Shoes, buttons, geldmunten and numerous bullets are single objects that archaeologists unearthed in Warstein, a town in the German state of North rhine-Westphalia. The 400 relics were found on one of the many sites where the nazis at the end of their rule, massacres caused.
We go back in time to march 1945: the Americans and the British are advancing and freeing the Netherlands from German occupation. At the end of march 1945, turns the tide completely and Frankfurt, occupied by the allies and the Germans retreat from the western front. The nazi’s are in the fall and commit some desperate acts. the
Gravediggers
In Warstein, but also in other parts of Germany, the nazi’s force the prisoners into labor camps and death camps to make a last dig. This time to dig up the forced laborers in their own grave at the abuses of the nazis more or less to cover up.
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cold-Blooded, there are 71 Polish and Russian forced laborers shot and then their grave is covered. Also in Suttrop near Warstein, graves, 57 slave laborers their own grave. A bit further down, near Eversberg, to use the nazis as a grenade to a giant hole. There are then another eighty seem to be dropped.
In total there are in that month, but less than 208 Russian and Polish forced labourers were murdered. A few weeks later would the Americans, the region’s free.
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Personal items
The items that last month discovered were personal items of the victims who have been scattered were found in the forest between Suttrop, Warstein and Eversberg. There were dictionaries, shoes, diaries, and Polish prayer books were discovered.
The bodies – of men, women and children – were after the war excavated to the victims an honorable cemetery. Only fourteen of the 208 bodies were identified.
Reminder
Now, years later, to follow the other mementos of the victims. And that is important, according to Matthias Löb director of the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (LWL). He organized the archaeological excavation because “the world is reminded of the atrocities that took place during the Second world War”.
