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Human remains from Polish Jewish cemetery dug up for parking lot

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Published: 11 December 2017

Last updated: 4 March 2024

HUMAN REMAINS FROM an old Jewish burial ground in eastern Poland have been dug up and dumped in an empty lot to make way for the construction of an electrical substation and a parking lot, authorities said Thursday.

Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich described the excavation as the worst desecration of a Jewish cemetery he has seen during the 17 years he has been a rabbi in the country.

Jewish religious law holds that bodies only should be disturbed once they are buried under limited circumstances, such as saving lives.

A day after visiting the construction site in Siemiatycze, a small town that was about 60 percent Jewish before World War II, Schudrich showed The Associated Press photos of large mounds of earth with human bones, including a large part of a human skull.

FULL STORY Jewish cemetery in Poland dug up, bodies dumped to make way for parking lot (AP/Haaretz)

AND SEE
Polish Jews torn over government’s emphasis on righteous neighbours (Haaretz)
Christian with Jewish roots slated to become Poland’s New PM (Haaretz)

Photo: Human remains which had been removed from an old Jewish cemetery have been dumped in huge mounds in Siemiatycze, Poland (Aleksander Schwarz/AP)

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