Mass Grave of Holocaust Victims Found in Ukraine

[Paisley]

From the Wall Street Journal, June 5, 2007:

KIEV, Ukraine -- A mass grave holding the remains of thousands of Jews killed by the Nazis has been found in southern Ukraine near the site of what was once a concentration camp, a Jewish community representative said Tuesday.

The grave was found by chance last month when workers were laying gas pipelines in the village of Gvozdavka-1, near Odessa, said Roman Shvartsman, a spokesman for the regional Jewish community. He said that Nazis established a concentration camp near the village in November 1941 killed about 5,000 Jews at or near the site.​

 

[scotrace]

It is certainly good that the final resting place of so many victims is now known. I wonder though, how the burial place of thousands of people could have gone unknown? Surely local people knew of the location, why would they keep such a thing quiet?

 

[Paisley]

As former Soviet citizens, Odessans are probably used to being silent out of fear. I used to have a friend who was from a city near Odessa. She said that during the war with Afghanistan in the 1980s, I think, officials said that young men were dying in "soccer accidents."

A lot of Ukrainian civilians didn't survive WWII: some 10.6 million perished. Many Ukrainians were deported to Germany. Ergo, there might not have been many survivors to tell the tale.

More info here.

 

[Viola]

It is certainly good that the final resting place of so many victims is now known. I wonder though, how the burial place of thousands of people could have gone unknown? Surely local people knew of the location, why would they keep such a thing quiet?

To be fair, it was a hole in the ground during WWII. Its not like a real cemetary.

On the other hand I'm sure there was a lot of not-really-wanting-to-know at the time, and then things got forgotten about after.

-Viola