1940
During the early months of 1940, a so-called "phony war" follows the fall of Poland, but prior to the invasion of France. During this period, Goering maintains a secret, clandestine communications link with British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in London. This was an unusual, if not unheard-of, situation, because both countries were officially at war. (Duffy)
1940
The U.S. Census places black life expectancy at 51 years, and white at 62. Nearly one-fourth of blacks live in the North and West. The U.S. Supreme Court rules that black teachers cannot be denied wage parity with
white teachers.
1940
The Virginia Legislature chooses Carry Me Back to Old Virginia, written by black composer James A. Bland, as the official state song.
1940
Benjamin O. Davis Sr. is appointed as the first black general in the history of the U. S. Armed Forces. Responding to NAACP pressure, Franklin Delano Roosevelt announces that black strength in the Armed Forces will be proportionate to black population totals. Several branches of the military service and several occupational specialties are to be opened to blacks. But Roosevelt rules out troop integration because it will be "destructive
to morale and detrimental to... preparation for national defense." At the start of Selective Service, less than 5000 of 230,000 men in the Army are black and there are only two black combat officers. Approximately 888,000 black men and 4,000 black women are to serve in the Armed Forces during World War II. Blacks are mostly confined to service units.
1940
In a mass meeting of West Indians in New York, they oppose the transfer of West Indian islands to the United States.
1940
Eighty thousand blacks vote in eight southern U.S. states. Only five percent of voting age blacks are registered to vote.
1940
Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein directs Wagner's Walküre at Moscow's Bolshoi Theater. (NY Times 7-5-98))
1940
Charlie Chaplin, in his first talking film, "The Great Dictator," plays both the "Little Tramp" and a figure modelled after Hitler. He was not the first, however. The Three Stooges, an American-Jewish comedy team, had alrerady done a comic spoof of Hitler in a film several years earlier.
1940
Raczkiewicz moves the Polish government-in-exile from France to
London after the defeat of France.
1940
While confident of ultimate victory, Churchill believes it will come only with the United States as an ally. One impediment was the US Ambassador to Britain, Joseph P. Kennedy, whose Irish-American biases left him with little sympathy for Britain and whose reports to Roosevelt showed no confidence in British victory. The President, however, had other eyes and ears: Harry Hopkins, Wendell Willkie and Kennedy's replacement as Ambassador, John Winant, were staunch supporters of the British cause. Carl Spaatz and "Wild Bill" Donovan, both U.S. army colonels who would later play leading roles in the US war effort, visited Britain and drew quite different conclusions from Kennedy's. (Churchill Center)
1940 January
The Cliveden Group, led by Lady Astor, pressures the British government to declare War on the Soviet Union for invading Finland. They believe the Communists, not Hitler, are Britain's real enemies.
1940 January
Churchill again travels to the continent where he expresses concern about the inferior equipment and lackadaisical attitude of his French allies. Churchill wants to send troops into Norway but it is pointed out that the Canadians who would be used were not yet trained to fight on skis. (Churchill Center)
1940 January
The killing of mental patients by means of carbon
monoxide gas is tried out in the jail at Brandenburg. By September of 1941,
70,723 German mental patients will have been killed in Grafeneck, Brandenburg,
Bernburg, Hartheim, Sonnenstein, and Hadamar, using carbon monoxide gas provided
by the I.G. Farben corporation. (Science)
1940 January
Churchill, lauding the fight put up by Finland, criticizes the neutral countries. "Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, that the crocodile will eat him last." The reaction in Norway, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland and Belgium was often hostile. Criticism, however, did not dissuade him. "Criticism in a body politic is like pain in a human body. It is not pleasant, but where would the body be without it." (Churchill Center)
1940 January 4
Hermann Goering is given overall control of German
war industry.
1940 January 5
Professor Lenz sends a memorandum to Pancke, chief of
the RuSHA, entitled: "Remarks on resettlement from the point of view of
safeguarding the race." (Science)
1940 January 6
Cardinal Hlond submits a new and detailed report to
Pius XII on the deportations and arrests of Polish priests, the closing of
churches and the brutal treatment meted out to the Polish population. (Lewy)
1940 January 6
The German Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs issues
an edict, based on the Fuehrer's amnesty of September 9, 1939, restoring the
salaries of a large number of priests who had their state subsidy cut off
because of minor infractions of the law. (Lewy)
1940 January 9
Hildebrandt, chief of the SS and Police in Danzig and
West Prussia (and, from 1943 onwards, head of the RuSHA), reports to Himmler on
the shootings of German and Polish mental patients which he has carried out: "The
other two units of storm troopers at my disposal were employed as follows during
October, November and December... For the elimination of about 4,400 incurable
patients from Polish mental hospitals... For the elimination of about 2,000
incurable patients from the Konradstein mental hospital..." (Science)
1940 January 10
A German plane carrying plans for the invasion of
France is forced down at Mechelen, Belgium. The Belgian authorities pass on
details of the German invasion to the British and French. Hitler's agents
suspect the British and French have learned of the plans for the invasion,
scheduled for January 17, and Hitler postpones the invasion. He will use this
alleged violation of neutrality by Belgium to justify the invasion of that
country in May.
1940 January 15
The Belgian government refuses to let England and
France move troops into Belgium before a possible German attack. This is a
strange response if the captured German invasion plans called for an attack
through Belgium as the British claim.
1940 January 16
Hitler cancels the German attack in the west until
spring, ordering new attack plans to be drawn up.
1940 January 20
Dr. Ritter writes in a progress report to the DFG: "Through
our work we have been able to establish that more than ninety per cent of
so-called native Gypsies are of mixed blood... The Gypsy question can only be
considered solved when the main body of asocial and good-for-nothing Gypsy
individuals of mixed blood is collected together in large labour camps and kept
working there, and when the further breeding of this population of mixed blood
is stopped once and for all." (Science)
1940 January 23
Vatican Radio broadcasts excerpts from Cardinal
Hlond's January 6 report to the Pope. (See January 6)
1940 January 29
Ambassador Bergen reports to Berlin that the Papal Secretary of State has ordered the immediate cessation of all broadcasts about atrocities in Poland.
