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The official ceremony was attended by representatives of the Presidency, the Government, the municipality of Šilutė, which took charge of the works, representatives of churches of various denominations and delegates from embassies.
Chancellor Linas Linkevičius says that Macikai is one of the few places in Europe, unique in the sense that the systems of two totalitarian regimes intersected in this place: there was a gulag and a Nazi camp.
“Here are those scars on the face of our country, the legacy of totalitarian regimes. It manifests itself in various ways: falsification of history, other things. This is what happens with the dead, their memory. Traditions of respecting the graves of the dead, fixing, dying especially, and here it is important that there are people of about 20 nationalities (both nationalities in the Macikai camp, red.past). Apparently this is the beginning … Well, it happened, actually quite disappointing that the graves weren’t fixed. There will be a lot of work to do here. Perhaps there is a historical memory center, perhaps an obelisk for all the victims. There will be a place to honor them, “said L. Linkevičius.
VIDEO: Bodies
The Šilutė district municipality spent almost half a million euros in state aid for the burial. A piece of land near the Macikai cemetery was specially designated for the burial of the remains of prisoners of war. The men imprisoned in the camp lay here, both young men as young as 15-16 and older men, up to about 45 years old.
According to the head of the investigation, archaeologist Ingrida Čičiurkaitė, the men died non-violently. Their deaths are associated with exhaustion and various diseases: poorly treated fractures, as well as lung diseases, typhoid fever.
“A lot of inflammation in the neck, signs of meningitis, untreated lung diseases, inflammatory, shows exhaustion, chronic diseases, especially of the lungs,” said the woman.
Found under the road
In the village of Armalėnai, the remains were discovered under a road. By showing the place, I.Čičiurkaitė demonstrated how the remains were found: two rows along the road that runs along the house in the settlement. The remains were discovered in 2011 when the water supply to a private house was built. Finding several skulls revealed that hundreds of POWs buried here some 80 years ago, around 1942-1943, lay here. These were buried in mass graves of 6 to 26 dead each. Some were buried correcting the position of their arms and legs, while others were thrown into the grave in a messy manner.
Archaeologists have excavated the remains of more than 1,120 soldiers. In the near future, some 40 more remains will be excavated, which have been found under the garage, so the foundation will have to be reinforced to complete the work.
I.Čičiurkaitė and his team had to separate the bones of each person and put them in coffins. There have been cases where you have had to measure and measure the bones of the same person.
Findings detected
Archaeologist Rokas Kraniauskas says finds have been found in tombs, although they are not abundant.
“The main mass of buttons on the military uniform. Most Lithuanians with a sword on the buttons, several Belgian buttons with a lion, the lion with a sword in hand. A small Soviet-Polish union with a pentagonal star. The fact that parts of uniforms. Probably from the millis, because the buttons are quite large, there are parts of the woolen cloth, ”said the archaeologist.
Personal items were also found in the mass graves: several crosses, rings, spoons, pencils, other soap, and a woolen glove.
Prisoner of war tokens were also found with the camp number and the prisoner of war number. 60 percent did. buried prisoners. Detecting files by numbers would allow people to be identified, but it is not yet known whether these documents have survived.
The individuals were buried after the systematization of the information, so that in the future, if identities were established, the location of the grave of each buried prisoner could be traced.
According to I.Čičiurkaitė, at that time the prisoners were buried in specially designated places – in one place American prisoners, in another – British, the nationalities were not mixed.
Although not exactly identified, the Soviet POWs are believed to have been buried at Armalėnai. The buttons detected do not allow identification with nationality, since there is evidence that militias could have been distributed to them regardless of nationality.
Some of the finds can already be seen in the Macikai museum. A part of the museum is housed in a building that once housed a disobedient prisoner and prisoners of war incarcerated.
J. Andriejauskaitė / 15min photo / Museum in operation in Maciques, where once there was a prisoner for having prisoners
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