Archaeologists exhuming the grave in the town of Barborów came across bullet-ridden helmets, broken bones, dog tags, coins, Swastika badges, shoes, a whistle and a chain with a lucky horseshoe.
Most of the 11 Polish victims had their hands tied behind their backs, and some of the skulls have traces of injuries. The mass grave contained bullet casings from a German Mauser.
The grim discovery of around 17.5 tons of human ashes were made near the former Soldau concentration camp, which is now the town of Działdowo by the Institute of National Remembrance.
Polish prosecutors have offered their Ukrainian counterparts help in investigating alleged war crimes committed on civilians by Russian troops in the Ukrainian town of Bucha near Kyiv, Poland's National Prosecution said on Monday.
The grim discovery was made after builders stumbled upon human remains during work at the site in Mikołajki in the Warmian-Maurian Voivodeship.
A specialist team of body searchers from the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) made the find in a forested area in the city’s Białołęka district following a tip off from an elderly resident who recalled seeing German troops herding people into the area.
The horror discovery was made at the site of the lesser-known Treblinka I forced labour camp where around 20,000 people were imprisoned of which around 10,000 died from exhaustion, injury or execution.
The people in the 5,000-year-old grave were captured and executed with blows to the head. Using genome-wide analysis, a reconstruction of the grave shows mainly women and children lying close together with their bodies and limbs overlapping.
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