than two or three in a room—in freshly painted quarters. A children’s opera, Brundibar, was performed for the guests. The hoax succeeded so well that the Nazis made a propaganda film at Terezín showing how well the Jews were living under the benevolent protection of the Third Reich. When the filming was finished, the Nazis deported most of the cast, including nearly all of the children, to Auschwitz.”

Encyclopaedia Britannica Online.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/591290
/Theresienstadt (accessed March 9, 2009)

1944 CE:  BRETTON WOODS CONFERENCE

July: Bretton Woods, New Hampshire: 730 delegates from 44

Allied nations fashioned the financial institutions of the anticipated beginning of the postwar era. The Bretton Woods system of monetary management established the rules for commercial and financial relations among the world’s industrial states.

The establishment of both the IBRD – The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (part of the World Bank Group), and the IMF – The International Monetary Fund, was approved by the delegates. Both institutions became operational in 1945 after formal ratification by the respective countries involved.

One of the chief components of the Bretton Woods Agreements was the establishment of fixed bands of exchange rates between various currencies – and gold. The particular exchange rate system lasted twenty–seven years until 1971, when the United States suspended the convertibility from dollars to gold.