Odessa was a Black Sea Port located in southwestern Ukraine, and had a population of about 600,000 in 1939, 180,000 being Jews. In August, 1941, Romanian troops set course for Odessa during the siege by the Axis allies on the Soviet Union. Prior to this event, a bomb exploded in Romanian Military Headquarters in Odessa. The explosion killed the Romanian military commandant and 16 other officers. About half of the cities Jewish population fled before the city was surrounded. About 85,000 Jews remained in Odessa. Romanian troops assembled 19,000 Jews in the public square and shot most of them, and burned the remaining Jews alive. About 20,000 were takin to jail where they were either shot or burned alive. The remaining 35,000 were split up into
