On this day in 1942, 5,000 of Rivne’s Jews were executed by the Nazis. This began the third phase of the Nazis’ plan to murder all of the Jews in Rivne, Ukraine. By June 1941, there were around 30,000 Jews in Rivne. When they heard that the Nazis were coming, many tried to flee but only around 3,000 were successfully able to leave. On June 28, 1941, the Nazis invaded Rivne and later that year created the Rivne Ghetto. There were three phases of killing done by the Nazis in Rivne. The first phase occurred in July and August 1941 when around 3,000 Jews were killed in a pogrom. Then, in November of 1941, over three days, the Nazis killed 17,500 Jewish men and women in mass shootings right next to the ghetto; they killed 6,000 children only a short distance away. This left very few Jews in the Rivne ghetto, but those remaining were locked inside. On July 13, 1942, the final liquidation, the third phase, occurred. During the night of July 13, the Nazis stormed into houses and forced the remaining 5,000 Jews into cattle cars. Anyone who resisted was whipped in an attempt to force them to cooperate, and if they did not, they were shot on the spot. Children were murdered in houses and anyone who barricaded themselves inside their house had a hand grenade thrown in to kill them and break down the door. The Nazis brought the 5,000 Jews in cattle cars to Kostopil, Ukraine, where they were shot and buried in a mass grave. An eyewitness account of the night said that there were corpses lying on the street, houses completely demolished and belongings strewn around. There were no survivors of the incident. Very few people from the Rivne Ghetto remained after the war but those who were able to escape and hide in the forest, liberated Rivne with the Soviet army on February 2, 1944.