Antisemitism increased and Hitler and the Nazi government felt that the harsh living conditions in ghettos was not enough to annihilate the Jewish population. In 1941, after Germany invaded the Soviet Union, the Nazi government decided to plan an extreme attack and annihilate the Jews of Europe. 3 They decided to commit genocide. Hitler authorized the chief of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, to implement a plan to systematically murder the Jews residing in German-occupied territory called Operation Reinhard.1 The liquidation process of the ghettos was part of a master plan called “Final Solution to the Jewish Question.” 1 Mobile killing units shot or gassed Jewish communities. The mobile units exhaust pipes pumped a poisonous gas called carbon monoxide into seal spaces.1

Operation Reinhard called for the construction of three kill centers, Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka, began in the fall of 1941.2 A Euthanasia program, Operation T4, was the first secret program of mass murder.2 The program was known to bottle carbon monoxide gas to kill people with disabilities.2 The Nazi government constructed gas chambers at the kill centers and Operation T4 funneled carbon monoxide gas from large motor engines exhaust into the gas chambers to commit the mass murder of Jews.2 By 1942, the ghettos were dissolved.1   

-M. Swain