A mass grave of more than 1,000 Jews shot in the head by the Nazis during the Holocaust has been uncovered in Belarus.
Currently, 600 skeletons have been unearthed by Belarusian soldiers in a pit at a building site in Brest, a city along the Polish border. The historic city of Brest was the location of the Union of Brest and Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
“We expect the number of victims to go over 1,000,” said Brest official Anna Kondak. “During three weeks, every day about 40 remains are being found. Now the overall number is around 600. As far as we know, there are two major graves here.”
“We will not allow the building of anything on bones of people,” said Gov. Alexander Rogachuk.
At least 28,000 Jews lived in the Brest ghetto between 1941 and 1942.
Some 17,000 people were known to have been shot in October 1942 near the Bronnaya Gora rail station, and thousands more are believed to have been massacred.
Some 66 percent of Belarussian Jews perished in the Holocaust, according to American historian Lucy Dawidowicz in The War Against Jews.
An internet search of the “Brest Ghetto” turns up numerous “monuments to the Jews” of Lakhva, Ivanovo, Kamenetz and other communities in Brest “who rebelled in the ghetto against the Nazis” and “Jews, prisoners of war and partisans killed by Nazis.” At least one is “located on the central square of the village,” indicating the Jews were slaughtered in the central square; several others are out in wooded areas.
Hana Levi Julian contributed content to this report.