Mass graves

The original graves are part of the larger areas of disturbed ground that the post war Polish investigations and later archaeological investigations found. The closest match between original grave and what is there now, is at Chelmno, as the forest site was largely undisturbed.

Some details and dimensions here.

"Plot II [5]
The first grave: It has an irregular shape; the width of the northern part can be established at 8 m and narrows by 3 meters towards the south. Its length equals 62 m. Under the humus there is an ash layer, on top of which were found unburned objects belonging to the victims. While uncovering the grave it was noticed that the earth must have contained some active substances, for protective rubber gloves became destroyed. The presence of such substances was thought to be linked to experiments of destroying the corpses in the graves with quicklime, which however were discontinued as the method turned out to be ineffective.

Plot III
The second grave: The grave was found to have irregular width, ranging from about 7 m in the southeastern part, through about 10 m in the middle part, to only 4 m in the northeastern edge. While the new layout was being uncovered, the existence of burned-out objects and ashes as well as crushed human bones both burned and unburned was detected. A further part of the grave contains burned-out objects mixed with inclusions of ash and bone meal as well as lumps of burn waste and coke. The total length of the grave equals 254 m. The depth established on the basis of drills equals 3 m. The northern segment of the grave was assumed to be probably linked to different attempts to remove the corpses, burn them inside the graves or in primitive furnaces-hearths as well as to the process of crushing bones. In the other segment, bones ground into bone meal were found. During one of the traverse probing surveys a fragment of a smoked concrete pipe was found, suggesting that in some part of the grave corpses were burned.

Plot IV
The third grave: Its total length equals 174 m, width about 8 m. The contents of the grave include sandy soil with gravel, burn waste, ash, and crushed human bones.

The fourth grave: Its actual width equals 10 m, while its length is 182 m. It is filled with gray sandy soil mixed with inclusions of burn waste, ash and crushed bones.

The fifth grave: It is not one single grave but rather a line of pits filled with ashes. The total length of these 11 pits, located 2-3 m from one another, equals 161 m. The dimensions of the pits vary from 9x7.5 m to 15.50x8.50 m. They are filled with gray soil with a significant mixture of burn waste and crushed human bones. In the southern (SE) part of the grave the bones found in the pits used to be ground; those in further parts crushed. The archaeologist refers to judge Bednarz, according to whom the depth of the pits was about 4 m and their width 8-10 m. Even now the flora on the pits is more luxuriant, making this stretch more visible on the surface."