PRESA INTERNATIONALA DESPRE GROAPA COMUNA DE LA POPRICANI

CNN

16 skeletons found in Romanian mass grave

By Cosmin Stan, For CNN

November 5, 2010 -- Updated 1653 GMT (0053 HKT)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The location is in eastern Romania
• The Jewish population has dwindled in that country
• Prosecutors have launched a probe

Bucharest, Romania (CNN) -- Romanian officials are trying to determine whether 16 skeletons found in a mass grave were Jews slain by the country's troops during World War II.
Archeologists embarked on a dig in Popricani village near the eastern town of Iasi to follow up on information that Jews were killed and buried there.
Two military prosecutors and one civilian prosecutor launched a probe after the remains were found, authorities said.
The prosecutors intend to use anthropological expertise to determine the age and sex of the remains, and experts will be looking for signs of violence.
The A.D. Xenopol Historical Institute and the Elie Wiesel National Institute for Holocaust Study in Romania discovered the graves Thursday.

Statistics show that almost 750,000 Jews were living in Romania before the war, but that population measures only 10,000 today.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Holocaust-era mass grave found in Romania

AP – Forensic experts examine human remains in a forest near Poprican, northern Romania, Tuesday, Nov. 2, …

By ALISON MUTLER Alison Mutler – Fri Nov 5, 9:34 am ET

BUCHAREST, Romania – A Holocaust-era mass grave containing the bodies of an estimated 100 Jews killed by Romanian troops has been discovered in a forest, researchers said Friday, offering further evidence of the country's involvement in wartime crimes.
The find in a forest near the town of Popricani, about 350 kilometers (220 kilometers) northeast of Bucharest, contains the bodies of men, women and children who were shot in 1941, the Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania said in a statement.
On Friday, riot police sealed off the area, not allowing anyone near the site, local reporters told The Associated Press.
The find offers evidence of pogroms against Jews in the region, scholars say, campaigns that were long minimized in a country whose official history taught that Germans were the sole perpetrators of the Holocaust.
Sketchy reports about the possibility of a mass grave in the forest began to appear in 2002, and local authorities began an investigation, which was suspended in the fall after nothing was found. Experts resumed the investigation at the site and began interviewing witnesses again in 2009, according to Romanian historian Adrian Cioflanca.
About 280,000 Jews and 11,000 Roma, or Gypsies, were killed during the pro-fascist regime of dictator Marshal Ion Antonescu, who was prime minister from 1940 to 1944 and executed by the communists in 1946. About 6,000 Jews live in Romania today.
Historians have documented several pogroms in Romania during World War II, including one in June 1941 in the northeastern city of Iasi, where up to 12,000 people are believed to have died as Romanian and German soldiers swept from house to house, killing Jews.
Those who did not die were systematically beaten, put in cattle wagons in stifling heat and taken to a small town, where what happened to them would be concealed. Of the 120 people on the train, just 24 survived.
Romania's role in the Holocaust remains a sensitive and highly charged topic. During communist times, the country largely ignored the involvement of Romania's leaders in wartime crimes.
The country's role in the Holocaust and the deportation of Jews were minimized by subsequent governments after communism collapsed in 1989.
In 2004, after a dispute with Israel over comments about the Holocaust, then-President Ion Iliescu assembled an international panel led by Nobel-prize winner Elie Wiesel to investigate the Holocaust in Romania.

REUTERS
World War Two mass grave of Jews found in Romania

05 Nov 2010 11:14:31 GMT

Source: Reuters

* Witnesses say more than 100 Jews killed in forest * Archaeologists have unearthed 16 bodies so far * Prosecutors launch investigation By Radu Marinas BUCHAREST, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Archaeologists have discovered a mass grave of Jews killed by Romanian troops during World War Two, the Elie Wiesel Institute said on Friday. Quoting witnesses, the institute said more 100 Jews -- men, women, children, and elderly people -- were buried at the newly discovered site in a forest area near the village of Popricani, close to the city of Iasi, in northeast Romania. "One of the witnesses saw the shooting of the Jews because the soldiers thought that he himself was Jewish and intended to also shoot him," the Elie Wiesel Institute's Romanian branch said in a statement. "He was spared only when the soldiers were convinced that he was Christian Orthodox." An international commission headed by Nobel laureate Wiesel said in 2004 that between 280,000 and 380,000 Romanian and Ukrainian Jews were killed in Romania and areas it controlled during World War Two as an ally of Nazi Germany. Many of Jews were slaughtered in pogroms such as the 1941 killing of almost 15,000 Jews in Iasi, or died in labour camps, or on death trains. The Elie Wiesel Institute said the grave site was in an area through which Romanian and German troops advanced at the start of their invasion of the Soviet Union. Archaeologists digging in a forest area called Vulturi, have so far unearthed 16 bodies, Romanian prosecutors said, adding that they had launched an investigation. Vulturi is the second place in Romania where a mass grave has been discovered since the war. In 1945, 311 bodies from three mass graves were exhumed in Stanca Roznovanu in Iasi. Adrian Cioflanca, coordinator of archaeological works at Vulturi said the victims were executed by Regiment 6, Mountain Rangers, which he said was also involved in massacres in what is now the neighbouring Republic of Moldova. Romania has only recently started to come to terms with its role in the extermination of Jews, admitting for the first time in 2003 that it took part. After Romania switched sides in the war in 1944, communist regimes did little to uncover the killings while nationalist governments after 1989 also kept them under wraps. Romania was home to 750,000 Jews before the war, but only 8,000-10,000 remain. (Additional reporting by Ioana Patran; Editing by Jon Hemming)

FRANCE PRESSE

Mass grave of Holocaust victims unearthed in Romania

AFP November 5, 2010 3:04 PM Be the first to post a comment

Human remains are seen after archaeologists uncovered a mass grave of Jews killed by Romanian troops during World War Two in a forest area near the village of Popricani, close to the city of Iasi, in northeast Romania.

BUCHAREST - A mass grave containing the bodies of Jews killed by the Romanian army during World War II has been discovered in a forest in northeastern Romania, the Elie Wiesel National Institute said on Friday.
"So far we exhumed 16 bodies but this is just the beginning because the mass grave is very deep and we only dug up superficially", Adrian Cioflanca, the researcher at the origin of the find, told reporters during a press conference.
The Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania and Cioflanca both said they believe up to 100 bodies could be buried in the mass grave.
The find, in the Vulturi forest in Propricani, about 350 kilometres (220 miles) northeast of Bucharest, is "further evidence of the crimes committed against Jewish civilians in Romania", Elie Wiesel institute head Alexandru Florian said.
"It is a another testimony of a shameful period in Romania's history", Aurel Vainer, representative for the Jewish community at the lower house of parliament said.
According to an international commission of historians led by Nobel Peace laureate Elie Wiesel, himself a Romanian-born Jew, some 270,000 Romanian and Ukrainian Jews were killed in territories run by the pro-Nazi Romanian regime during 1940-1944.
This is the first time an Holocaust-era mass grave has been discovered since 1945, when 311 corpses were exhumed from three locations in Stanca Roznovanu, close from Iasi, according to the Wiesel Institute.
"For a long period of time, no research was done because the subject was taboo under the communist regime (1945-1989) and also for some years after the return of democracy in 1989", Cioflanca told AFP.
Things improved after the Wiesel-led commission's report in 2004 and in 2006 president Traian Basescu called on his fellow countrymen to face up to the role played by the pro-Nazi regime of wartime Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu.
The mass grave in Propricani was discovered after Cioflanca, a historian, gathered testimonies of local inhabitants who saw the killings of Jews. One of the witnesses escaped after convincing the Romanian troops that he was an Orthodox Christian, Cioflanca said.
The victims could be Jews from the northeastern city of Iasi, where Romanian officials and military units, assisted at times by German soldiers, killed at least 8,000 during a pogrom in 1941, according to figures by the U.S. Holocaust memorial museum.
Many of them are buried in official common graves.
The researchers will now try to identify the bodies excavated.
"We will not be able to use DNA tests because we do not have any contact with potential relatives still alive and, to use DNA, you need to compare samples," Cioflanca said.
The exhumations are expected to go on after consultations with the authorities.
The military prosecutor's office has opened an investigation.
After the find, the Elie Wiesel Institute deplored the fact that some Romanian cities, like Sibiu, Pitesti and Timisoara, "still continue to celebrate the memory of Romanian officials who were war criminals and who took part in the persecution against Jews by giving their names to streets."

© Copyright (c) AFP

BBC

Holocaust grave' discovered in Romania
5 November 2010 Last updated at 23:03 GMT'

The mass grave is only the second such find in Romania since WWII

A mass grave containing the bodies of about 100 Jews killed during the Holocaust has been discovered in Romania, researchers say.

The burial pit was found in a forest about 350km (220 miles) north-east of the capital, Bucharest.

It is thought to contain the remains of men, women and children shot in 1941 by troops of the pro-Nazi Romanian regime.

Up to 380,000 Jews are believed to have been killed in Romanian-controlled territory during WWII.

The mass grave was found near the village of Popricani, near the city of Iasi, following testimonies from local inhabitants, who witnessed the killings.

"So far we exhumed 16 bodies but this is just the beginning because the mass grave is very deep and we only dug up superficially", Adrian Cioflanca, a Romanian historian involved in the dig, said.

It is only the second Holocaust-era mass grave discovered in Romania since 1945.

HAARETZ:

Researchers unearth Romania Holocaust-era mass grave

Elie Wiesel Institute says more than 100 Jews were buried at the newly discovered site in country's northeast. By Reuters Tags: Israel news Holocaust Romania Jewish world

Archaeologists have discovered a mass grave of Jews killed by Romanian troops during World War Two, the Elie Wiesel Institute said on Friday.

	Man visiting Holocaust memorial in Bucharest, 2009.
	Photo by: AP

Quoting witnesses, the institute said more 100 Jews -- men, women, children, and elderly people -- were buried at the newly discovered site in a forest area near the village of Popricani, close to the city of Iasi, in northeast Romania.
"One of the witnesses saw the shooting of the Jews because the soldiers thought that he himself was Jewish and intended to also shoot him," the Elie Wiesel Institute's Romanian branch said in a statement.
"He was spared only when the soldiers were convinced that he was Christian Orthodox."
An international commission headed by Nobel laureate Wiesel said in 2004 that between 280,000 and 380,000 Romanian and Ukrainian Jews were killed in Romania and areas it controlled during World War Two as an ally of Nazi Germany.
Many of Jews were slaughtered in pogroms such as the 1941 killing of almost 15,000 Jews in Iasi, or died in labour camps, or on death trains.
The Elie Wiesel Institute said the grave site was in an area through which Romanian and German troops advanced at the start of their invasion of the Soviet Union.
Archaeologists digging in a forest area called Vulturi, have so far unearthed 16 bodies, Romanian prosecutors said, adding that they had launched an investigation.
Vulturi is the second place in Romania where a mass grave has been discovered since the war. In 1945, 311 bodies from three mass graves were exhumed in Stanca Roznovanu in Iasi.
Adrian Cioflanca, coordinator of archaeological works at Vulturi said the victims were executed by Regiment 6, Mountain Rangers, which he said was also involved in massacres in what is now the neighbouring Republic of Moldova.
Romania has only recently started to come to terms with its role in the extermination of Jews, admitting for the first time in 2003 that it took part.
After Romania switched sides in the war in 1944, communist regimes did little to uncover the killings while nationalist governments after 1989 also kept them under wraps.
Romania was home to 750,000 Jews before the war, but only 8,000-10,000 remain.

THE WASHINGTON POST
MSNBC
CBS
HERALD SUN
JERUSALEM POST

Forensic experts take pictures of human remains in a forest near Poprican, northern Romania, Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010. A mass grave containing the bodies of an estimated 100 Jews killed by Romanian troops has been discovered in a forest in northeast Romania, holocaust researchers said Friday, Nov. 5, 2010. The Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania said in a statement that historians and archeologists unearthed the site in a forest near Popircani. (AP Photo/Evenimentul Zilei Daily, Vlad Stoicescu) (Vlad Stoicescu - AP)

Holocaust-era mass grave found in Romania

By ALISON MUTLER

The Associated Press

updated 11/5/2010 8:05:13 AM ET 2010-11-05T12:05:13

BUCHAREST, Romania — A Holocaust-era mass grave containing the bodies of an estimated 100 Jews killed by Romanian troops has been discovered in a forest, researchers said Friday, offering further evidence of the country's involvement in wartime crimes. The find in a forest near the town of Popricani, some 350 kilometers (220 kilometers) northeast of Bucharest, contains the bodies of men, women and children who were shot dead in 1941, the Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania said in a statement.
The find offers evidence of pogroms against Jews in the region, scholars say, campaigns that were long minimized in a country whose official history taught that Germans were the sole perpetrators of the Holocaust.
Sketchy reports about the possibility of a mass grave in the forest began to appear in 2002, and local authorities began an investigation, which was suspended in the fall after nothing was found. Experts resumed the investigation at the site and began interviewing witnesses again in 2009, according to Romanian historian Adrian Cioflanca.
Some 280,000 Jews and 11,000 Roma, or Gypsies, were killed during the pro-fascist regime of dictator Marshal Ion Antonescu, who was prime minister from 1940 to 1944 and executed by the communists in 1946. Romania today has only 6,000 Jews.
Historians have documented several pogroms in Romania during World War II, including one in June 1941 in the northeastern city of Iasi, where up to 12,000 people are believed to have died as Romanian and German soldiers swept from house to house, killing Jews.
Those who did not die were systematically beaten, put in cattle wagons in stifling heat and taken to a small town, where what happened to them would be concealed. Of the 120 people on the train, just 24 survived.

Romania's role in the Holocaust remains a sensitive and highly charged topic. During communist times, the country largely ignored the involvement of Romania's leaders in wartime crimes.
The country's role in the Holocaust and the deportation of Jews were minimized by subsequent governments after communism collapsed in 1989.
In 2004 after a dispute with Israel over comments about the Holocaust, then-President Ion Iliescu assembled an international panel led by Nobel-prize winner Elie Wiesel to investigate the Holocaust in Romania.
(This version corrects spelling of town to Popricani.)

CHINA POST

Holocaust-era mass grave found in Romanian forestBUCHAREST, Romania -- Holocaust researchers says a mass grave containing the bodies of an estimated 100 Jews killed by Romanian troops has been discovered in a forest in northeast Romania.

The Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania said in a statement Friday that historians and archeologists unearthed the site in a forest near the town of Popircani, 220 kilometers northeast of Bucharest. Witnesses say it contains the bodies of men, women and children who were killed by Romanian troops in 1941.
Some 280,000 Jews and 11,000 Roma, or Gypsies, were killed during the pro-fascist regime of dictator Marshal Ion Antonescu, who was prime minister from 1940 to 1944 and executed by the Communists in 1946.

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