Soviet Union: “Mass graves of thousands”

An East German newspaper today reported the discovery of mass graves of thousands of people, including civilians, who died at a former Soviet prison camp set up after World War II.

The dead included Nazi war prisoners, including members of the paramilitary [sic] SS, officials of the Nazi Party and soldiers in Hitler's army, the paper, Berliner Zeitung, said.

But among the victims were “many innocent people,” including children, the paper reported. The youngest victims was 12 years old, it quoted a surviving inmate as saying. There was no word on how the victims died.

A local historian discovered the remains this month at the site of the camp, which was in Fuenfeichen, 80 miles north of East Berlin. It was run by the N.K.V.D. state security force, a forerunner of the K.G.B., the report said.

The camp was in operation from April 1945 until October 1948. Many inmates were taken to the Soviet Union when the Soviet Army closed the camp and were never heard from again, the report said.

Source: New York Times, March 25, 1990