The Pripyat Marshes massacres (German: Prypyatsümpfe Säuberung) were a series of mass murders[1] carried out by the military forces of Nazi Germany against Jewish civilians in Belarus and Ukraine, during July–August 1941.

SS leader Heinrich Himmler ordered these operations, which were carried out by units of the Wehrmacht (the regular armed forces) and the Waffen-SS.

[2] Captured German documents about the operation reached the Soviet leadership in Moscow in January 1942, and were published in a note by the People's Commissariat (Ministry) for Foreign Relations, issued on 27 April.

It is believed that the international publicity and shock caused by this data prompted Nazis to hide or destroy other materials concerned with this operation.

[2] On 19 July 1941, the 1st and 2nd SS Cavalry Regiments were assigned to the general command of HSSPF von dem Bach-Zelewski for the action which took place in two stages.

[8] Himmler's orders for the operation were passed to Fegelein via SS-Brigadefuhrer Kurt Knoblauch, who met with him and Bach-Zelewski on 28 July in their new quarters at Liakhovichi in Byelorussia.

[2] The forces of the SS Cavalry Brigade moved from the initial line of Baranavichy — Luninyets railroad to the east, conducting the "cleansing" of the right and left banks of the Pripyat River keeping south of the highway R-1 (Brest — Slutsk — Babruysk).

[4] Fegelein's final report on the operation, dated 18 September, states that they killed 14,178 Jews, 1,001 partisans, and 699 Red Army soldiers with losses of 17 dead, 36 wounded, and 3 missing.