Destruction of the Romanian commandant's office On 22 October 1941, in the building of the
NKVD on the Marazlievskaya street where the
Romanian military commander's office and the headquarters of the Romanian 10th Infantry Division had settled to occupy the city, a
radio-controlled mine exploded. The mine had been planted there by the
sappers of the
Red Army before the surrender of the city by
Soviet troops. The building collapsed, and under its rubble, 67 people were killed, including 16
officers, among whom was the military commander of the city, Romanian General
Ioan Glogojeanu. Responsibility for the explosion was placed on the Jews and Communists.
The execution of hostages In response to the explosion at the commandant's office, General
Nicolae Tătăranu received a direct order from
Marshal Ion Antonescu, ordering "immediate reprisals" be carried out on the Jewish population. The Romanian troops and the German "Einsatzgruppe" arrived in
Odessa on 23 October to kill from 5,000 to 10,000 hostages, many of whom were Jews. Across the Marazlievskaya street, occupiers broke into the apartments of Odessa citizens and shot or hanged all residents found, without exception. They raided the streets and markets of the city and suburbs, and people who knew nothing of the bombing were shot on sight against fences or the walls of houses. Nearly 100 men were seized and shot at the Big Fountain, about two hundred people were executed in the Slobodka neighborhood near the market, 251 residents were shot in
Moldavanka, Near and Far Windmills and in Aleksandrovsky Prospekt about 400 townspeople were executed. The columns of the captured hostages were driven to the area of artillery warehouses on Lustdorf Road, where they were shot or burned alive.
The beginning of the Holocaust On 23 October, an order was issued threatening all Jews with death on the spot and ordering them to report to the village of
Dalnyk on 24 October. In the afternoon of 24 October, about 5,000 Jews were gathered near the outpost of Dalnyk. The first 50 people were brought to the anti-tank ditch and shot by the commander of the 10th machine-gun battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Nicolae Deleanu. {{Blockquote To speed up the process of destruction, the Jews were driven into four barracks, in which holes were made for machine guns, and the floor was pre-filled with gasoline. People in two barracks were shot with machine guns on the same day. At 17:00 the barracks were set on fire. The next day, the prisoners were shot, placed in the remaining two barracks, and in one of the barracks grenades were thrown. Meanwhile, the Jews who were not selected for the first group, and who had already arrived in Dalnyk, were told that they were "forgiven". They were sent to various military headquarters and Gendarmerie stations for "registration", where they were detained for different lengths of time. When they were released, they discovered that their houses had been occupied and their property plundered. During the first week of Romanian occupation of Odessa, the city lost about 10% of its inhabitants. == Subsequent events ==