16 June 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

In Poland’s “Death Valley,” new evidence of Nazi atrocities

In October 1939, between 30,000 and 35,000 Polish intellectuals, Polish civilians, Jews and Czechs, and German prisoners from psychiatric institutions were murdered in the Polish province of Pomerania. One of the worst atrocities ever experienced in the country. Despite the Nazis’ efforts to cover up this crime, the research sheds light on the massacre 82 years later.

The Nazis murdered hundreds of citizens in the town of Chojnice, in one of the numerous horrific mass executions. The region was dubbed “the Valley of Death” or “Death Valley” by locals.

Archaeologist Dawid Kobiałka of the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, whose team used everything from archival documents and interviews with survivors to laser scans and excavations. The research results were published this week in the journal Antiquity.

“As a kid living near Death Valley, I used to play with my friends there,” Dr. Dawid Kobiałka, lead study author from the Polish Academy of Sciences, in his statement said sent to IFLScience. “Three decades later, I discovered a mass grave of approximately 500 Poles there.”

Death Valley”.
With surveys, excavations, and other archaeological methods, a team led by Dawid Kobiałka (center) located a mass grave in the woods of Poland’s “Death Valley.” D. FRYMARK

Wedding rings, bullets, and burned bones are just a few of the remains recently unearthed by archaeologists searching for proof of a heinous war crime committed in Nazi-occupied Poland.

From late 1939 to early 1940, the Nazis carried out a planned effort in which they murdered 12,000 people in the region around the hamlet of Piasica, earning Death Valley its name. Many historians saw this as a foreshadowing of the Nazi genocides to come. In 1945, the Nazis returned to Death Valley, near Chojnice, to conceal their atrocities. The bones of 168 of the victims were discovered at the location shortly after the war.

One of the weeding rings discovered in 2020 in Death Valley, which belonged to Irena Szydłowska. Photo: A. Barejko.
One of the wedding rings discovered in 2020 in Death Valley, which belonged to Irena Szydłowska. Photo: A. Barejko.

“It was commonly known that not all mass graves from 1939 were found and exhumed, and the grave of those killed in 1945 was not exhumed either,” explained Dr. Kobiałka.

Dr. Kobialka said that a woman’s wedding ring was among the artifacts found and added that “It was identified by Dr. Dariusz Burczyk from the Institute of National Remembrance, Poland as belonging to Irena Szydłowska, a courier of the Polish Home Army. Her family was informed about the finding and the plan is to return the ring to them.”

The team intends to utilize DNA analysis to more precisely identify the victims. The bones will be reburied in “Death Valley” when this is completed, and the site will become an official war cemetery.

Over Photo: An aerial imaginary of Death Valley. D. Frymark

Related Articles

Fingerprints Found on Orkney Pottery Belong to Young Men

14 June 2021

14 June 2021

Details of the two young guys whose fingerprints were discovered on a fragment of a clay pot dating back over...

9,300-year-old Gre Filla Mound in southeastern Turkey to be relocated

20 September 2022

20 September 2022

While public criticism continues due to the fact that Gre Filla, known as Diyarbakır’s Göbeklitepe, is under the dam, Diyarbakır...

New Archaeological Discoveries in Abu Dhabi shed light on Umm an-Nar Bronze Age culture (2700-2000 BCE)

1 February 2024

1 February 2024

New findings demonstrate the resilience and inventiveness of local Bronze Age societies (Umm an-Nar Bronze Age culture), as well as...

A 42,000-year-old pendant found in northern Mongolia may be the earliest known phallic art

20 June 2023

20 June 2023

An international team of researchers has found a pendant in northern Mongolia that may be the earliest known example of...

2-Meter-Long Stone Block Found at 12,000-Year-Old Boncuklu Tarla Site in Southeastern Türkiye

18 December 2024

18 December 2024

A remarkable 2-meter by 20-centimeter processed stone block was discovered during the archaeological excavations at Boncuklu Tarla (Beaded Field), which...

World’s Oldest Murder

14 February 2021

14 February 2021

Researchers found a mass grave in a cave in Spain, now known as Sima de los Huesos, or the Pit...

Experts believe the 7,000-year-old circular stone structures were once houses, complete with doorways and roofs in Saudi Arabia

16 July 2024

16 July 2024

Archaeologists have excavated eight ancient “standing stone circles” in Saudi Arabia that they say were used as houses. Eight of...

The Stolen Frescoes were Returned to the Pompeii Archaeological Park

20 May 2021

20 May 2021

Six frescoes ripped from the remains of ancient Roman villas years ago have been returned to the Pompeii archaeological site,...

1100-Year-Old Rare Sealed Amphora Discovered on Shipwreck off Türkiye Coast

27 April 2025

27 April 2025

Underwater excavations near Kaş, Antalya, on Turkey’s southwestern coast, have yielded fascinating insights into ancient Mediterranean seafaring and trade. A...

The Bronze Sacred Sanxingdui Tree Number 3 is Being Restored

9 April 2021

9 April 2021

According to the announcement of the Sanxingdui Museum, archaeologists have begun to assemble and restore the No. 3 bronze sacred...

Neo-Assyrian Writing Boards: The Role of Beeswax, Orpiment, and Carbon Black in 7th Century BC Writing Techniques

13 April 2025

13 April 2025

Recent scientific investigations into the writing boards excavated from the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud have shed new light on...

10,000-year-old Settlement Discovered in Turkey’s Şanlıurfa

25 June 2021

25 June 2021

A Neolithic settlement was discovered in the garden of a house in the Sayburç Neighborhood of Şanlıurfa’s Karaköprü district. News...

4750-year-old Megalithic Stone Plaza Discovered in the High Andes of Peru

15 February 2024

15 February 2024

Two anthropology professors from the University of Wyoming have discovered a prehistoric plaza high in the Andes, known as Callacpuma...

Archaeologists found a 2,000-year-old Roman road in Cluj-Napoca in northwest Romania

23 January 2023

23 January 2023

Archaeologists from the National Museum of the History of Transylvania have discovered a well-preserved 2,000-year-old Roman road in the city...