Remains of Nazi massacre victims discovered in Poland’s “Death Valley” | Smart news

Researchers in Poland have found evidence of a Nazi massacre that took place in Poland’s “Death Valley” towards the end of World War II.

As Andrew Curry reported for science Magazin, a team from the Institute of Archeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS) discovered the long-hidden mass grave through a combination of land surveys, interviews with local residents and archive research. The scientists published their results in the journal Antiquity last week.

The burial near the Polish village of Chojnice contained more than a ton of human bones – a number that matches the approximately 500 prisoners killed there in January 1945. After the Nazis shot these victims, the Nazis burned their bodies on massive stakes in hopes of destroying evidence of the atrocities.

“We knew that the victims were buried somewhere, but until we did our research, nobody knew where,” says lead author Dawid Kobiałka, an archaeologist at PAS science.

The locals called the forest around Chojnice “Death Valley” in recognition of the mass executions that took place there at the beginning of the war. According to the study, the Nazis murdered around 30,000 to 35,000 residents of the Polish province of Pomerania between October and November 1939 and carried out mass murders in 400 locations across the region, including Death Valley.

Known as Intelligence action, This policy of mass murder targeted educated members of Polish society such as teachers, priests, doctors, activists, clerks and former civil servants, writes George Dvorsky for Gizmodo. In comparison, the victims of the January 1945 massacre were mainly members of the Polish Home Army, an underground resistance network.

During exhumations in Death Valley in autumn 1945, the remains of 168 people were uncovered – a fraction of the hundreds murdered near Chojnice in the course of the war.

“It was common knowledge that not all mass graves from 1939 were found and exhumed, and the grave of those killed in 1945 was not exhumed either,” says Kobiałka in a statement cited by Live scienceis Laura Geggel.

Corresponding science, the study is the first to systematically apply archaeological methods to a mass grave from the Second World War, as research into human remains in concentration camps is often prevented by Jewish religious beliefs.

Scientists used non-invasive techniques, including remote sensing LiDAR technology, to survey the area and identify places of interest. They continued to search for trenches dug in the woods near Chojnice with ground penetrating radar, electromagnetic field analysis and metal detectors. Finally reports Live scienceThe team dug eight trenches and discovered more than 4,250 artifacts, including jewelry, cartridge cases, and charred wood. Although a small selection of the finds date from the 19th century, most have been linked to the massacres during the war.

In the future, the researchers hope to be able to use DNA tests to identify the victims. Archive research has produced a list of people who were brought to Death Valley in 1945 and provide a point of comparison for identification attempts. After examining the cremated remains, the team plans to bury them again and turn the site into an official military cemetery.

“Despite the Nazis’ efforts to hide their crimes, material evidence of the murders, preserved to date and discovered in 2020, testifies to the massacre and tells the story 75 years later,” the authors write in the study.