Mass Grave Found

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By CBS

M60o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr Mass Grave Found

Published: Wed, January 23, 2008 - 3:59 pm
Last Updated: Wed, January 23, 2008 - 4:30 pm

Police have found about 40 human skeletons during construction work in the German city of Kassel, about 120 miles north-east of Frankfurt, according to local news reports.

They were unearthed in a mass grave found at a building site located between the University in Kassel and a petrol station.

Wolfgang Jungnitsch, Kassel police spokesman, said the bodies had been lying there for between 50 and 100 years.

First estimates suggested the skeletons may date back 50 to 100 years but experts say it is possible they may go back further, to the time around 1762, when Hesse took over the city of Kassel from the French.

"We really want to have more precise information, so that we will know in which era we have to search. At the moment, we are compiling the development of construction work here in the last 100 to 150 years," he said.

Police said they may find more human remains in the coming days.

Dirk Kleinhans of the Kassel Police said there appeared to be no end in sight.

"Yesterday, we thought there was an end in sight. And then today, we found another two graves. So, there's certainly no end in sight here. We have reopened several places, especially in this area here, and we've found more human skeletons," said Kleinhans, speaking on Tuesday.

"One cannot say exactly (how many bodies have been found) because the heads are partly missing or are damaged. But I would say approximately 40," he said.

Last week, there were police reports that three bodies had been found, but that number has increased almost daily.

Forensic workers excavating the bones were puzzled that no traces of clothes were found, and no jewelry, rings or other artifacts.

Historian Christian Bruno von Klobuczynski speculated that the bodies may have come from a forced labour camp, or perhaps even from a Gestapo (contraction of "Geheime Staatspolizei" - the secret state police of Nazi Germany) operation.

Forensic investigations will be carried out at the University of Giessen.

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