On 22 June 1941, German armies, with significant Romanian support invaded the Soviet Union. German and Romanian units conquered Bessarabia,
Odesa, and
Sevastopol, then marched east and south across the Russian steppes toward
Stalingrad. Romanians welcomed the war because it allowed them to retake lands annexed by the Soviet Union a year prior.
Hitler rewarded Romania's loyalty by returning Bessarabia and northern Bukovina, and by allowing it to administer the conquered Soviet lands between the
Dniester and
Bug Rivers, including Odessa and
Nikolaev. Anticipating a German victory, and in accordance with the discussions carried on since March 1941 with their Nazi allies, Romanian authorities began to implement the policy of "cleansing of the land" in Bessarabia and Bukovina, which the Romanian deputy Prime Minister,
Mihai Antonescu, summarized in a speech during a government meeting: In parallel with the offensive across the
Prut River known as
Operation München, as the
Iași pogrom unfolded and similar actions took place in
Roman,
Fălticeni, and
Galați, the Romanian army and gendarmerie, with the aid of the German
Einsatzgruppe D, began implementing the genocide in frontline areas. The first killings were done in Bukovina, at
Siret,
Chudei, and the vicinity. The Jews from Siret were forced to march on foot to
Dornești, with those too old or who were crippled being killed. In
Chudei, 450 Jews were shot on 3 July 1941, and afterwards, with the complicity of local Romanians and Ukrainians, the killing area was expanded to the neighbouring villages. At
Hertsa, on 5 July, 1,500 Jews were forcefully removed from their homes and held in the four synagogues and a cellar. Groups were selected the next day and shot, and the Jewish women and girls were separated and raped. The survivors were later deported. , one hour before their execution, 15 July 1941. In
Bessarabia, on 6 July, approximately 500 Jews were killed at
Edineț, and almost 1,000 were killed at
Novoselytsia around the same time. The killing spree expanded to
Briceni,
Lipcani,
Fălești,
Mărculești, and
Gura Căinarului, where thousands were shot by 8 July. By 11 July, Einsatzgruppe D started operating in
Bălți, one of the largest cities of Bessarabia. The peak of the slaughter was reached by 17 July when possibly as many as 10,000 Jews were killed in one day. As the army moved further south, the Jews of
Cetatea Albă, some 5,000 people in total, fled en masse. Those who stayed behind, approximately 500, were killed by the advancing army. Along with the army, the gendarmes worked to round up Jews and execute them in the recovered territories with the cooperation of local informants. Despite the continuous support from the Germans in the "cleansing the land," the gendarmes faced difficulties dealing with the aftermath of the killing, especially the bodies, which was considered "dirty work", as opposed to the "clean work" of killing. A report of a German attaché drew attention on the matter even before the military operations started on the
Eastern Front: During the fighting across Bukovina and Bessarabia, the Romanians were praised for their effectiveness in "cleansing the land" by the Germans, but were criticized for failures to remove all traces of the genocide. For this reason, many of the executions were committed near a river, the bodies then being thrown in the water.
Ghettos and deportations Like in the
Old Kingdom, the surviving Jewish population was largely displaced from rural areas, Romanian villages being seen as the "core of Romanianess" that had to be cleansed of foreign elements, with the Jews initially relocated to the towns and cities. As per the plan presented earlier, the Romanian authorities did not want to set up permanent living spaces for the Jews, but gather them and send them across the border, which by mid 1941 was the river
Dniester. Convoys of Jews from Bukovina and northern Bessarabia were marched towards the river, and makeshift camps were set up on the banks at Kozliv, Yampil, and Vertiujeni. Hasty deportations were attempted across the border to the territory between the Dniester and the
Southern Bug, which was then occupied by the Germans. Some deportees groups were forced into the river and those trying to get back to the Romanian side were shot. A group of about 30,000 was marched alongside the river and then to the Ukrainian part. At stops, people were selected from the group and executed. The 20,000 or fewer survivors were then returned to the Romanian side. The lack of communication between the Germans and Romanians, and the state of confusion regarding how to deal with the Jews in Bessarabia - mainly due to Romanian authorities' attempts to cover up the genocide by avoiding to give written orders - was addressed by Bessarabia's governor, General Constantin Voiculescu, who set up ghettos, and by the
Tighina Agreement between Antonescu and Hitler which allowed the transfer of the region between Dniester and Southern Bug to Romania, known since then as
Transnistria. Large camps and ghettos were set up at
Chișinău,
Sokyriany,
Edineț,
Limbenii Noi, Rășcani, Răuțel, Vertujeni, and Mărculești, with smaller ones in other locations. A total of 75-80,000 Jewish survivors were forced into these places, representing less than half of the pre-war Jewish population of Bessarabia. In Bukovina, the measure of rounding up Jews in ghettos was not implemented, and entire communities were marched mainly towards
Storozhynets and
Otaci and further on to the ghetto in
Mohyliv-Podilskyi, from where many ended up in the
Pechora concentration camp. From
Chernivtsi alone, 28,000 people were deported; 20,000 were saved by the mayor of the city, who pled their case as essential for the city's economy.
Transnistria A Soviet census two years prior to the
Tighina Agreement claimed that as many as three million people lived in the region between the Dniester and Southern Bug Rivers, out of which approximately 330,000 were Jews. As the German and Romanian armies advanced, many of the Jews retreated with the Soviet army. Nevertheless, large numbers stayed behind with up to 90,000 living in the yet-unoccupied district of
Odesa. In addition, another 108,000 Jews from Bukovina and Bessarabia had been deported to the region by order of Antonescu in the last months of 1941. A total of 16 camps and 75 ghettos were established in Transnistria, the main locations being Mytky, Pechera, and Rohizka in
Vinnytsia Oblast, Obodivka, Balanivka, Bobrik,
Kryve Ozero, and
Bogdanovka. The concentration camps did not have enough enclosed spaces for the people forced to live in them, and were poorly provisioned with supplies, which led to the deaths of many people by
hypothermia or
starvation.
Typhus epidemics broke out frequently, and in the absence of medical care, they became deadly. At Bogdanovka, where about 54,000 people were concentrated, an epidemic broke out in December 1941. The
prefect, Lieutenant Colonel
Modest Isopescu, reported the situation to his superiors, noting that "Those in Vazdovka were hit by typhus and about 8,000 died." The decision was made to contain the disease by killing those affected, and the mass-murder of the inmates was ordered in the second half of the month. The action was carried out mainly by shooting, the Romanian soldiers being aided by collaborationist Ukrainian police. In addition, 5,000 Jews were gathered in two stables, which were set on fire. By the end of the month, almost the entire population of the camp was dead. A survivor recalled: ==Romania and The Holocaust==