In 1941, Brezianu worked as "grefier" (registrar or court reporter) at the military court in Odessa, then part of the Romanian-administered Transnistria Governorate. He had pleasant recollections of the city, marred by the horror he felt at seeing hanged bodies as part of the reprisals for an explosion that killed a number of Romanian and German troops ("see 1941 Odessa massacre"). Later in the war, he was back in Bucharest.