October 1941
Himmler Assigns Globocnik the Murder of the General Government’s Jews
Historical context
In October 1941, Heinrich Himmler assigned Odilo Globocnik to murder the Jews of the General Government, the program later called Operation Reinhard.
Archive record
Read the event, then follow its documented sources and archive threads.
- Date
- October 1941
- Verified sources
- 3
- Archive threads
- 5
In October 1941, Heinrich Himmler assigned Odilo Globocnik, SS and police leader in the Lublin district, to murder the Jews of the General Government. USHMM’s encyclopedia timeline dates that assignment to 15 October. The program later took the name Operation Reinhard, after Reinhard Heydrich, who died in June 1942.
Christopher Browning, in a lecture published by the museum’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, dates a meeting of Himmler, Globocnik, and Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger to 13 October, and the start of construction at Belzec to 1 November. Killing at Belzec began in March 1942. Sobibor and Treblinka opened later that year. USHMM records that Operation Reinhard personnel murdered about 1.7 million Jews. The 13 October and 15 October dates are conflicting reports of when the assignment was given, not one action spread across those days.
Research trail
Sources and further reading
- Operation Reinhard · United States Holocaust Memorial Museum · Holocaust Encyclopedia View source
- Operation Reinhard (Einsatz Reinhard) · United States Holocaust Memorial Museum · Holocaust Encyclopedia View source
- Initiating the Final Solution: The Fateful Months of September–October 1941 · Christopher R. Browning · United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies View source
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