World War II-era mass grave discovered in Lublin, Poland

Polish authorities have identified a World War II-era mass grave in Lublin and are checking to see whether they were Jewish Holocaust victims.

The bodies, which number at least several dozen, were discovered at the Górki Czechowskie park last month, following a resident’s report to authorities about seeing human bones, the TVP broadcaster reported.

Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich told Haaretz that he does not know whether the bodies were Jewish people.

The Polish Institute of National Remembrance, which is heading the investigation, told the Polish media it will issue its findings about the site, which contains dozens of bodies at least, in the coming weeks.

The Institute’s staff suspended construction work near the site pending the investigation, TVP reported.

Lublin was a major hub for Polish Jewry before the Holocaust, with about 40,000 Jews living there.

Around six million Polish citizens perished during World War II. Only half of them were Jewish. Additionally, the territory of Poland is littered with the graves of tens of thousands of Soviet and German soldiers. Mass graves, both of Holocaust victims and other World War II fatalities, are discovered regularly throughout Eastern Europe, and especially in Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus.