concentration camp
concentration campINN

Skeletal remains discovered at the Sobibór death camp in Poland have been identified by a study as belonging to Jews who were likely murdered by guards, reported the Daily Mail.

Sobibór was an extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland that exited for the sole purpose of killing Jews. From 1942 until 1943, between 170,000 and 250,000 people were murdered there.

The 10 skeletons were unearthed at Sobibór in 2013, after previous digging had uncovered mass graves with cremated remains and gas chamber walls. The bodies were studied by scientists at the Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, Poland.

Survivors and guards at the death camp had previously said in testimonies that the camp’s victims were all cremated, making the discovery of the bodies surprising.

At first, it was presupposed that the skeletons were the remains of Polish anti-communist dissidents buried in the 1950s.

Researchers examined mitochondrial and Y chromosome DNA taken from the bones and discovered that they were from Ashkenazi Jewish origin, suggesting that the bodies belonged to Jews killed by Nazi guards during the Holocaust, and not Polish anti-Soviet partisans.

Due to the findings, the Institute of National Remembrance in Lublin, Poland had the remains reburied.

“Following Jewish rite, the ceremony was led by a rabbi and the victims were buried in separate graves at the places of their discovery,” they stated.