Warsaw: Poland held a state burial on Monday for over 700 victims of Nazi Germany's World War II mass executions. The remains of these victims were recently discovered in the "Valley of Death" in northern Poland, decades after their deaths.

The ceremonies took place in the town of Chojnice, beginning with a funeral Mass at the local basilica. The victims were then laid to rest with military honors in a nearby cemetery. Their remains were placed in 188 small wooden coffins, each decorated with ribbons in Poland's national colors of white and red.

Relatives of the victims, an aide to President Andrzej Duda, local authorities, and top officials from the National Remembrance Institute, which led the exhumation process, attended the events.

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A soldier carries one of 188 coffins holding recently uncovered remains of more than 700 victims of Nazi Germany's World War II mass executions in northern Poland | Photo: AP

Bishop Ryszard Kasyna, who presided over the service, stated, "We want to restore the memory and dignity of the victims of the crimes in Chojnice." President Duda, in a message, emphasized that the victims were killed solely because they were Polish and vowed that their memory would always be honored.

The remains, including those of 218 asylum patients, were exhumed between 2021 and 2024 from several mass graves on the outskirts of Chojnice. Personal belongings and documents helped identify about 120 victims, who were executed in early 1945. Among them were teachers, priests, police officers, forestry and postal workers, and landowners.

Historians have found that the Nazis began executing Polish civilians soon after invading the country on September 1, 1939, in an effort to subdue the nation. The remains of another 500 victims come from a January 1945 execution, carried out as German forces were retreating. Bullets and shells from German handguns were found in the graves.

Experts will continue to search the area for more mass graves related to the so-called Pomerania Crime.

During the war, Poland lost 6 million citizens, one-sixth of its population, including 3 million Jews. The country also suffered significant damage to its infrastructure, industry, and agriculture.

AP