The
Kingdom of Romania joined
Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941 in order to reclaim the lost territories of
Bessarabia and
Northern Bukovina, which had been
annexed by the Soviet Union in June 1940.
Transnistria — the territory between the
Dniester and
Southern Bug — was conquered by the
Axis powers from the
Soviet Union, and occupied from 19 August 1941 to 29 January 1944. Romania administered the territory as the Transnistria Governorate, with the administrative capital at
Odessa. From spring until June 1943, in Tatarka, a group of specialists from Odessa searched a lot of land of , where a big number of bodies was allegedly found. The group included Dr. K. Shapochkin, deputy chief of the Medical-Sanitar Direction of the Government of Transnistria, N. I. Grubianu, the administrator of the disinfection section, docent (), chief of medical-legal expertise, and Grigore Tatarciuc, gendarme representative of the Odessa pretorial office. The group reported that these were the remains of victims of
NKVD repressions from 1938–1940, and of
deportees from Besarabia and Northern Bukovina, shot by the
Soviets because they could no longer transport them. In order to facilitate the
putrefaction process, the lot was covered with animal excrement. A Romanian intelligence report from 1 June 1943, signed by lieutenant-colonel Traian Borcescu stated that "On the lot called Spolka, situated from the rail line Odessa–
Ovidiopol, between the suburb Tatarka [of Odessa] and the airfield, common graves of NKVD victims were found. The work to uncover the bodies have started on 22 April 1943 and were done by the Military Pretorial Service of Odessa. [...] From the declaration of inhabitants in the vicinity of the lot, it follows that the NKVD troops were bringing corpses during the night in a covered track, and were throwing them into the common grave, and had them immediately covered. It also follows from these declarations that the road parallel to the lot was totally forbidden to circulation, and was severely guarded." he was also a member of the
Katyn Commission that studied the remains found at the site of the Soviet-perpetrated
Katyn massacre, and a member of the international commission of experts who investigated the
Vinnytsia massacre. His Tatarka commission included as members C. Chirilă, subdirector of Health in the Romanian Government of Transnistria; and one representative each from the mayor's office of Odessa, from the
Romanian Gendarmerie unit in Transnistria, and from
Odessa University. According to the report, 42 common graves were discovered, as well as signs of 10-20 others. In each grave, around 80 corpses were found. A total of approximately 3,500 corpses lied in the 42 graves, and the total number of bodies was estimated at 5,000. The dead were mostly
Germans,
Romanians,
Bulgarians, and
Armenians. Only 516 corpses were exhumed at the time, and of these, 486 were already examined medico-legally with the following conclusions: • Cause of death: shot in the upper back part of the skull; in a few cases in the lower back part of the skull. • Shots were delivered from military revolvers, caliber 7 mm and 5.5 mm from immediate distance to the target. • Medico-legal researches have demonstrated that the age of the corpses is 3.5–5 years. From the study of several identity papers found, it follows that some of the victims were dead for 4.5–5 years (since 1938). • No larvae of insects were found, showing that the executions took place in cold weather, and that the bodies were buried immediately after being shot. • The process of putrefaction has been slowed due to a large number of corpses in a single place. • Of the 486 examined corpses, all had hands tied at their back, with the exception of one, which had only traces of tied hands. • Of the examined corpses, 7 were women and 479 were men, of which one was in military uniform. Of those, 385 were buried, 131 not yet. • 43 corpses had identity papers (excerpts of reports from their arrests and searches), which allowed their identification. • The ones identified were arrested on the territory controlled by the USSR (including from 1940 on from
Bessarabia and
Northern Bukovina). • Age: 20–30 years – 60; 30–40 years – 189; 40–50 years – 186; over 50 years – 81. Of these, 7 were females and 509 males; 515 civilians and one military. ==See also==