Archaeologists came across the gruesome discovery near the town of Chojnice in the north of the country at a site dubbed Death Valley, where they have previously uncovered other mass graves.

According to the archaeologists, the newly-discovered victims who were shot by SS troops came from a nearby psychiatric hospital.

Describing the find as the “first grave of its kind in the world”, lead archaeologist Dawid Kobiełka said: “People with psychiatric illnesses were murdered in several places in Pomerania in 1939.

“Almost all of these places were destroyed in the second half of 1944 when the Germans exhumed the graves and the bodies and burnt their remains.

“At the moment, the only known grave that has survived is this one. It is a unique, one-of-a-kind thing, with exceptional importance for the city and region. This is part of world history.”

He added that the victims were part of Hitler’s Aktion T-4 campaign to deal with those considered ‘incurably sick’.

Euphemistically referred to as ‘involuntary euthanasia’ following Germany’s invasion of Poland in September 1939, the first adults with disabilities to be killed en masse were Polish.



The director of the Main Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, deputy prosecutor general Andrzej Pozorski, said: ”On some of the skulls, we found entry and exit holes for bullets due to the firearms used.

“We are not yet able to say exactly how many remains have been revealed because the work is still ongoing and the process of extracting human remains has not been completed yet.

“The evidence shows that at the end of October 1939 they were brought here, shot, the bodies were buried and the area was leveled so that no one would discover this criminal activity.”

Dr Karol Nawrocki from the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) which investigates Nazi and Soviet-era crimes in Poland added: “This terrifying crime and today's discovery is also proof that here, in Pomerania, in the Chojnice region, but also throughout Poland, there are still remains of people waiting to be found and commemorated, to return to national consciousness.

“This discovery is also proof that despite the pages of books filled with facts, despite the actions of the IPN prosecutor's office, we are still talking about a crime that has not yet been redressed.

“The Institute of National Remembrance recognises that Poland is still entitled to reparations from the German state.”