Katzmann became Higher SS and Police Leader for District of Galicia in August 1941 and a month later was promoted to general of the Police. In October 1941, he ordered Jews to work on building "Durchgangsstrasse" IV, a major military road from Lwów to Stalino (now Donetsk). Katzmann ordered the slaughter of 55,000–65,000 Jewish men, women and children in the same year. On his orders the Lwów Ghetto was formed in November 1941 resulting in relocation of some 80,000 Jews. He set up a kindergarten for ghetto children with cocoa and milk and secretly murdered them all in one outing. He organized transports from Lwów to Belzec extermination camp as soon as the gassing operations started. By the end of 1942, the ghetto population was reduced from 120,000–140,000 inmates to 40,000. On 5–7 January 1943, 15,000 more Jews were murdered along with members of the Judenrat. Katzmann was promoted to SS and Police Lieutenant General on 30 January 1943 and by midyear had produced a death toll of 143,000 more people in his district.