Odessa massacre
Encyclopedia
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
and surrounding towns in Transnistria
Transnistria
Transnistria is a breakaway territory located mostly on a strip of land between the Dniester River and the eastern Moldovan border to Ukraine...
during the autumn of 1941 and the winter of 1942 in a series of massacre
Massacre
A massacre is an event with a heavy death toll.Massacre may also refer to:-Entertainment:*Massacre , a DC Comics villain*Massacre , a 1932 drama film starring Richard Barthelmess*Massacre, a 1956 Western starring Dane Clark...
s and killings during the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
by Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n forces, under German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
control, encouragement and instruction. Depending on the definition, it can either refer to the events of October 22–24, 1941 in which between 25,000 and 34,000 Jews were shot or burned alive, or to the murder of well over 100,000 Ukrainian Jews in the town and the areas between Dniestr and Bug
Southern Bug
The Southern Bug, also called Southern Buh), is a river located in Ukraine. The source of the river is in the west of Ukraine, in the Volyn-Podillia Upland, about 145 km from the Polish border, and flows southeasterly into the Bug Estuary through the southern steppes...
rivers, over the course of the Romanian and German occupation.
Before the massacre
Odessa had a large Jewish population of approximately 180,000, or 30% of the total, before the war. By the time that the Romanians had taken the city, between 80,000 and 90,000 Jews remained, the rest having fled or been evacuated by the Soviets. As the massacres occurred, Jews from surrounding villages would be concentrated in Odessa and Romanian concentration camps set up in surrounding areas.On October 16, the Germans and the Romanians captured Odessa following a two-month siege. On October 22, a delayed bomb set by the Soviets detonated in the Romanian HQ, killing 67 people including General Glogojeanu, the Romanian commander, 16 other Romanian officers, and 4 German naval officers.
Massacres of October 22–24
Blaming the Jews and communists for the bomb, the Romanian troops began reprisals that same evening. By noon of the following day, October 23, 5,000 civilians had been seized and shot, most of them Jews. On the morning of October 23, over 19,000 Jews were assembled in 9 gunpowder warehouses at the port, and summarily shot, after that the warehouses were set on fire (some prisoneers were burnt alive.That afternoon, over 20,000 were led out of the city in a long column in the direction of the village of Dalnik. When they reached Dalnik, they were tied together in groups of 40-50 people, thrown into an anti-tank ditch and shot. When the Romanians grew concerned that the killings would take too long, they moved the rest of the Jews into four large warehouses in which they made holes for machine guns. The doors were closed and the soldiers fired into the buildings. In order to make sure that all those inside the buildings were killed, at 17:00 hours on the following day, October 24, they set fire to three of the buildings, which were filled mainly with women and children. Those who tried to escape through windows or holes in the roofs were shot or met with hand grenades. On October 25, the fourth building, which was filled with men was shelled. These massacres were carried out under the orders of Lieutenant-Colonel Nicolae Deleanu and Lieutenant-Colonel C.D. Nicolescu. German soldiers also took part in the shooting.
Around 35,000 – 40,000 of the Jews that remained were moved into the ghetto
Ghetto
A ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...
in the suburb of Slobodka
Sloboda
Sloboda was a kind of settlement in the history of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The name is derived from the early Slavic word for "freedom" and may be vaguely translated as "free settlement"....
where most of the buildings were destroyed, and left outdoors for ten days, between October 25 and November 3, and many Jews died of exposure
Exposure
-Entertainment:* Exposure , the practice of revealing the secrets of magic to non-magicians* Exposure , a short film anthology series on Sci-Fi Channel from 2000–2002* Exposure , a current affairs strand on ITV in 2011...
.
Further massacres of the Jews of Odessa
On October 28, a new massacre was started when 4,000-5,000 Jews were herded into stables and shot. By the end of December, an additional 50,000 Jews from the concentration camp at BogdanovkaBogdanovka
Bogdanovka was a concentration camp for Jews that was established by the Romanian authorities during World War II as part of the Holocaust.- Location :...
had been killed. A further 10,000 Jews were taken on a death march
Death march
A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war or other captives or deportees. Those marching must walk over long distances for an extremely long period of time and are not supplied with food or water...
to three concentration camps near Golta: Bogdanovka, Domanovka and Acmecetca. Those who survived the journey were murdered two months later, along with tens of thousands of other Jews who had been brought to these camps from northern Transnistria and Bessarabia.
In January 1942, the extermination ended with the killing of those who remained in Slobodka. From January 12–23, the last 19,582 Jews were transported in cattle wagons to Berezovka
Berezovka
Berezovka is an air base in Murmansk Oblast, Russia located 13 km southwest of Umbozero. It contains few facilities and no buildings identifiable on satellite imagery, and was likely intended for use as a forward bomber staging base during the height of the Cold War....
from where they were transported to the concentration camps in Golta. Within eighteen months almost all of them were dead.
Defining the Odessa Holocaust
Although these facts are not doubted by historians vs.; some accounts differ (often greatly) in the numbers, partially due to different definitions of what constituted the OdessaOdessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
massacres, as opposed to other acts of genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
in Transnistria
Transnistria
Transnistria is a breakaway territory located mostly on a strip of land between the Dniester River and the eastern Moldovan border to Ukraine...
carried out by the Romanians, Germans, and their allies, including local Ukrainian authorities.
The official report on the Romanian role in the Holocaust states that in the city of Odessa from October 18, 1941 until mid-March 1942, the Romanian military, aided by local authorities, murdered up to 25,000 Jews and deported over 35,000, most of whom were later killed. The report also details 50,000 Jews killed in Bogdanovka
Bogdanovka
Bogdanovka was a concentration camp for Jews that was established by the Romanian authorities during World War II as part of the Holocaust.- Location :...
, and tens of thousands more in Golta and the surrounding areas. The Jewish Virtual Library cites figures of 34,000 Jews murdered during October 22–25, and the US Holocaust Museum concludes that "Romanian and German forces killed almost 100,000 Jews in Odessa during the occupation of the city." In other sources the number of people killed in Transnistria
Transnistria
Transnistria is a breakaway territory located mostly on a strip of land between the Dniester River and the eastern Moldovan border to Ukraine...
was 115,000 Jews and 15,000 Gypsies.
See also
- List of massacres in Ukraine
- List of massacres in the Soviet Union
- BogdanovkaBogdanovkaBogdanovka was a concentration camp for Jews that was established by the Romanian authorities during World War II as part of the Holocaust.- Location :...
- Ion AntonescuIon AntonescuIon Victor Antonescu was a Romanian soldier, authoritarian politician and convicted war criminal. The Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II, he presided over two successive wartime dictatorships...