Historical Timeline

January 30, 1933	The Nazi party comes to power in Germany
March 12, 1938	Germany takes over Austria
Nov. 9/10, 1938	The Kristallnacht Pogrom in Germany and Austria
December 1938	Formation of the CAEJR Belgian Rescue Committee
June 15, 1939	Last group of children arrives in Brussels
September 1, 1939	Germany invades Poland; start of World War II
May 10, 1940	Germany invades Belgium, Holland, France, and Luxembourg
May 14, 1940	The La Hille children flee to France
June 22, 1940	France signs armistice with Germany
September 1,1940	Alex Frank replaces Gaspard DeWaay as Seyre colony director
October 1, 1940	Secours Suisse aux Enfants assumes responsibility for the Seyre colony
October 3, 1940	The Vichy government issues the Statut des Juifs (definition of who is a Jew)
February 12, 1941	Advance work group of teenagers arrives at Château de La Hille
May 6, 1941	Rösli Näf arrives at Seyre
June 1, 1941	Main group of children moves to La Hille
June 22, 1941	Germany invades Russia
Summer of 1941	Two children’s groups, totaling seventeen La Hille youngsters, are brought to the United States
January 20, 1942	Wannsee Conference, near Berlin, finalizes plans for mass murder of European Jews
August 26, 1942	French gendarmes arrest and intern forty La Hille teenagers and several adults at Le Vernet for deportation
September 2, 1942	La Hille teenagers and adults are liberated from Le Vernet
September 12,1942	Almuth Königshöfer is first La Hille teenager to cross the Swiss border illegally
November 8, 1942	US troops invade North Africa
November 11,1942	Germans occupy Vichy France unoccupied zone
Late December to	Numerous La Hille teenagers attempt illegal
Early January 1943	flight to Switzerland and Spain
January 2, 1943	Group of five La Hille teenagers arrested near Swiss border
May 6, 1943	Rösli Näf leaves La Hille
June 6, 1944	Allies invade Normandy
July 6, 1944	Egon Berlin is killed in the battle at Roquefixade
May 7, 1945	Germany surrenders