Minsk ghetto resistance
Jews in Minsk begin to organize resistance against the Nazis and funnel approximately 10,000 Jews beyond the ghetto walls. Many of the escapees join partisan units in the nearby forests.
Nazis plan for the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question"
Reich Marshall Hermann Göring instructs Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), to coordinate plans for a "final solution to the Jewish question:" the extermination of all Jews in Nazi controlled territory.
Kovno ghetto established
The Kovno (Kaunas) ghetto houses 29,000 Jews in miserable conditions.
Minsk ghetto established
About 80,000 Jews are crowded into the Minsk ghetto and forced to endure primitive conditions and severe overcrowding.
Romanian "Iron Guard" massacre at Iasi
The Nazi-[glossary_exclude]allied[/glossary_exclude] Romanian "Iron Guard" incites a pogrom against the Jews of Iasi. Approximately 4,000 Jews are murdered; many more are rounded up and packed into freight trains for deportation, where thousands suffocate or die by dehydration.