Remains of approx. 30 POWs discovered in former Stalag II-D Stargard camp

This was the second stage of a research project aimed at finding soldiers killed and buried in the area of the former cemetery of Stalag II-D POW camp in Stargard (West Pomeranian Voivodeship). The first stage had been carried out last year.

"In the last season of the research we exhumed one mass grave, in which we found the remains of 67 prisoners of war," says M.D. Andrzej Ossowski, head of Forensic Medicine Faculty at Pomeranian Medical University (PMU) in Szczecin.

This time, the researchers are working at a different location than last year. According to initial estimate, the area under research is a former cemetery from 1944-1945.

"Our research goes in two directions: estimating the size of this burial ground and the cemetery, as well as locating buried bodies and finding out which POWs had been buried here," Ossowski added.

The geneticist also said the burials were "completely different" from those found in the previous stage of the research, when dozens of victim - mainly Soviet POWs - had been unearthed. The examination showed they had died across four days in 1941; according to PMU experts - most likely due to typhus.

"In this place, we practically have no Soviet POWs, maybe there are a few, but we can't be certain as to nationalities at this point - we need carry out tests," he added.

It is, however, certain that the bodies belonged to prisoners of war and that they were buried at the former camp. The identity of the victims will hopefully be determined in the later stages of the research.

After the Red Army had taken over the camp the burial grounds were turned into landfills, which - Ossowski says - doesn't make the research any easier.

During the second stage of the research, the scientists found the remains of approx. 30 people, but the works are to continue until the end of October. "The structure of the graves is very complex. In our opinion, a few bodies of prisoners were being dumpled into a previously dug out ditch which served as a mass grave, and later the bodies were covered with a thin layer of ground. These images resemble those which we can see nowadays in Ukraine - and that's the most horrifying part, that although so many years have passed, not much has changed in the mentality and methods used by totalitarian systems," the genetician said.

Ossowski added that they had also come across some surprising discoveries, in the form of two bodies buried in coffins and the remains of two children. The researchers suspect the remains of victims of the so-called death marches might have been buried there as well, for instance from Stalag II-B Hammerstein camp.

Ossowski points out that Polish Army soldiers were being placed in the camp from 1939 on, and later also Warsaw Uprising survivors. He hopes that a through analysis of the area will help to find out exactly what had happened to the insurgents there. The scientists aim to locate and indentify the remains.

So far, the researchers have managed to identify 40 people, whose remains had been found last season. "The system of camps - not only concentration and death camps, but also POW camps - was meant to annihilate the prisoners. Our work shows clearly: the conditions in the camps led directly to the death of the prisoners. This was clearly a criminal system, and the carried out reasearch is also important not only in preventing denial of the living conditions in POW camps, but also of the very fact of concentration camps' existence, and such attempt are taking place. This research is a proof of committed crimes and they are undeniable," Ossowski stressed.

Stalag II-D was one of the largest prisoner-of-war camps of the Third Reich. POWs from all over Europe were being placed there, including privates and officers from Poland, United States, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Serbia, Soviet Union, Italy, and Canada. It also housed Polish civilians, including Warsaw insurgents. The prisoners were used in various kinds of work, such building roads. Many of them died during the hard labour; they were being buried in the vicinity of work locations. The camp operated until its evacuation in February of 1945.