The Odessa massacre, an act of collective punishment carried out by the Romanian Army and Gendarmes, took the lives of a minimum of between 15,000Deletant, p. 127 and 25,000Final Report, pp. 150, 152 to as many as 40,000Trașcă, pp. 393, 398 or even more than 50,000Weinberg, p. 239 Jewish people of all ages. The measure came as the enforcement of Antonescu's own orders, as retaliation for an explosion that killed 67 people at Romanian headquarters on that city. Antonescu believed that the original explosion was a terrorist act, rejecting the possibility of the building in question having been fitted with land mines by the retreating Soviets.Final Report, p. 151; Trașcă, p. 391 In addition, Antonescu blamed the Jews, specifically "Jewish commissars" in the Red Army, for the losses suffered by his 4th Army throughout the siege,Final Report, p. 247; Deletant, pp. 116–118; Trașcă, pp. 386–389 although both an inquiry he had ordered and German assessments pointed to the ill-preparedness of Romanian soldiers.Trașcă, pp. 386–389 While the local command took the initiative for the first executions, Antonescu's personal intervention amplified the number of victims required, and included specific quotas (200 civilians for every dead officer, 100 for every dead soldier).Final Report, pp. 151–153, 245; Deletant, pp. 171–172, 253; Trașcă, pp. 392–394. Antonescu's initial order defines the intended victims as "communists", but a later conversation with his ministers exclusively uses "Jews" for the same categories (Deletant, pp. 171–172; Trașcă, pp. 393–394). By the time of the explosion, the Jewish population was already rounded up into makeshift ghettos, being made subject to violence and selective murders.Final Report, p. 150; Trașcă, pp. 389–391
