Before the occupation began in 1941, there were about 25,000 Jews in Rivne. During the period from July to August 1941, over 3,000 were shot by SS Sonderkommandos and policemen, and in фNovember in the forest near Rivne - from 15 to 18 thousand; the exact number of victims remained unknown. The remaining approximately 5,000 Jews were herded into a ghetto in the Rivne quarter of Vola in November-December of the same year.

According to archives, as of the beginning of May 1942, there were 3,747 men and women of working age in the Rivne ghetto, as well as 271 disabled people and 1,182 children under 14 years of age.
According to the order of the Rivne Gebietskommissar, all Jews in the region must be moved to the ghetto by mid-February 1942. However, according to some sources, a small part of the Jews (reportedly, no more than 25) still lived outside the ghetto. These were rare exceptions that the Nazis made for individual Jewish specialists (doctors, dental technicians, jewelers, etc.) and members of the so-called “Judenrat” - Jewish councils created by the Germans forcibly in the ghetto, which were supposed to organize the execution of orders of the occupation authorities.
A distinctive feature of the Rivne ghetto was overcrowding and unsanitary conditions. The Jews who ended up in the ghetto were left virtually without personal belongings and other vital supplies, since they had previously been plundered by the Germans and police. The work, mostly heavy work, to which the Germans recruited prisoners, was free. Every day the Judenrat had to place about 150 people at the disposal of the German administration, and on Sunday - up to 1000. Shoemakers, tailors and other workshops were also created in the ghetto. The duration of forced labor for Jews was at least 12 hours a day.
According to historical data and eyewitness accounts, an underground was organized in the ghetto, which secretly accumulated weapons and ammunition. On the night of July 14, 1942, punitive forces entered the ghetto and encountered fierce resistance from Jewish underground fighters. After a long battle, some of them were killed. Those who managed to escape joined the partisan formations operating in the region and subsequently participated in the liberation of the city.
The Germans liquidated the Rivne ghetto that same night. Approximately 5,000 Jews were forced onto a train, taken to Kostopil near Rivne and shot. After this, raids were carried out for several more days in order to search for the few Jews who still managed to escape execution.