WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland on Monday held a state funeral for the remains of more than 700 victims of mass executions by Nazi Germany during World War II that were recently discovered in the so-called “Valley of Death” in the country's north.
The ceremony in Chojnice began with a funeral mass in the cathedral, followed by a burial with military honours in a local cemetery for victims of Nazi crimes. President Andrzej Duda, local authorities and leaders of the National Institute of Remembrance, which exhumed and documented the remains, attended the ceremony.
If Germany wants to set an example for Russia over the Ukraine war, Poland says it should start by paying World War II reparationshttps://t.co/o5P7vXwonz
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 25, 2023
Between 2021 and 2024, the remains of Polish civilians, including approximately 218 psychiatric hospital patients, were exhumed from several separate mass graves outside Chojnice. Personal belongings and documents led to the identification of approximately 120 victims of executions in early 1945. Among the victims were teachers, priests, police officers, forest rangers, postal workers and landowners.
Historians have established that the Nazis executed some of the civilians soon after invading Poland on September 1, 1939. The remains of another 500 victims date back to executions in January 1945, as German troops were fleeing the area.
Poland lost six million people (one sixth of its population), three million of whom were Jews, in the war, and suffered heavy losses to the country's infrastructure, industry and agriculture.
Poland demands $1.3 trillion in war reparations, Germany rejects https://t.co/iu3uH8LXQO
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) October 3, 2022
