Poland Holds Reburial Ceremony for 700 Civilian Victims of World War II

Among the hundreds of people massacred in Chojnice in early 1945, reports indicate there were teachers, priests, police officers, foresters, and postal workers.

Decades after their deaths, Poland today held a state burial ceremony for more than 700 victims of Nazi Germany during World War II, in what is known as the “Valley of Death executions” in the north of the country.

The ceremony in the town of Chojnice began with a funeral mass at the basilica, followed by military honors at the cemetery of the victims of Nazism. The remains were placed in 188 small wooden coffins, wrapped in the white and red colors of the Polish flag.

Attending the ceremony were relatives of the victims, representatives of President Andrzej Duda, as well as local and state officials who had participated in the exhumation and documentation of the victims.

“We want our memories, the dignity of the victims of the crimes committed in Chojnice,” said the presiding bishop, Ryszard Kasyna.

Among the civilian victims, it is reported that there were 218 psychiatric patients who were exhumed between 2021 and 2024 from several mass graves on the outskirts of Chojnice. Documents and personal belongings helped identify 120 of them.

Historians say that shortly after the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, the Nazis carried out a series of executions of civilians with the aim of setting an example of terror to subdue the country.

Experts say they are continuing to search for other mass graves from this era.