Before World War II, the Jewish population of Uman was just over 13,000, representing approximately 30% of the city's residents. Just before the occupation, their number decreased to approximately 9,000-10,000 due to the evacuation of many Jews to the east of the country and demobilization into the Red Army. At the same time, many refugees from already occupied Poland and the western regions of Ukraine arrived in Uman.

The Germans occupied Uman in August 1941 and immediately began terrorizing and killing civilians, and above all, Jews. Jews were forced to register and were required to wear distinctive insignia - six-pointed stars on white armbands.

In September 1941, the Germans conducted a massive roundup of Jews. Some of them were placed in the basement overnight, where in the morning at least 500 people died from lack of oxygen. Other Jews, mostly men, were taken to prison, where they were tortured and beaten in every possible way. In the morning they were forced to dig a pit in the Jewish cemetery and transport the bodies of those killed in the basement there, and after that they were shot. The killings of Jews continued for several years and, according to some sources, about 1,500 Jews became victims. Those who did not become victims during these days were herded into the old Jewish quarter of Uman near the bazaar, organizing a ghetto there. Its prisoners, under pain of execution, were not allowed to leave the ghetto territory without the permission of the occupiers. The Germans deliberately created unbearable conditions for Jews in the ghetto to suppress their will: they forbade having personal belongings, food, and medicine. Prisoners were perceived by the Nazis as free labor, so everyone who could work did the hardest and dirtiest work. At night, a real nightmare was happening in the Uman ghetto: rape, beatings, robberies and murders of Jews. The governing body created by the Germans, the Judenrat, assisted them in every possible way in controlling the Jews.

For most of the ghetto prisoners, everything was over in just a few weeks. At the beginning of October, Jews from the ghetto were gathered in the central square and taken to prison. Documents, valuables and clothing were confiscated there. The sick, children and old people were loaded into cars, and the rest, in columns of 500 people, were driven to the Sukhoi Yar tract. Those who could not walk or tried to escape were shot on the spot.

To shoot Jews in the tract, three huge pits were dug in advance, to which groups of five people were brought. They were killed with shots to the head, they were thrown onto the heads of old people and cripples, thrown into a pit alive to save ammunition. According to some reports, at least 6,000 Jews were shot in Sukhoi Yar.

There were still a number of prisoners in the ghetto, whose labor was needed by the occupation authorities. The final date for the liquidation of the Uman ghetto is considered to be April 22, 1942. At that time there were approximately 1,500 people there, who were divided into two groups. Those whom the Germans considered able to work were taken to a labor camp near Uman, the rest were shot in a suburban forest.