Nazi Policy Timeline: August 1941

This timeline is a work-in-progress and will be regularly updated and revised. Comments and suggested additions are welcome.

August 1st, a): Himmler order to the SS cavalry regiments: "Ausdrücklicher Befehl des RFSS. Sämtliche Juden müssen erschossen werden. Judenweiber in die Sümpfe treiben"; "Explicit order of the RFSS. All Jews must be shot. Jewish women to be driven into the swamp." (VEJ 7 Dok 51 p.228, n.10; Longerich, 3.1.1).

August 1st, b): Lombard reiterates Himmler's orders: no male Jews to be left alive, no families left in the villages, although he acknowledges that some Jewish labour must be temporarily spared to do work for the military:

Der heut. Funkspruch des Kdr. betr. Judenerschießung soll nicht als Rüge gelten, da
bisher in Dörfern keine Juden. Judendörfer bisher sämtlich im Gebiet des 2. Rgts. Ausnahme Bereska-Kartuska, wo 221. Div. dringend Juden für Herstellung Rollbahn benötigt. Trotzdem sind besonders Spähtruppführer nochmals schärfstens zu ermahnen. Es bleibt kein männl. Jude leben, keine Restfamilie i. d. Ortschaften. (VEJ 7 Dok 51 p.228).

August 7th: Goebbels states that Jews in the Warsaw ghetto are carriers of infectious diseases and must be locked up and left to themselves or liquidated (source)

August 11th: Goebbels writes that the beating to death of Jews in the Baltic states is fulfilling Hitler's prophecy that Jews would cease to exist if they provoked another war (source)

August 19th, a): Hitler states that Jews deported to the USSR “will be worked over in the harsh climate there.” (source: Evans, n.27; English translation Browning, p.35)

August 19th, b): Hellmuth Koch of 350. Inf.Rgt. (Ia) calls for extermination:

Die Judenfrage muß radikaler gelöst werden. Ich schlage Erfassung aller auf dem Lande lebenden Juden in bewachten Sammel- und Arbeitslager[n] vor. Verdächtige Elemente müssen beseitigt werden (VEJ 7 Dok. 61, p.253).

August 21st: Oberstleutnant Helmuth Groscurth informs Generalfeldmarschall Walter von Reichenau about the shooting of 90 children at Bila Tserkva (VEJ 7 Dok 62, pp.253-257).

August 23rd: Goebbels bemoans the fact that the euthanasia program has become too controversial in view of Galen's opposition. Goebbels writes that it is It is intolerable that during a war, hundreds of thousands of people who are completely stupid and can never can be cured are allowed to use up valuable resources. (source)

August 30th: Jeckeln informs Himmler that 23,600 Jews were killed at Kamenets-Podolsk (VEJ 7 Dok 70, pp.270-271; see other sources on this massacre, summarized by Roberto, here.)