According to the 1939 census, 4.2 thousand Jews lived in Bershad, who accounted for 74% of the population. Data on the number of those evacuated and drafted into the Red Army has not been preserved. According to eyewitnesses, in the summer of 1941, German troops attacked quickly, blew up the bridge over Dohna, so some of the Jews who tried to leave the city on their own were forced to return. The Nazis took control of the settlement on July 29, 1941. Soon Bershad found itself in the Romanian zone of occupation.

The Romanian authorities created a ghetto on the territory of the city, which occupied 12 lanes. Jews settled in 337 houses. In the autumn of 1941, 20 thousand Jews, deported from Bukovina and Bessarabia, joined the local Jews. As a result, the ghetto became overpopulated. Jews were forced to huddle 20 or more people in a room. The Bershad ghetto was one of the largest in Romanian Transnistria.

The winter of 1941-1942 was the most difficult period for the prisoners. A typhus epidemic broke out in the ghetto, which almost halved the population. According to the recollections of eyewitnesses, a cart drove around the ghetto every day, collecting corpses.

A Judenrat was established in the ghetto, headed by the Shoikhet Eli Marczak. The Jewish police also acted. The Romanian authorities used Jews for forced labor to collect firewood, build roads, and Jewish artisans produced clothing for the occupiers.

Since 1942, Gheorghe Popescu, who eased the suffering of the prisoners, commanded the Romanian gendarmerie. In the midst of a typhus epidemic, he arranged the supply of hygiene products to the ghetto and allowed local residents to trade with prisoners. Soon, for such measures, Popescu was fired. However, since 1942, the occupation authorities have allowed Romanian Jews to help the deported. As a result, a pharmacy, an infectious diseases hospital, a canteen and an orphanage appeared in the ghetto.

From the end of 1941, several underground groups operated in the ghetto. In December 1942, part of the underground joined the Lenin partisan detachment. In 1943, thanks to the actions of the underground, the escape of 900 prisoners was organized.

In January-February 1944, the invaders shot down part of the ghetto leadership, but thanks to a fortunate coincidence, by the time Bershad was liberated in March 1944, 9.2 thousand ghetto prisoners remained alive. Of these, 2.2 thousand were local Jews. Some of the survivors returned to Romania.