Archaeologists from POMOST – the Historical and Archaeological Research Laboratory – have uncovered physical evidence of war crimes committed by the Red Army during WWII.
In 1945, the Red Army invaded German-held territories in Poland on the Eastern Front – an operation known as the Vistula–Oder offensive.
Within a matter of days, the Soviet forces had advanced hundreds of kilometres, taking much of Poland and striking deep within the pre-war borders of the Reich.
According to estimates by historians, around six million Polish citizens died between 1939 and 1945. Over 90% of the death toll were mostly civilians, killed because of war crimes committed by both the occupying German and Soviet forces.
One such war crime took place in Duczów Małe, a village in the Kluczborski County of the Opole Voivodeship in Poland. On 22 January 1945, Red Army troops entered the village and detained Elisabeth Frenzel, the estate owner and a prominent member of the local elite.
She was escorted into the surrounding forest and executed by Red Army personnel, with evidence indicating lethal trauma to the skull. More than 80 years of local remembrance of her murder enabled archaeologists to locate and exhume her remains for transfer to consecrated ground.
According to POMOST, she will rest alongside other victims of World War II at the military cemetery in Nadolice Wielkie near Wrocław.
“We’ve been conducting this type of work for over 20 years. It includes transferring remains and identifying these individuals. All work is carried out with the consent of the Institute of National Remembrance and in consultation with the German side,” said Adam Białas from POMOST.
Sources : POMOST
