Crimea: Mass Graves of Nazi Victims Dug Up

Via the Moscow Times:

A Russian Jewish organization has appealed to Crimea's authorities to take action after vandals dug up mass graves of Nazi victims on the peninsula, leaving human bones and remains of clothing strewn on the ground.

"To desecrate the grave of those slain by the Nazis is sacrilegious and heinous to the utmost degree," the Jewish News Agency quoted the head of the Federation of Russian Jewish Communities, Alexander Boroda, as saying Wednesday. The attack also comes as Russia prepares to celebrate 70 years since the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, he noted.

Vandals dug four holes — each about 1.8 meters deep — on the site of mass graves outside the city of Simferopol, the report said, citing representatives from Crimea's heritage preservation committee. Fragments of human bones and the remains of clothing and shoes excavated from the grave were also found nearby.

The remnants belonged to Jews, Roma and Soviet prisoners of war who were shot in mass executions by the Nazis in late 1941 and whose bodies were dumped into an anti-tank trench off the Simferopol-Feodosia highway, the report said.