A mass grave of more than 1,000 Jews shot in the head by the Nazis during World War II uncovered in Belarus in 2019. Source: Screenshot.

A mass grave of Holocaust victims has been discovered near the village of Logoza in Belarus. The grave included bones, clothes, and shoes of Nazi victims near Logoza in the Lahoysk district where more than 1,000 civilians were murdered during the 1941-1944 Nazi occupation. The majority of those killed in the area where the grave was found were women, children and elderly people.

The excavation is part of a criminal investigation into an alleged genocide against the population of Belarus during World War II and in the post-war period.

Specialists from the State Committee for Forensic Expertise are working on the excavation site, which lies about 22 miles from the capital, Minsk, in conjunction with a group from the General Prosecutor's Office. The chairman of the Investigative Committee, which works under the General Prosecutor's Office, said everything removed from the site was being inspected and recorded.

Some 1.6 million civilians died in Belarus at the hands of Nazis during the occupation, including between 500,000 to 550,000 Jews.   The victims were determined to have been Jewish due to the grave being in the site of an old ghetto.

To read more see:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9530131/Mass-grave-containing-bones-clothes-shoes-Nazi-victims-uncovered-near-Belarus-village.html

Jan Meisels Allen

Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee