Excavations at the Szpitalna street in Bydgoszcz, Northern Poland, revealed over 300 skeletons which heads were cut. It is believed that the corpses are linked with the existence of German World War II camps and explosives factory in the vicinity.
Researchers of the “Pomost” Association carried out excavations that resulted in discovery of a large number of corpses in the Glinki district of Bydgoszcz. The works were carried out after information that the forest contained mass graves of German prisoners buried by NKVD (Soviet People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs) from the Zimne Wody prison camp. It is possible however that the burials are of workers of the explosives factory that were housed in the Zimne Wody camp. The camp was equipped in a hospital and ambulatory building. It is possible that the skeletons belong to the people that died in the camp during war, as no execution marks have been noticed on the remains and they are not scattered chaotically. In one case there is a corpse of a baby placed next to a female skeleton, possibly the mother, so the place does not look to the experts as an execution site.
First skeleton finds have been reported over 40 years ago, but since then no research at the site was conducted. According to the researchers in the place of the burials a labour camp for German population existed after World War II. Among the found remains were both men and women, and also elderly people, which excludes the possibility that this is a burial of war prisoners. The skeletons are reported to have been deposited in layers in anatomical order. The identity of the individuals is a mystery as they are not equipped in any tags or documents. A couple of marks have been found by them, attributed to the Dynamit AG explosives factory that was the second largest factory of a kind run by the Germans during World War II.
Some of the skeletons are missing their skulls. This gruesome fact has been attributed to either the activity of grave robbers or construction works adjacent to the site a couple of decades ago. An eye-witness has came forward stating that he saw as a child, few decades ago, a pile of bones dug up by construction workers laying pipes through the forest. These skulls are said to have been buried elsewhere.
(after Express Bydgoski & Dariusz Bloch)