arts in exile

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• 1 January 1942

  In Washington, 26 countries sign the "Declaration by the United Nations". 
  This rests on the Atlantic Charter from 1941 and it represents an allied force against the German-Italian-Japanese axis.
• 16 January 1942

  The anti-Nazi film Paris Calling, featuring exiled German actress Elisabeth Bergner, premieres in the USA. 
• 20 Januar 1942

  The "Wannsee Conference" takes place on the Wannsee, Berlin.
  The Conference is attended by secretaries of state from various ministries as well as NSDAP and SS high-up functionaries to discuss the “Final Solution to the Jewish Problem”. The trivialising term “final solution” refers to the systematic and mass murder of Europe’s Jews.
• 3 March 1942

  The exhibition Artists in Exile opens at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York. It features works by 14 emigrants, including André Breton, Marc Chagall, Max Ernst and Piet Mondrian.
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  Arrival of Hungarian Jews at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp (1944)

  Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-N0827-318, photographer: Hoffmann, Ernst or Walter, Bernhard

  26 March 1942

  The first deportation trains arrive at the extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.
  This sees the beginning of the mass murder of Jews from all over Europe. By the end of the war, more than a million people are murdered here, the Nazis’ largest concentration and extermination camp which, from 1943, consists of three independent camp areas, the main camp, Birkenau and Monowitz with the Buna factory.
• May 1942

  Exile publishing house El Libro Libre established in Mexico
• July 1942

  Establishment of the Emergency Bureau for the Rescue of German Anti-Nazi Refugees aimed at rescuing at-risk refugees in southern France
• 1 July 1942

  The Artists Aid Russia Exhibition, staged in London's Wallace Collection, features the work of around 20 exiled artists, including Kurt Schwitters. 
• 3 July 1942

  Opening of the exhibition Allies Inside Germany in London, which provides political documentation of persecution, suppression and resistance to the Nazis within Germany. 
• 13 August 1942

  Switzerland closes its borders to refugees.
  Once deportations begin in Western European countries, the number of refugees rises. For many Belgian, Dutch, French and German Jews, refuge in Switzerland is the last chance to escape deportation.