MALBORK MASSACRE
World War II Mass
Grave Unearthed in Poland
The
Polish city of Malbork [Marienburg / Westpreußen] has found a mass grave with the
remains of some 1,800 people, thought to be former German residents of the town.
They apparently died as the Red Army marched through Poland -- and some of them
appear to have been executed.
The first skeletons were unearthed by construction
workers last October. A pit dug for the foundation of a new hotel in the Polish
city of Malbork revealed the remains of dozens of corpses, all heaped together in
what was apparently a World War II-era mass grave. But plenty of questions remained,
and investigators began taking a closer look.
This week, Piotr Szwedowski, a Malbork city official,
revealed what they found. "Since then, we have exhumed around 1,800 corpses," he
told the news agency AFP. "We are pretty sure that they were former residents of
Malbork."
City officials are also pretty sure that they were
victims of a massacre. Szwedowski said that one in 10 of the corpses had been shot
in the head. All of them, furthermore, had been buried naked, "without shoes, without
clothes, without personal items," he said. "The metal detectors used during the
excavations found no metal, not even a false tooth."
Malbork is located in a region that only became part
of Poland after World War II. Prior to that, the city was German and was called
Marienburg. City officials presume that the remains are of former German citizens
of the town, killed during the Russian advance in 1945. Szwedowski told AFP that
some of the victims may have died in the cold winter weather that year or were killed
by artillery. They were buried in a bomb crater.
Because some of the victims appear to have been murdered,
Polish officials have launched an investigation, according to German tabloid
Bild.
Malbork is home to Malbork Castle, one of Poland's
most famous tourist attractions. The castle was founded in the 13th century by Teutonic
Knights and is the world's largest fortress made of bricks. For most of its history,
the town was part of German East Prussia, but became part of Poland when that country's
borders were shifted westwards following the war. The Germans then living in the
areas that became Poland were forced to leave.
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The
Polish city of Malbork [Marienburg / Westpreußen] has found a mass grave with the
remains of some 1,800 people, thought to be former German residents of the town.
They apparently died as the Red Army marched through Poland -- and some of them
appear to have been executed.
