When the Germans invaded Poland in World War II, they began murdering people. A large amount of ash has now been found near a former concentration camp in former East Prussia. Behind it hides a cruel action.
Around 17.5 tons of human remains from victims of the Nazi occupation have been found near a former German concentration camp in Poland. The people were murdered “probably around 1939” and belonged to the Polish elite, said Tomasz Jankowski from the Polish Institute for National Remembrance (IPN). National Socialist Germany invaded and occupied the country on September 1 of that year. Shortly thereafter, firing squads began murdering politicians, clergymen, and other potential opponents. By the end of the year, there are said to have been 60,000 victims.
The ashes of Nazi victims were found in a wooded area in Ilowo-Osada, 150 kilometers north of Warsaw and near the former Soldau Nazi concentration camp in former East Prussia. The Soldau camp was built during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It served as a transit camp, but also as a concentration and extermination camp for political opponents of National Socialism, members of the Polish elite and Jews.
In 1944, Jewish prisoners had to dig up and burn the bodies of dead inmates to cover up traces of German war crimes. The number of people killed in Soldau is still difficult to determine today, estimates assume up to 30,000 victims. The remains that have now been discovered “allow us to state that at least 8,000 people died here,” said IPN representative Jankowski. The number is determined by the weight of the ashes found. Two kilograms of human ashes correspond to about one corpse.
Samples were taken from the remains, said genetics researcher Andrzej Ossowski from the Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin. DNA analyzes could now be carried out in the laboratory in order to find out more about the identity of the victims. Similar investigations had already been carried out on the victims of the Nazi death camps in Sobibor and Treblinka.
