A mass grave containing the remains of nearly 200 prisoners of war from World War II was recently unearthed in Stargard, Poland, revealing the grim reality of one of Nazi Germany’s largest POW camps.

Archaeological researchers, led by Professor Andrzej Ossowski from the Department of Medicine at the Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, identified the burial site at Stalag II D camp through careful analysis of aerial photographs.

The mass grave, dating to December 1941, was filled over several days and may contain thousands more remains. While primarily containing Soviet soldiers, researchers also identified Polish and Belgian prisoners among the dead.

Rather than execution, evidence suggests the prisoners fell victim to epidemic diseases, particularly typhus, which spread rapidly through the camp.

“You don’t have to shoot the prisoners, you don’t have to gas them, it’s enough not to feed them and place them in such conditions that infectious diseases will spread, they will be treated badly, and they will die en masse,” Professor Ossowski explains.

Hirstorical records indicate that between ten and several dozen prisoners perished daily at Stalag II D, with total casualties reaching approximately 6,000 during its years of operation. In the summer of 1941, the camp’s ranks swelled when captured Red Army soldiers were brought to the facility.

As part of a four-year archaeological investigation in Stargard, the excavation also revealed that the camp’s victims included civilians forcibly displaced from Warsaw following the 1944 uprising. Among these were women, children, and youth, with estimates suggesting between 2,000 to 6,000 civilian casualties.