2023-11-08 21:18 update: 2023-11-09, 20:12
Photo PAP/Mateusz Marek
The remains of around 100 persons, including prisoners of war and civilians expelled from Warsaw after the collapse of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, have been found near the site of a former Nazi German prisoner-of-war camp in north-western Poland.
The remains were found by experts near the Stalag II D POW camp in Stargard, Zachodniopomorskie province, during the third stage of a search project conducted by researchers from the Medical University of Szczecin.
Since the beginning of the project, experts have already found the remains of around 300 people.
Referring to the recent discovery, Andrzej Ossowski from the university said that the remains of 100 people had been uncovered in two mass graves.
"Civilians, whom we expect to have been expellees from Warsaw after the Warsaw Uprising and who had been deported to the camp, had been buried in the first one in the years 1944 and 1945," Ossowski told PAP, adding that many of them were women and children, "who must have died because of the living conditions in the camp."
According to Ossowski, prisoners-of-war of various nationalities, but mainly Soviet soldiers, had been buried in the second half of 1944 in the second grave which had been recently uncovered.
In the opinion of researchers, between 3,000 and 6,000 people could have been buried near the former Stalag II D camp, which was one of the largest POW camps on the territory of the Third Reich.
The camp started to receive POWs from all over Europe in 1939. It ceased to operate in February 1945 after its inmates were forced to march westwards owing to the advance of the Red Army. (PAP)
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