Archaeologists recently found the ashes of at least 8,000 people, weighing more than 17.5 tonnes, in two mass graves in northern Poland. According to a report published by the BBC on July 15, 2022, the ashes are of those who were killed during the Second World War.

Tomasz Jankowski, a senior official of Poland’s National Remembrance Institute, has confirmed that the two mass graves are situated near the site of Soldau (now Dzialdowo). There was a Nazi Concentration Camp in this site, where the Nazis had killed around 30,000 Jews, political opponents and members of the Polish intelligentsia and clergy. Later, they exhumed and burned those bodies in an attempt to destroy evidence of the murders. It is believed that more information can be obtained by testing the DNA of the cremated bodies.

According to Jankowski, the Nazis had set up the concentration camp at Soldau in 1939. He revealed that the ashes were found in two graves 10ft beneath the ground. Half-burnt clothes, buttons and other items have also been recovered from the two mass graves. Experts believe that the bodies were burnt after looting the victims.

The graves have been found near Bialucki Forest, which is infamous for Nazi tortures. However, there is no information about the exact location of the graves and the number of victims. Jankowski stressed that the victims, buried in the mass grave, “were probably assassinated around 1939 and mostly belonged to the Polish elites“. He claimed that the Nazi authorities had asked Jewish prisoners to dig up the bodies and burn them in 1944.

Andrzej Ossowski, a genetics researcher at the Pomeranian Medical University, said that samples from the ashes had been taken to a laboratory for further study. “We can carry out DNA analysis, which will allow us to find out more about the identity of the victims,” he added.

Meanwhile, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced that his government prepared a report on Nazi war crimes, in which calculations of financial losses had been converted into current values that amounted to USD 850 billion (GBP 715 billion) in 2019. He said that Nazi Germany had not only caused immense harm to the Polish people, but also refused to pay reparations. Earlier, Germany claimed that the issue of reparations had legally been closed in the 1950s.

It is to be noted that nearly six million Poles, including three million Jews, died during the Second World War.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das