Holocaust timeline 1941

1 - 31 January 1941	Hans Frank, Gauleiter of Poland, states, "I ask nothing of the Jews except that they should disappear." Quote from Nazi newspaper, Der Stürmer, published by Julius Streicher - "Now judgment has begun and it will reach its conclusion only when knowledge of the Jews has been erased from the earth." A pogrom in Romania results in over 2,000 Jews killed.
22 February 1941	430 Jewish hostages are deported from Amsterdam after a Dutch Nazi is killed by Jews.
1 March 1941	Himmler makes his first visit to Auschwitz, during which he orders Kommandant Höss to begin massive expansion, including a new compound to be built at nearby Birkenau that can hold 100,000 prisoners.
2 March 1941	Nazis occupy Bulgaria (Jewish pop. 50,000).
7 March 1941	German Jews ordered into forced labor.
26 March 1941	The German Army High Command gives approval to RSHA and Heydrich on the tasks of SS murder squads (Einsatzgruppen) in occupied Poland.
29 March 1941	A 'Commissariat' for Jewish Affairs is set up in Vichy France.
6 April 1941	Nazis invade Yugoslavia (Jewish pop. 75,000) and Greece (Jewish pop. 77,000).
14 May 1941	3,600 Jews arrested in Paris.
16 May 1941	French Marshal Petain issues a radio broadcast approving collaboration with Hitler.
22 June 1941	Nazis invade Russia (Jewish pop. 3 million).
29 June 1941	Romanian troops conduct a pogrom against Jews in the town of Jassy, killing 10,000. Himmler summons Auschwitz Kommandant Höss to Berlin and tells him, "The Führer has ordered the Final Solution of the Jewish question. We, the SS, have to carry out this order...I have therefore chosen Auschwitz for this purpose."
1 - 16  July 1941	As the German Army advances, SS Einsatzgruppen follow along and conduct mass murder of Jews in seized lands. Ghettos established at Kovno, Minsk, Vitebsk and Zhitomer. Also in July, the government of Vichy France seizes Jewish owned property.
17 July 1941	Nazi racial 'philosopher' Alfred Rosenberg is appointed Reich Minister for the Eastern Occupied Territories to administer territories seized from the Soviet Union.
21 July 1941	In occupied Poland near Lublin, Majdanek concentration camp becomes operational.
26 July 1941	3,800 Jews killed during a pogrom by Lithuanians in Kovno.
31 July 1941	Göring instructs Heydrich to prepare for Final Solution.
1 - 25 August 1941	Jews in Romania forced into Transnistria. By December, 70,000 perish. Ghettos established at Bialystok and Lvov.
26 August 1941	The Hungarian Army rounds up 18,000 Jews at Kamenets-Podolsk.
1 September 1941	German Jews ordered to wear yellow stars.
3 September 1941	The first test use of Zyklon-B gas at Auschwitz.
6 September 1941	The Vilna Ghetto is established containing 40,000 Jews.
17 September 1941	Beginning of general deportation of German Jews.
19 September 1941	Nazis take Kiev.
27 September 1941	23,000 Jews killed at Kamenets-Podolsk, in the Ukraine.
29 September 1941	SS Einsatzgruppen murder 33,771 Jews at Babi Yar near Kiev.
1 October 1941	35,000 Jews from Odessa shot.
2 October 1941	Beginning of the German Army drive on Moscow.
23 October 1941	Nazis forbid emigration of Jews from the Reich.
1 - 23 November 1941	SS Einsatzgruppe B reports a tally of 45,476 Jews killed.
24 November 1941	Theresienstadt Ghetto is established near Prague, Czechoslovakia. The Nazis will use it as a model ghetto for propaganda purposes.
30 November 1941	Near Riga, a mass shooting of Latvian and German Jews.
7 December 1941	Japanese attack United States at Pearl Harbor. The next day the U.S. and Great Britain declare war on Japan.
8 December 1941	In occupied Poland, near Lodz, Chelmno extermination camp becomes operational. Jews taken there are placed in mobile gas vans and driven to a burial place while carbon monoxide from the engine exhaust is fed into the sealed rear compartment, killing them. The first gassing victims include 5,000 Gypsies who had been deported from the Reich to Lodz.
11 December 1941	Hitler declares war on the United States. President Roosevelt then asks Congress for a declaration of war on Germany saying, "Never before has there been a greater challenge to life, liberty and civilization." The U.S.A. then enters the war in Europe and will concentrate nearly 90 percent of its military resources to defeat Hitler.
12 December 1941	The ship "Struma" leaves Romania for Palestine carrying 769 Jews but is later denied permission by British authorities to allow the passengers to disembark. In February 1942, it sails back into the Black Sea where it is intercepted by a Russian submarine and sunk as an "enemy target."
16 December 1941	During a cabinet meeting, Hans Frank, Gauleiter of Poland, states - "Gentlemen, I must ask you to rid yourselves of all feeling of pity. We must annihilate the Jews wherever we find them and wherever it is possible in order to maintain there the structure of the Reich as a whole..."

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