In November 1941 SS Troops murdered 102,000 civilians and prisoners of war in the pre-war Poland area of Rovno. Rovno became an important Nazi base following the German invasion of Russia on June 22, 1941. In close proximity to Kiev, Ukraine, the German killings occurred in a timber dump on Byeli Street in Rovno. Forced to dig their own graves, many of the victims were Jews. By May 1935 Rovno had a Jewish population of 50,000. The town lay approximately twenty-two miles inside the former Poland. By January 1944 the area was being liberated by the Soviet Red Army.