Germany to excavate suspected Jewish grave

[April 21, 2009]  JAMLITZ, Germany (AP) -- German authorities say excavation will begin this week on a site suspected of holding the remains of more than 750 Jewish prisoners slain by the Nazis in the final days of the war.

Brandenburg state interior minister Joerg Schoenbohm says the search will begin Wednesday, the 64th anniversary of the liberation of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

The mass grave is suspected to be on the grounds of the former Lieberose work camp, a Sachsenhausen subcamp located some 75 miles (120 kilometers) southeast of Berlin.

On Feb. 2, 1945, SS guards executed some 1,200 inmates on the camp's grounds. Some remains were discovered in 1971 in a mass grave in a nearby village but further searches were delayed for years due to a conflict with the land's former owner.

[Associated Press]

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