- Memorial Day of the Victims of Hungarian Holocaust
type: anniversary location: Hungary
In 2000, the Parliament of Hungary declared 16 April the Day of the Victims of Hungarian Holocaust. The first commemorations took place in 2001.
- Husak's rise to power
type: anniversary
On 17 April 1969, Gustav Husak, obeying Moscow's demands, replaces Dubcek as the first secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia sees a wave of repressions referred to as normalisation: reformers lose their positions, half a million members are ousted from the party and about 200,000 people emigrate.
- Outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
type: anniversary location: Poland (Warsaw)
The Warsaw Ghetto, established in 1940, was to be liquidated in the autumn of 1942. Over 316,000 Jews were removed during two resettlement campaigns. Around 60,000 people remained in the ghetto. The ultimate liquidation of the ghetto was scheduled for 19 April 1943. Unexpectedly, the SS and Wehrmacht troops encountered armed resistance of the soldiers of the Jewish Combat Organisation and the Jewish Military Union. During the three weeks of fighting that ensued over 7,000 Jews were killed, another 6,000 were burned alive in their hiding places and around 50,000 were transferred to the death camp in Treblinka.
- Creation of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
type: anniversary
In 1946, in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, the forced unification of the Communist and Social Democratic Parties produces the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). The phenomenon of a communist party absorbing a social democratic party repeats itself in most of the countries of the Eastern Bloc.
