One of the largest single massacres of Jews in occupied Europe, killing up to 30,000 people in October 1941 under Romanian occupation.
Key Facts
- Massacre dates
- 22–24 October 1941
- Victims (narrow estimate)
- 25,000–34,000 Jews shot or burned
- Victims (broader campaign)
- Over 100,000 Jews killed
- 2018 revised estimate
- Up to 30,000 murdered in core massacre
- Primary perpetrators
- Romanian soldiers, Einsatzgruppe SS, local ethnic Germans
- Occupation authority
- Romanian Transnistria Governorate
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Following the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Romanian forces occupied Odessa and the surrounding Transnistria region. Romanian and German policy called for the elimination of the Jewish population in occupied eastern territories, and local military commanders issued orders to kill Jews in retaliation for partisan attacks, including a bombing that killed Romanian and German officers.
Between 22 and 24 October 1941, Romanian soldiers, Einsatzgruppe SS units, and local ethnic Germans shot or burned approximately 25,000 to 34,000 Jews in Odessa. The killings were carried out at multiple sites in and around the city, and the broader campaign of murder extended across the Transnistria Governorate through the winter of 1942, killing well over 100,000 Jews in total.
The Odessa massacre effectively destroyed the historic Jewish community of the city and the surrounding region. It stands among the deadliest single episodes of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe. The broader Romanian-administered killings across Transnistria resulted in the near-total annihilation of the Jewish population between the Dniester and Bug rivers during the occupation period.