In 1940, the Red Army occupied the area; the area around the city became known as Chernivtsi Oblast, and was allotted to the Ukrainian SSR by the Soviet Union. It remained occupied by the Soviet Union from June 1940 to July 1941. Under the regime of military dictator Ion Antonescu, Romania had switched from an ally of France and Britain to one of Nazi Germany; subsequently, in July 1941, the Romanian Army retook the city as part of the Axis attack on the Soviet Union during World War II. In August 1941, Antonescu ordered the creation of a ghetto in the lowland part of the city, where 50,000 Bukovina Jews were crammed, two-thirds of whom would be deported in October 1941 and early 1942 to Transnistria, where the majority perished. The Romanian mayor of the city Traian Popovici managed to persuade Antonescu to raise the number of Jews exempted from deportation from 200 to 20,000. In 1944, when Axis forces were driven out by the Red Army, the city was reincorporated into the Ukrainian SSR. Over the following years, most of the Jews emigrated to Israel; the city was an important node in the Berihah network. Bukovina Poles were expelled by the Soviets after World War II. The city became a predominantly Ukrainian one. With the events of World War II drastic changes happened to the national make-up of the local population. Germans were repatriated to Germany, and a number of Romanians returned to Romania. Ukrainian "cultural and civic life was completely disrupted," many leaders were incarcerated, and Ukrainians were resettled. Most notably, many Jews were killed as part of the Holocaust. The city suffered greatly, getting also much damaged.