Tatarka common graves During World War II , Axis - allied Romanian troops occupying Transnistria claimed to have discovered in April – August 1943 a mass grave on a lot of 1 , 000 square meters in Tatarka , near Odessa . Allegedly , 42 separate common graves of several dozen bodies each were identified , containing ca . 3 , 500 bodies , of which 516 were exhumed , studied , and buried in cemetery before the region became a front line . The Romanians claimed that among the dead were persons arrested in the Moldavian ASSR in 1938 - 1940 , and in Bessarabia and northern Bukovina in 1940 - 1941 . Overview . From spring till June 1943 , in Tatarka , in the Romanian occupied Transnistria , a group of specialists from Odessa ( Dr . K . Shapochkin , deputy chief of the Medical - Sanitar Direction of the Government of Transnistria , N . I . Grubianu , the administrator of the disinfection section , docent I . I . Fidloveski , chief of medical - legal expertise and Grigore Tatarciuc , gendarme representative of the Odessa pretorial office ) have searched a lot of land of 1000 sq meters , were a big number of bodies was allegedly found . At first , it was claimed these were victims of NKVD repressions from 1938 – 40 , and of deportees from Besarabia and Northern Bukovina , shot by the Soviets because they could no longer transport them . In order to facilitate the putrefaction process , the lot was covered with animal excrement . A Romanian intelligence report from 1 June 1943 , signed by lieutenant - colonel Traian Borcescu states that " On the lot called Spolka , situated 7 km from the rail line Odessa - Ovidiopol , between the suburb Tatarka [ of Odessa ] and the airfield , common graves of NKVD victims were found . The works to uncover the bodies have started on 22 April 1943 and were done by the Military Pretorial Service of Odessa . [ . . . ] From the declaration of inhabitants in the vicinity of the lot , it follows that the NKVD troops were bringing corpses during the night in a covered track , and were throwing them into the common grave , and immediately covered . It also follows from these declarations that the road parallel to the lot was totally forbidden to circulation , and were severely garded . " Investigators claimed that the executions have increased in pace after 1940 , once Bessarabia and Bukovina were occupied . " Ioan Halip , Grigore Tatarcu and Alexandru Ivanov , from Bessarabia and Bukovina , currently living in Odessa , have recognized at the place among the bodies their relatives deported by NKVD after the occupation . " " The Commission to examine the corpses and determining the circumstances in which the victims died has determined that the victims were generally shot in the back of the head from a very short distance . The age of the executions is estimated at 2 - 3 years , the clothes were characteristic to those of inhabitants of Bessarabia and Bukovina . " On 6 August 1943 , the legal doctor Alexandru Birkle , a Romanian members of the commission that studied the remains found at Katyn , presented a " Provisional medico - legal report on the investigations at Tatarka " . In his commission also were members C . Chirila , subdirector of Health in the Romanian Government of Transnistria , and one representative each from the mayor office of Odessa , from the Romanian Gendarms unit of Transnistria and from the University of Odessa . According to the report , 42 common graves were discovered , and signs of 10 - 20 others . In each grave were found around 80 corpses . A total approximately 3 , 500 corpses lie in the 42 graves , and the total number is estimated at 5 , 000 . Only 516 corpses were exhumed [ so far ] , and of these 486 were already examined medico - legally with the following conclusions :