Events in the year 1943 in Germany.
Incumbents
National level
Head of State and Chancellor
Adolf Hitler (the Führer) (Nazi Party)
Events
18 January – World War II: Soviet officials announce they have broken the Wehrmacht's siege of Leningrad. 18 January – The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins. 27 January – World War II: 64 bombers mount the first all American air raid against Germany (Wilhelmshaven is the target). 29 January – German police arrest alleged necrophiliac Bruno Ludke. 29 January – Dr Ernst Kaltenbrunner succeeds the late Reinhard Heydrich as head of the RSHA SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt controlling the Schutzstaffel Gestapo 2 February – World War II: In Russia, the Battle of Stalingrad comes to an end with the surrender of the German 6th Army and its 91,000 remaining soldiers. 3 February – World War II: The Four Chaplains of the U.S. Army are drowned, when their ship () is struck by a German torpedo. 14 February – World War II: Battle of the Kasserine Pass: German General Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps launch an offensive against Allied defenses in Tunisia. 16 February – World War II: The Soviet Union reconquers Kharkov, but is later driven out in the Third Battle of Kharkov 18 February – In a speech at the Berlin Sportpalast, German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels declare a "Total War" against the Allies. 18 February – The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement. 22 February – Members of White Rose are executed in Nazi Germany. 28 February – Operation Gunnerside: 6 Norwegians led by Joachim Ronneberg successfully attack the heavy water plant Vemork. 1 March – Heinz Guderian becomes the Inspector-General of the Armoured Troops for Nazi Germany's Army. 13 March – Holocaust: German forces liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków. 16 March – 19 March – World War II: 22 ships from Convoys HX 229/SC 122 and one U-boat are sunk in the largest North Atlantic U-boat wolfpack attack of the war. 22 March – World War II: The entire population of Khatyn in Belarus is burnt alive by the German Dirlewanger Brigade in retaliation for an attack of a German convoy by Soviet partisans. 26 March – Adolf Hitler writes to Benito Mussolini that Russia is so weakened by the defence of Stalingrad that it cannot possibly be a serious menace. 13 April – World War II: Radio Berlin announces the discovery by Wehrmacht of mass graves of Poles killed by Soviets in the Katyn massacre. 6 May – World War II: Six U-boats are sunk after sinking 12 ships from Convoy ONS 5, regarded as the turning point in the North Atlantic U-boat war. 13 May – World War II: German Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allied forces. 15 May – The Comintern is dissolved in Moscow. 16 May – World War II: Operation Chastise by RAF 617 Sqdn is carried out on German dams. 16 May – Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends. 24 May – Holocaust: Josef Mengele becomes the chief medical officer of Auschwitz. 5 July – World War II: Operation Citadel commences, resulting in the Battle of Kursk – The largest tank battle in history begins, with German Panther tanks seeing combat for the first time. 12 July – World War II – Battle of Prokhorovka: The Wehrmacht and the Red Army fight to a draw. 24 July – World War II: Operation Gomorrah begins: British and Canadian aeroplanes bomb Hamburg by night, those of the Americans by day. 27 July – World War II: Operation Gomorrah – The continued British bombing of Hamburg, initiates a firestorm. The fire rages through the night into the morning of the 28th, causing the majority of Operation Gomorrah's deaths. 3 August – World War II: Operation Gomorrah closes, with an estimated 42,600 killed and 37,000 wounded; much of Hamburg is leveled. 23 August – The Battle of Kursk ends with a serious strategic defeat for the German forces. 24 August – World War II: – Heinrich Himmler is named Reichsminister of the Interior in Germany. 29 August – World War II: Germany dissolves the Danish government after it refuses to deal with a wave of strikes and disturbances to the satisfaction of the German authorities (see Occupation of Denmark). 8 September – World War II: Frascati bombing raid September 8, 1943: The USAAF bombs the German General Headquarters for the Mediterranean zone. 12 September – World War II: German paratroopers rescue Benito Mussolini from imprisonment, in Operation Eiche. 13 October – World War II: The new government of Italy sides with the Allies and declares war on Germany. 17 October – World War II: The last commerce raider, auxiliary cruiser Michel, was sunk off Japan by United States submarine Tarpon. 22 October – World War II: The RAF delivers a highly destructive airstrike on the German industrial and population center of Kassel.