Wiesel Institute: New mass grave in Popricani, additional argument that Holocaust existed in Romania

The unearthing by a team with the Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania (INSHR) of a new mass grave in the Vulturi forest of the Popricani commune in the northeastern County of Iasi is an additional argument that the Holocaust existed in Romania, on Friday said the head of the INSHR, Alexandru Florian. "We manage to fill in a page in Romania's history that has gaps or blank spaces and we manage to bring an additional argument that the Holocaust existed in Romania, that those accountable or the main accountability belonged to the institutions of Romania, that a part of the wrongdoers, as I have told you, were tried and endured the rigors of Justice immediately after WWII," the INSHR director asserted on the occasion of displaying the outcome of the research project for the identification of a new mass grave in the Vulturi forest, Valea Climoaiei, in the Popricani commune. The project, coordinated by Elisabeth Ungureanu unfolded in June 2019. Ungureanu specified that under the guidance of geophysicist Dan Stefan, in June 24 - 28 geophysical prospection was carried on 3,600 sqm. Since the aimed area was full of metal fragments, being a battlefield area back in the 1940s, the method was labeled as inefficient because of the several false signals it gave, therefore the team continued to dig manually and mechanically. When corroborating all the data - archive information, field input and oral history interviews - on 29 June at rd 0.70 m depth the first osteological fragments were identified, namely two shins, a femur, a mandible fragment and a fragment of a show sole, the researcher explained. Ungureanu added that after unearthing the human remains, the Elie Wiesel Institute has notified the Military Prosecutor's Office and a criminal investigation was immediately opened, in the following days a team was set up of staff with the Emergency Situations Inspectorate, the Forensics Bureau with the Iasi County Police Inspectorate, the Iasi Gendarmes County Inspectorate, two pathologists, prosecutors with the Iasi Military Prosecutor's Office and archaeologist Florentina Marcusi. The criminal investigation at the scene was headed by the first deputy prosecutor Irinel Rotariu. Following the preliminary data at the scene, as many as 25 victims were counted, of whom 12 adults, four young and eight children. For the 25th victim, the existing data so far could not allow the age identification, and in the following period the state authorities involved will conduct several examinations, including a forensic one. Ungureanu has also presented a film with testimonies of a witness, Lucica Baltaru, who told the team how the Jews were brought from Iasi and then killed.AGERPRES(RO - author: Daniel Popescu, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN - author: Maria Voican, editor: Simona Iacob)