Murders in Odessa and in the Counties of Berezovca and Golta

The Chronological Order of Events

October 16, 1941 - December 1942

October 16, 1941

Rumanian and German troops occupy Odessa, from where the Red Army had withdrawn a few days before. Although the occupiers do not meet with any resistance, they murder a great number of citizens, mostly Jews.

October 22, 1941

A time bomb explodes in the building of the Rumanian Headquarters. The explosion kills 16 officers, 35 soldiers, 9 non-commissioned officers, civilian employees and Commander Gl. Glogojeanu himself. Three hours later, Gl. C. Trestioreanu, Commander of the 13th Infantry Regiment, who automatically stepped into the place of the Commander of Town, reports the following to the 4th Army: "I have taken measures for the Jews and communists to be hanged in the public places of Odessa

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October 23, 1941

The so-called revenge actions have started. By morning there are gallows standing everywhere, with victims hanging on them. People are shot dead randomly in every part of the city. At noon, the executions stop; so far approx. 5,000 people have been killed, most of them are Jews.

October 23, 1941

Ion Antonescu orders the execution of 200 communists for each murdered Rumanian or German officer, and 100 for ordinary soldiers. He also orders the taking of communist and Jewish hostages...

October 24, 1941

Some of the people collected by the police and the army, were taken to the edge of Odessa, next to the town gate in Dalnic by the 2nd Squadron of the 10th Machine Gun Battalion. The road, three kilometres long was lined with the corpses of women, children and the disabled. They were shot dead because they could not keep up with the marching columns. The first 40-50 people to arrive at the execution Site were tied up, made to lie face down in an anti-tank ditch. Then a few soldiers, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Nicolae Deleanu, shot them dead.

This was followed by mass-executions. The victims were [288] taken into four warehouses, on the walls of which holes were cut for machine guns. Lieutenant-Colonels Deleanu and Coca D. Niculescu order fire to be opened on the unfortunate people.

At dusk, at approx. 17.00 hrs, they set the warehouses ablaze. While the victims burn in the flames, the soldiers continue to shoot them with machine guns, and the officers throw hand-grenades at them.

October 25, 1941

At 17.35 hrs, exactly 48 hours after the explosion, they blow up one of the warehouses, which still include the wounded.

October, 1941

A number of Jews who survived the massacres in Odessa, as well as those who are collected in the southern counties of Transnistria (Oceacov, Berezovca, Golta), are locked up in camps called ghettos. They are treated terribly. In the ghetto people die everyday of starvation, disease and misery.

November 11, 1941

Gh. Alexian, Governor of Transnistria, issues directive No. 23, which regulates the daily routine of the Jewish citizens of Transnistria.

[289] Jews are allowed to live only in certain places, assigned to them by the Gendarme Inspectorate. They are registered separately, farms are organised for them, and they are used for agricultural labour, roads and bridge repair work, lumber jacking and carrying stones or other materials. The workers are given daily food coupons; day-labourers 1 RKKS Mark, and skilled workers 2 RKK Marks.

Those who leave the place assigned to them, are declared spies, and military laws valid during war-time are used against them.

November 20, 1941

Colonel E. Brosteanu, Commander of the Gendarme Inspectorate of Transnistria, is worried that Transnistria is, "filling up with communists and Jews", who might commit hostile acts later. He, therefore, asks for commands from the Gendarme Central Inspectorate, saying: "only the extermination of criminals and fanatic communists will free mankind from the threat of communism".

November, 1941

Under directive No. 23, most of the Jews are removed from their dwelling places. In the northern part of the territory, in Moghilev 3,733; in Sargorod approx. 2,000; in Rabnita 1,467; in Tulcin 118 (the other 3,005 are sent to the camp in Peciora); [290] in Spikov, 27 (the other 848 are locked up in Rogozna) - these are the remaining Jews.

In the southern part of Transnistria almost all local Jews are interned in camps in Golta county; in Bogdanovca there are 48,000 Jews; in Dumanovca, 18,000; in Acmicetca, 4,000. In these camps deportees, are deprived of everything they own (gold and jewellery were the most sought after). They were subjected to the most terrible forms of torture; starvation and misery were the most lethal methods.

During this time there was an unidentified number of Jews in Ba1ti (a few thousand, perhaps), and in Odessa approx. 30,000.

December 21, 1941

With the help of Lieutenant-Colonel Modest Isopescu , Prefect of Golta county, the extermination of Jews in the camp of Bogdanovca is started. The first victims are chosen from among the sick and crippled. They are locked up in stables, which are filled with straw, then petrol is poured on before they are set ablaze. While the stables are burning with the people locked inside them, they take the other interned people, (approx. 43,000) to the nearby forest in groups of 3-400, where they are killed with exploding bullets. The massacre continues on December 21, 22 and 23; it is stopped at Christmas time and restarted on December 28, and finished on December 29.

The corpses are put together in piles 4-5 metres long and [291] 2 metres high so that they can be cremated. This terrible act is carried out by a group of 200 Jews for 2 months. Having finished with this work, 150 of them are shot dead.

January 10, 1942

The Governor of Transnistria issued directive No. 7, according to which all Jews in Transnistria are to submit their gold, jewellery and valuables, and must present themselves for internment in the ghetto of Slobotka.

January 11, 1942

The deportation of Jews started from the ghetto in Odessa to the Berezovca-Vasilievo region. On the first day 856 Jews were deported, mostly old people, women and children.

By then more than 6,000 Jews had been deported from Odessa. The pains suffered en route were terrible.

On January 17: 1,104

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January 21, 1942

As all train transportation ceases, the deportation of Jews is also stopped. The Gendarme Inspectorate reports that they cannot accommodate the evacuees; they are brought to the stables of kholhoz (co-operative farms). The temperature is -20 Celsius, due to this, starvation and old age, many collapse and freeze along the roads. The dead bodies are buried in anti-tank ditches.

January 22, 1942

The deportation of Jews from ghettos in Odessa continues, 1,807 Jews, mostly old people, women and children are sent to Berezovca.

January 31, 1942

The deportation continues, 1,200 Jews are taken away.

On February 1: 2,256

The extermination of Jews from Golta county has ended, the 22,000 Jews in the camps of Dumanovca and Acmicetca are massacred.

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March 9, 1942

The Jews transported from Odessa to the region of Berezovca-Mostovoi-Vasilievo, after having been looted and tortured, are handed over to the Germans. When they arrive there, their extermination is started.

December, 1942

The suffering of Jews who once lived in Odessa and in the southern counties of Transnistria has ended. Their complete extermination has been accomplished. The statistical figures of the Rumanian Central Jewish Office show (after a delegation of the Aid Committee examined the whole territory from Odessa to Moghilev) that in the southern part of Transnistria there are only 60 Jews living in Odessa and 425 in Berezovca county. A total of 485 people...

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