The Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) has discovered the ashes of more than 8,000 victims near the former German concentration camp of Soldau (Działdowo).

On Wednesday, the 13th of July, IPN officials gave a press conference in the forest near the Polish town where the German crimes were being perpetrated during WWII.  

The head of IPN Karol Nawrocki referred to the horrible discovery as “a terrible crime against the Polish nation”. The estimated number of victims was calculated based on the ash quantity, weighing over 17 tonnes.

https://twitter.com/ipngovpl_eng/status/1547112960790863872?s=20&t=tVuMIxYGWrf9ZVXZDtN-4A

The Soldau concentration camp was established in the occupied Polish town of Działdowo from the very beginning of WWII and Germany’s invasion of Poland in September 1939. 

Karol Nawrocki explained that the camp had been established “in order to discreetly, yet determinedly, murder representatives of the Polish resistance movement”.

“Victims were killed as part of the German anti-Polish extermination action, which was to deprive Poland of state elites, diplomats and clergy”, – he explained. 

https://twitter.com/rheytah/status/1547606180498849793?s=20&t=tVuMIxYGWrf9ZVXZDtN-4A

He added that from March 1944, the Germans launched a massive excavation of the numerous human remains from mass graves and burned them “so that the crimes would never see the light of day so that no one would be held responsible for the crimes.”

It is estimated that around 17% of Poland’s population was killed between 1939-1945, which was the highest proportion of any country during WWII. 

Image: Twitter @ajplus

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen