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Chronology of Michel's Life
| 1914 | |
| February 3 | Born in Lodz, Poland |
| 1918 | |
| Gets Rickets as child | |
| 1920 | |
| Moves to Breslau | |
| 1933 | |
| January 30 | Hitler becomes Chancellor. |
| Attends Bordeaux University. | |
| 1935 | |
| Leaves Bordeaux University. | |
| Summer courses at Le Sorbonne. | |
| 1936 | |
| In Grasse with Michael Ken. | |
| 1937 | |
| Final visit to Poland | |
| 1938 | |
| Michel moves to Vienna University. | |
| March 11-12 | Reich annexes Austria in Anschluss. |
| His passport confiscated, Michel flees Austria. | |
| 1939 | |
| August 23 | Germany signs non-aggression pact with USSR. |
| September 1 | Germany invades Poland. |
| September 3 | UK and France declare war on Germany. |
| Michel volunteers for the French Army. | |
| September | Meets Viennese writer in Nice. |
| 1940 | |
| March 28 | Agreement between France and Britain prohibits either country from making a separate peace. |
| May 13 | German Army enters France by crossing the Meuse river at Dinant and Sedan. |
| June 10 | French Government leaves Paris for Loire Valley. |
| June 14 | German Army enters Paris. French Government moves from Loire Valley to Bordeaux. |
| June 16 | French cabinet rejects plan for Anglo-French Union. Marshal PÈtain takes helm. |
| June 17 | PÈtain's broadcast calls for an armistice. |
| June 22 | Franco-German armistice signed. |
| June 23 | Hitler visits Paris. |
| June 24 | France signs armistice with Italy. |
| June 29 | PÈtain's government leaves Bordeaux for Clermont-Ferrand. |
| July 1 | PÈtain's government moves from Clermont-Ferrand to Vichy. |
| On Churchill's orders, the Royal Navy sinks French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir. | |
| July 11 | PÈtain establishes the Vichy regime with himself as Head of State. |
| July 22 | Vichy begins to review citizenship of those naturalized since 1927. |
| August 2 | French Military tribunal condemns de Gaulle to death. |
| August 17 | Germans ban Jews who fled to the Southern Zone from returning to the Occupied Zone. |
| August 29 | LÈgion FranÁais des Combattants formed in the Southern Zone. |
| September 27 | German decree requires a census of Jews in the Occupied Zone. |
| September | Michel arrested by Vichy police. |
| October 3 | Vichy introduces first Statut des Juifs, defining Jewishness and banning Jews from higher public service and positions influencing public opinion. |
| October 22 | PÈtain meets Hitler at Montoire, near Tours. |
| October 28 | Pierre Laval appointed Foreign Minister. |
| October 30 | PÈtain advocates collaboration in a radio broadcast. |
| 1941 | |
| January 9 | Michel released from jail in Nice. |
| February 14 | Refus de sÈjour. |
| Jan-Apr | Resident in Monte Carlo. |
| March | Vichy establishes Commissariat GÈnÈral aux Questions Juives (CGQJ) headed by Xavier Vallat. |
| April | Vichy's Groupes Mobiles de Reserve, April, 1941. |
| April 27 | Michel interned in Le Vernet (Transport 17 Juifs) |
| May 11 | Vichy celebrates Joan of Arc's feast day. |
| May 14 | First rafle of Jews in Paris. |
| June | Hitler invades Soviet Union. |
| June 2 | Vichy's second Statut des Juifs, requiring a census of Jews in the Southern Zone and excluding Jews from commerce and industry. |
| July 22 | Vichy law authorises confiscation of Jewish property and enterprises. |
| August 21 | First public assassination of German. |
| November 29 | Vallat establishes the Union GÈnÈrale des Israelites de France, supposedly to let Jews manage their own affairs. |
| December | Fateful conversation with Suzanne |
| Michel sent to slave labour camp in the Alps. | |
| 1942 | |
| February 4 | Service d'Ordre Legionnaire, predecessor of the Milice, is formed. |
| March | Franc-Tireurs et Partisans (FTP) formed. |
| March 27 | First trainload of French Jews leaves Drancy for Auschwitz. |
| May 29 | Jews over the age of 6 in the Occupied Zone are required to wear the yellow star. |
| August 5 | First Jews from the camps in the Southern Zone sent to Drancy en route for Auschwitz. |
| Michel taken from Alpine camp to Les Milles. | |
| August | Children torn from mothers at Les Milles |
| August 13 | Switzerland closes its borders to Jewish refugees. |
| September | Michel joins Resistance in Lyon |
| November 8 | Allies begin landings in North Africa. |
| November 11 | Germans occupy Southern Zone. |
| December 11 | Vichy regime orders Jews in the Southern Zone to have Juif or Juive stamped on personal documents. |
| 1943 | |
| January 23 | Germans destroy Vieux Port in Marseille. |
| January 31 | The Milice Francaise is founded, with Laval as president. |
| January | Jean Moulin merges resistance groups. |
| February 9 | Michel arrested by Barbie. |
| February 16 | SÈrvice du Travail Obligatoire (STO) introduced. |
| March 30 | Michel arrested by Grenoble Milice and tortured for six hours. |
| April 24 | First Miliciens killed by resistants. |
| June 21 | Klaus Barbie captures Moulin and other leading resistants at Caluire (Lyon). |
| September | Michel named Section Chief in the A.S. (Secret Army). |
| September 8 | Germans take over Italian-occupied territory in southern France. Italy agrees to armistice with Allies. |
| September 11 | Germans occupy Rome. |
| October 3 | RÈsistants and Free French liberate Corsica. |
| 1944 | |
| January 27 | Authority of the Milice extended to the north of France. |
| March 26 | Maquisards defeated in battle on the plateau of GliËres. |
| April | Milice killed at Voiron, Grenoble. |
| June 6 | D-Day landings. Resistance received BBC codes. |
| June 7-9 | Maquisards occupy Tulle but withdraw on arrival of an SS Division, which hangs 99 local men. |
| July 12 | Vichy ministers hold their last cabinet meeting. |
| July 14 | USAF makes its largest daytime drop of supplies in the Lot, the Correze and the Dordogne as well as the Vercors plateau. |
| July 21-23 | The Maquis defeated on the plateau of the Vercors, losing 630 men. |
| August 15 | French and Allied troops land in Provence. |
| Suzanne arrested. | |
| August 17 | Last trainload of Jews leaves France for Auschwitz. |
| Liberation of Grenoble. | |
| August 27 | Michel attached to the S-2 First Battalion, 180th Infantry Regiment, 45th division of American 7th Army. . |
| October | Lt. Henry Teichmann signs order detaching Michel from the 180th infantry Regiment. Michel trains with the French army to parachute into Germany |
| November | Battle in Vosges mountains. |
| December 16-26 | The battle of the Bulge: German counter-offensive in the Ardennes almost reaches the Meuse near Dinant before being repelled. |
| 1945 | |
| January 26 | Russian troops enter Auschwitz. |
| March | Allied Troops cross Rhine. |
| Michel joins the 45th Division Counter Intelligence Corps . | |
| April | Michel first learns of Rocket programme. |
| April 12 | Allies liberate Buchenwald and Belsen. |
| April 29 | Michel enters Dachau. |
| May 1 | Based on information obtained in Dachau, Michel arrests Emil Mahl (the hangman of Dachau). |
| May 8 | End of war in the West. |
| Michel discovers the Nazi party Master File at a paper mill in Freimann, near Munich. | |
| June | French intelligence officers tell of loot at Ebensee. |
| June 21 | Given TD to Southern France - Government Transport approved. |
| July 7 | Letter from Suzanne. |
| July 23 - August 15 |
PÈtain tried, convicted and sentenced to death. |
| August 28 | Report on Rocket R-Gerat |
| September | Michel is transferred to Ulm subsection of 307th CIC Detachment. Ted Kraus joins CIC in Ulm. |
| November 20 | Nuremberg trials of 21 leading Nazis begins. |
| 1946 | |
| January 3 | Michel captures Gustav Knittel a priority War Criminal wanted for the Malmedy massacre. |
| September | Ted Kraus and Michel go on holiday in France, Italy and Austria. |
| October 2 | Michel recommended for US citizenship by his commanding officer, CIC. |
| October 16 | Leading Nazis found guilty at Nuremberg and sentenced to hang. |
| 1947 | |
| May | Michel leaves CIC and goes to America. Founds the Polyglot Institute (lanquage school) in Beverly Hills, CA. |
| 1951 | |
| January 5 | France - First amnesty law revokes punishment of those sentenced to dÈgradation nationale or prison terms of less than 15 years. |
| November 6 | Association pour DÈfendre la MÈmoire du MarÈchal Petain formed. |
| 1953 | |
| August 3 | Second amnesty law effectively ends the epuration. |
| 1969 | |
| April | Michel teaches problem class at George Washington Carver High School. |
| 1971 | |
| April | Marcel Ophuls' film The Sorrow and the Pity released in cinemas (but not shown on French TV until October 1986.) |
| 1983 | |
| February 5 | Barbie extradited from Bolivia to France and indicted for crimes against humanity. |
| 1987 | |
| May 11 - July 4 |
Michel testifys at the trial of Klaus Barbie. Barbie is given a life sentence. |
| 1989 | |
| May 24 | Touvier arrested in Nice for crimes against humanity. |
| 1991 | |
| September 25 | Barbie dies in prison. |
| 1994 | |
| 1994 | Touvier sentenced to life imprisonment. |
| 1996 | |
| July 17 | Touvier dies in prison. |
| September 18 | Judges in Bordeaux rule that Maurice Papon, former Vichy official in the Gironde, should stand trial for crimes against humanity. |
| 1996 | |
| Michel finally brings himself to read the 50-year-old letters from his mother and aunt. | |
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