According to the 1939 census, 25.2 thousand Jews lived in the city. They made up 15.2% of citizens. Parts of them were managed to be evacuated together with shipbuilding plants as engineering and technical workers.

The report of the city’s field commandant dated October 5, 1941 has been preserved. According to the document, at the time of the Nazis' entry into Nikolaev, there were about 6 thousand Jews in it. Invaders captured the city on August 15, 1941. The south of Ukraine was divided into German and Romanian zones of occupation. Ghettos were created only in territories controlled by Romanians. Nikolaev became the general district within the territory named by the occupiers of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine.

In the early days, the Nazis hanged 8 Jews, accusing them of robbery. Further events developed according to the worked out scenario. An Einsatzgruppe arrived in the city to prepare for the destruction aktion. The Nazis created a Jewish council, which was supposed to deal with the registration of the population. Already at the end of August, 227 Jews were killed a kilometer from the city, whom the occupiers accused of evading registration. The bodies were buried in a ravine at a depth of 2 meters. The firing squad consisted of two groups of 12-15 people. Victims were transported by truck and unloaded from the number of shooters from 24 to 30 people. The execution lasted from 7 a.m. to mid-day.

On September 14, 1941, the occupation authorities issued an order to all Jews from September 16 to come to the area of ​​the Jewish cemetery for resettlement. They should have documents, values ​​and things with them. After registration, doctors and members of mixed families were released. The rest were placed in a cemetery surrounded by a high fence. Once a day, the prisoners were taken out under escort to collect water in a well along Vtoraya Ingulskaya Street.

The executions began on September 21, 1941. First, men were taken out of the cemetery, under the pretext of participating in agricultural work. Executions took place 12 km from the city in a ravine between the villages of Kalinovka, Gorokhovka and Voskresenskoye. For three days, 22 cars brought to the place of execution more than 5 thousand people.

At the end of September 1941, the Nazis re-registered the residents. The city counted 89 thousand people. The column “Jews” in the document has a dash.

However, this did not prevent the Nazis from September-October 1941 to conduct another aktion to identify those Jews who did not appear for registration. They were shot in the vicinity of the village of Temnovod.

In 1942, another 40 people were executed, who were released during registration in September 1941.

Before the retreat in early 1944, the invaders tried to hide the traces of crime.