Roman Meyer photography

Bone hunters
Bone Hunters
In September 2014 ukrainian workers where doing some groeund work for
our house in Siadlo Dolne/Poland, they discovered human bones.
Because they wanted to keep working, they dug a new hole a few meters
away, burying the bones with vodka and bread as it is a custom.
My wife wanted the human remains to be properly buried.
So the workers went on digging and finding more and more bones. My
wife then went to the local police. The police officer in charge told her that
she has 2 options:
1. She could bury the bones in the forest.
2. The police would initiate an investigation which would delay our
construction project for up to 6 months.
The policeman told her that the decision was with her, but he did not officially
tell her. He also said that there was fierce fighting in this area before
the end of the war and that they had already dug up 40 sacks of human
bones. The village is located close to a bridge which crosses the Oder.
The German troops fought for 4 days 20.4. until 23.4.1945 against the
Russians around this bridge. In the village of Siadlo Dolne / Niederzahden
there were 650 dead and countless injured.
The next day we found even more bones and also skulls. A total of 4 skeletons
lying on top of each other, in a mass grave.
After another call to the police, the policeman said we should inform a
priest and have him bury the bones.
We visited the local priest, who said he could bury the bones, but he needed
an official death certificate issued by the local authority.
At the local comunity we were told that they would issue the death certificates,
but in order to do so, they needed the papers of the deceased and
a medical certificate of the cause of death.