MAY 27 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

MAY 27

1939

MS St. Louis, a German ship docked in Cuba carried 930 Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. The refugees had legitimate landing certificates before their departure, but their papers were invalidated by the pro-fascist Cuban government authorities. Only 22 Jewish refugees were allowed entry. Canada and the United States also denied them entry.  The remainder had to return to Europe. Some refugees were taken by Belgium, UK, Netherlands and France, among other nations. Their refuge was only temporary, until the Nazis invaded these countries and began rounding up Jews from all European nations to carry out their "Final Solution" (the systematic extermination of Jews throughout Europe)

1940

Evacuation at Dunkirk continued:  This was the first full day of the evacuation during which only one cruiser, eight destroyers, and 26 other craft were active. British command was desperate for assistance and searched frantically for nearby boats that could ferry British troops from the beaches out to larger craft in the harbour, as well as larger vessels that could load from the docks.  After putting out a call for emergency help, they began receiving volunteers, and by May 31almost four hundred small craft had been put into service for the rescue mission. Meanwhile, the Luftwaffe had heavily bombed the town of Dunkirk and its dock installations. With water supply knocked out, fires blazed out of control killing many civilians. About a thousand people lost their lives, and only one third of the town survived. Sixteen squadrons of the British RAF engaged the Luftwaffe in battle and claimed 38 kills, but lost 14 aircraft.  The total number of allied sorties during Operation Dynamo was well over 3,500, and was able to inflict heavy losses on German bombers throughout the week. Regardless of RAF efforts, British soldiers were being bombed and strafed while awaiting transport, and unaware that the RAF was fighting to protect them.  Consequently, the soldiers were embittered towards the RAF and accused them of doing nothing to help them. (Most of the dogfights took place far from the beaches.)

1942

SS leader Heydrich was mortally wounded by members of the Czech Underground during an ambush in Prague. It was carried out by a team of Czech and Slovak soldiers in a British Operation called Operation Anthropoid. Heydrich died from his injuries a week later. Nazi intelligence falsely linked the assassins to the villages of Lidice and Ležáky and subsequently razed both villages to the ground. They shot all the men and boys over the age of 16, and all but a handful of women and children were deported and exterminated in Nazi camps.  Heydrich was a high-ranking Nazi official, and architect of the Holocaust. He chaired chaired the January 1942 Wannsee Conference, which formalised plans for the Final Solution to the Jewish Question—the deportation and genocide of all Jews in German-occupied Europe.