This Day in History: 1943-02-27

Norweigian commandos launched a successful raid to sabotage a German-operated heavy water plant in Norway.  An explosion in the Smith Mine #3 in Bearcreek, Montana killed 74 miners and one rescue worker. The U.S. government, responding to a copper shortage, began circulating one-cent coins made of steel plated with zinc (the steel pennies proved unpopular, since they were easily mistaken for dimes).  The Rosenstrasse protest starts in Berlin.  This demonstration was initiated and sustained by the non-Jewish (“Aryan”) wives and relatives of Jewish men who had been arrested for deportation. The protests, mainly led by women, continued until the men being held were released. The Rosenstrasse protest was the only mass public demonstration by Germans in the Third Reich against the deportation of Jews.