Gas chambers uncovered at Sobibor, 2014
Gas chambers uncovered at Sobibor, 2014Reuters

Looters have desecrated mass graves at the Sobibor death camp in southeast Poland, museum sources revealed Monday, apparently in a bid to find treasure buried with Holocaust victims. 

A large archaeological project has been underway at the camp for the past two years, the source said, "but when we started excavating we discovered that people had already been digging near to where the gas chamber had been in Camp Three."

"We found lots of pits which were nothing to do with us and clearly weren't professionally dug by scientists," the source said to the British Daily Mail. "We don't know who did it, but we suspect they were looking for gold or metal."

"The idea that thieves have been here looking for such disturbing mementos is truly shocking." 

Personal items recovered in archaeological excavations at death camps have included, among other things, gold fillings and silver dentures. 

More than 250,000 people were murdered at Sobibor between March 1942 and October 1943.