Both single and mass graves were uncovered at the Orthodox cemetery in Poland’s Lublin province, according to the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory. It said the victims died in attacks by units of the Home Army and the Peasant Battalions.
Staff from Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance are on site as observers, spokesman Rafał Kościański told the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
“The Poles are observing how this work is being carried out, what its effect is, what the methodology is and whether it is being done in line with Polish law”, Kościański said.
He said it was too early to say how many remains are in the graves. That can be determined only after the burial pits are fully uncovered and some exhumation work is done, he said.
The Ukrainian institute said more than 300 people were killed in Łasków on March 10, 1944. Ukrainian and Polish historians have identified 327 residents who died that year, though some put the toll at about 350. Further research could settle the figure, the institute said.
The search began October 6 and is being carried out for the institute by Dola, a municipal company from the Ukrainian city of Lviv. It received Polish permission August 31. The work is part of arrangements agreed by a Ukrainian-Polish working group on dignified burials.
“Our shared task is to ensure the dignified commemoration of all the dead, regardless of their origin and nationality”, institute head Oleksandr Alfiorov said. “True reconciliation begins with respect for the memory of every person”.
Dola head Sviatoslav Sheremeta said the findings matched accounts from former Laskow residents. The company plans to keep looking for burial sites and later to carry out exhumations, rebury the dead and commemorate them, he said.
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Source: Polish Radio, UIPN