Germany to excavate suspected Jewish grave JAMLITZ, Germany – A birch-lined back yard believed to hold the remains of more than 750 former Jewish prisoners slain by the Nazis in the final days of World War II will be excavated by German authorities starting Wednesday. The work on the site of the former Nazi labor camp Lieberose, a subcamp of the better-known Sachsenhausen concentration camp, follows a lengthy battle with the former landowner. Joerg Schoenbohm, interior minister of Brandenburg state, said officials hope the efforts will help bring closure to any relatives of victims and send a signal to neo-Nazis and others seeking to deny the Holocaust. "We want to have clarity," Schoenbohm told reporters Tuesday. "We need to end the uncertainty surrounding the crime so that we will have time for mourning and remembering."
It is a strange case, I wonder what was the motivation of the land owner to be so obstructive. Perhaps those people who say this didn't happen shold be made to dig, it might be the only way to change their minds. If they are Jewish remains perhaps they should not be disturbed, although I suppose as a mass grave it may not beclassed as a burial. ~Steve
This could be an opportunity for some families to identify an ancestor with DNA and get these poor people a decent grave. It is important for those who have no place at all to lay flowers to be informed that have a WWII casualty relative with a tumbstone whereas so many remain nameless . Rather unexpected after so many years.
This could be an opportunity for some families to identify an ancestor with DNA and get these poor people a decent grave. It is important for those who have no place at all to lay flowers to be informed that have a WWII casualty relative with a tumbstone whereas so many remain nameless . Rather unexpected after so many years.
In a way you are right but DNA work would be difficult on a site of this age especially if it has 700+ remains in it, more recent attrocities such as those in Bosnia/Croatia DNA can work especially as the relatives are local. It is also one of those lazy "press shorthands" that any mass grave in Germany contains Jewish victims, they could be anyone of any faith, they could even be persons who disappeared after the surrender in 1945, the Soviets used the camp from 1945-47. As a general rule it is not acceptable to dis-intere and rebury a Jewish body, in particular a murdered Jew should lie buried as they died so God is aware of the crime commited against them, I suppose it is qualified that ideally Jews should be buried individually not in a mass grave or even in familly plots which is common in Christian burial practice. One of the most well know mass grave of Jews is in Kiev at a place called Babi Yar where Jews were murdered in 1941 and many people are disturbed that today it is a park where children play, I am of the mind that if there are spirits of the departed they are probably happy that such an evil place now echos to the sound of happy children. ~S
