Odessa, the largest port city in the Ukraine—on the coast of the Black Sea—was occupied on October 16, 1941, after a two-month siege. Immediately afterwards, the operations company of Romanian intelligence and Einsatzkommando 11b of Einsatzgruppe D massacred more than 8,000 people, mostly Jews.
On October 22, the Romanian command building was blown up and 66 members of the military, including the military governor of Odessa, were killed. In response, the dictator of Romania, Marshal Ion Antonescu, ordered the following: the execution of 200 Communists for each officer killed and 100 for each soldier; the incarceration of all Communists; and the taking of hostages among Jewish families. The next day, some 5,000 people, mostly Jews, were apprehended and executed, most by hanging and a
On the initiation of Heinrich Lohse, Reich Commissar for the Ostland, and Alfred Rosenberg, Minister of the Occupied Territories, a meeting was held at which Rosenberg and representatives from Lohse’s and Adolf Eichmann’s office were present. Soon thereafter, on October 25, Eichmann expressed his approval and requested the swift implementation of the use of mobile gas vans for murdering Jews.
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