The town was occupied by the German troops on August 18, 1941. In late September about 1,400 Jews were forced into a ghetto in the Belovshchina neighborhood on the outskirts of Starodub. The ghetto population was liquidated in two major murder operations – in October 1941 and in March 1942. 150 more Jews died due to the harsh living conditions in the ghetto.
Starodub was liberated by the Red Army on September 22, 1943.