Odessa: After the Explosion of the Romanian Headquarters
After two months of siege, the Axis forces — Romanian and German — take Odessa on 16 October 1941. On 22 October, a Soviet time-delayed mine destroys the Romanian headquarters on Marazlievskaya Street: more than sixty dead, including the city's military commander and German officers.
Marshal Antonescu orders reprisals of absolute savagery against "the Jews and communists." An order threatens all Jews with death and commands them to assemble. A Romanian officer is charged with carrying the reprisal into effect.
He holds in his hands the lives of tens of thousands of civilians.
Charged with carrying out the reprisal ordered by Antonescu, should this Romanian officer execute the order, refuse, or try to limit its scope?
The order was carried out. From 22 to 24 October 1941, Romanian troops, supported by an , murdered 25,000 to 34,000 Jews in Odessa — shot, hanged, or burned alive in warehouses on the Lustdorf road. Then another 25,000 to 30,000 were deported on foot to Bogdanovka and massacred in the following weeks. Antonescu and the Romanian command bear direct responsibility for it: one of the worst crimes committed by an ally of Germany.
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