Nazi Germany’s victims honored on anniversary of World War II outbreak

Poland has honored over 700 recently discovered victims of Nazi Germany’s mass executions in a ceremony marking the anniversary of World War II’s outbreak.

On Monday, the country held a state burial for the remains unearthed in what is now known as the Valley of Death, located in northern Poland.

The solemn observances took place in the town of Chojnice, where a funeral Mass at the local basilica set the stage for the interment. All victims were laid to rest with full military honors at a nearby cemetery.

Small wooden coffins were adorned with the country’s national white and red colors. Relatives of those identified by the state National Remembrance Institute attended the service.

An aide to President Andrzej Duda and other local authorities were also present.

Bishop Ryszard Kasyna, who presided over the Mass, emphasized the importance of restoring dignity and memory to those who had suffered.

“We want to give back memory, we want to give back dignity to the victims of the crimes in Chojnice,” he said.

Exhumations, which took place from 2021 to 2024, revealed the remains of Polish civilians, including 218 asylum seekers.

Personal belongings and documents helped identify approximately 120 of the victims, including teachers, priests, police officers, and landowners. These individuals were executed in early 1945 during the final stages of the war as German forces retreated.

A study confirming the findings of these remains, initially reported by Newsweek in 2021, described 349 artifacts, including bullets, buttons and jewelry.

Historians have determined that following their invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, the Nazis executed numerous civilians as part of their campaign to control the country.

“Preserved fragments of wood confirm the accuracy of the witness testimonies, according to which the bodies, and the stack, were doused with a flammable substance and set on fire,” read Antiquity, the journal responsible for confirming this event at the time.

The remains of an additional 500 victims, discovered from January 1945, are linked to executions carried out as the Germans were retreating. The graves contain bullets and shells from German firearms.

In a video message broadcast during the ceremony, President Duda asserted that the deaths of these victims were not in vain.

“The only reason they were killed by the Nazis was the fact that they were Polish,” he said.

Poland lost approximately 6 million citizens, including 3 million Jews, and suffered severe damage to its infrastructure, industry, and agriculture.

The National Remembrance Institute continues to investigate Nazi war crimes and preserve the memory of victims. Their work includes exhumations, historical research, and the documentation of war crimes.

Founded in 1998, it was created as part of the nation’s efforts to come to terms with its communist past and to preserve the memory of the victims of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union occupations.

Their publications—often focusing on previously under-researched areas—feature works on Polish-Jewish history and Polish intelligence agent Witold Pilecki, the only inmate known to be voluntarily imprisoned at Auschwitz.

Efforts to uncover and document further mass graves, known as the Pomerania Crime, are ongoing.

This article includes reporting from The Associated Press