Murder Story of Odessa Jews in Domanevka

In the autumn-winter of 1941 some 130,000 Jews from the city of Odessa, the Odessa District, former Moldavian ASSR, as well as Jews from Bessarabia and northern Bukovina, were deported to Domanevka, a county center 160 kilometers north of Odessa. There they were held in various kolkhoz facilities, such as barns and stables. Many inmates died due to the terrible conditions. On December 19, 1941 the mass shooting of the deported Jews began. The Jews were taken in groups of 150-200 to the forest on the south-eastern outskirts of Domanevka village and to the hospital on the eastern outskirts of the village, as well as to the "Radyans'kyi Selyanyn" kolkhoz north of Domanevka and to the small village of Chuiky. They were ordered to undress and were shot at prepared graves. The massacres, carried out by Romanian gendarmes, lasted from December 19, 1942 to February 15, 1942. A total of about 18,000 Jews were murdered. The Jews who remained in the Domanevka camp were sent to other camps, including Akmechetka.