16 June 1941 the place was occupied by the Red Army and occupied by the Romanian and German troops.

Before the occupation of the place Odessa, on the outskirts of the city (in the area of the Tolbukhin Square), there were artillery (powder) warehouses - the left hand one near the Lyustdorfskaya road and the right hand one near the salivary road surface, which stored red armor army. There were 35 warehouses, measuring 100 m by 30 m.

On the 17th of June, batches of army troops began to arrive in the area of artillery (powder) warehouses on the Lustdorfsky road, which were completely destroyed Already after the Rumanians occupied the place through those who, for various reasons, were unable to evacuate with parts of the Red Army (about 3,400 individuals).

On 19, it was announced about the beginning of the “registration of the human population" and Civilians began to join the military forces (about 22 thousand people of Jewish nationality). They were all locked up in nine empty powder magazines and shot for several days, starting from the 19th. Decades of warehouses were doused with gasoline and the holes in them were filled with live bait.