Between July 14 and 25, 2025, a team from the Institute of National Remembrance’s Office of Search and Identification conducted the third phase of search operations in the Kampinos National Park, near the village of Palmiry, where German occupiers carried out mass executions of Polish citizens between 1939 and 1941. Post-war exhumation efforts led to the discovery of 22 mass graves, from which the bodies of 1,734 victims were recovered. They were buried in the cemetery-mausoleum established in 1948 in Palmiry.
The decision to resume investigations was based on an analysis of historical records, which suggest that not all remains were recovered during the original exhumations. One such example is documentation regarding the discovery of the bodies of 14 additional individuals at the bottom of one of the graves, found three years after the official end of the original work, during activities connected to the construction of the memorial site.
The fieldwork was preceded by a detailed analysis of aerial photographs from 1947, which allowed for the precise identification of post-exhumation burial pit locations.
During the operation, two of the identified pits were excavated, and a previously unknown individual grave was also uncovered. These efforts led to the recovery of a significant number of disarticulated human remains and fragments of skeletons in anatomical arrangement-likely overlooked during post-war exhumations due to the advanced decomposition of the bodies and the challenging working conditions. Among the preserved artifacts were personal items belonging to the victims-combs, eyeglasses, toothbrushes, a leather handbag, a coin purse, shoes, and fragments of clothing. Wedding rings and coins were also found.
All recovered remains will undergo detailed anthropological examination, while the discovered artifacts will be subject to conservation and thorough analysis.