1941 German General Staff City Map or Plan of Odessa, Ukraine

This is a special edition 1941 German Army and Air Force General Staff city map or plan of Odessa, Ukraine. Germany launched its invasion of Russia in June 1941, meaning that this map surely was created for use during Operation Barbarossa. The map depicts the city from the freight train depot to the Black Sea and from Shewachowberg to the military airfield. A highly detailed plan created for the German armed forces, locations of military value are labeled throughout, including military buildings, airfields, radio stations, storehouses, hospitals, and factories. Seventy-two different locations are numerically identified, each bearing the number that corresponds with the table situated in the lower left corner and the symbol associated with the category of building to which that specific site belongs. Other locations around the city, such as the botanic garden and other parks, schools, and universities, are also labeled. Factories throughout the city are also noted and are labeled according to the industry in which they operate. Armaments factories, textile factories, and shipbuilders are among the noted producers.

Odessa in 1941

By August 1941, Odessa had become an objective for the invading Axis forces. The Soviet army, however, had heavily fortified the city, constructing three defensive lines: two outside the city and a third within the city itself. A siege ensued and lasted from August 5 until October 16, 1941, a total of seventy-three days. Both Romanian and German troops made up the attacking force and both would occupy the city after it fell in October until 1944, although it was officially under Romanian control.

On October 22, 1941, a week after the fall of Odessa, a bomb exploded in the Romanian military headquarters in the city. The blast killed sixty-seven people, including the Romanian military commander, sixteen Romanian officers, and four German naval officers. With this as an excuse, Romanian military units began assembling citizens of Odessa and killing them. Exact numbers for how many people, most of whom were Jewish, were murdered during the 1941 Odessa Massacre, but, when one includes the victims from the neighboring countryside, the total reaches around 100,000. Odessa and the rest of Ukraine remained under the extremely violent occupation perpetrated by Romanian and German troops for years, and Odessa was finally liberated by the Red Army in April 1944.

This map was created by the General Staffs of the German Army and Air Force and published as a special edition 'for official use only' in 1941.