system capable of work are to be transferred to concentration camps for forced labor. Judicial control over Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Jewish, and Gypsy prisoners falls under the SS.
October
Gassings begin in the concentration camp Majdanek (Lublin).
October 10
Subsistence rations are increased approximately 10 percent, even for Soviet workers.
October 27
Himmler orders the liquidation of the last huge Ukrainian ghetto in Pinsk.
October 29
Wages for foreign workers are completely changed over to piece work payments.
November 5
Order issued that all Jews in concentration camps within Germany are to be deported to Auschwitz and Majdanek (Lublin). As of November 26, 1942, it also applies to Jews working in the armaments industry.
December
Despite centralized attempts to reduce the brutality in the camps (beatings, standings at attention) in order to increase the ability of the prisoners to work, the death rate in the second half of 1942 reaches a peak (around 60 percent) due to poor housing, nutrition, and hygiene.
December 1
The "Polen-Jugendverwahrlager Litzmannstadt" (Camp for the custody of Polish youth in Lodz") opens.
December 15
The RSHA urges the establishment of "divisions for education," which will report to labor education camps. Within the coming months, many of these education camps are established within businesses.
December 17
In order to achieve the goal of obtaining 350,000 more prisoners capable of working by the end of February 1943, the head of the Sipo (Security Police) decides that foreign workers are to be sent to the closest concentration camp immediately upon any breach of the work contract. Work education camps and detention camps are to be combed for able prisoners for transfer to concentration camps.
December 29
In an report to Hitler, Himmler notes that 363,211
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