WWII Soldiers Found in Riga

In a discovery resembling something out of Indiana Jones, the remains of 600 soldiers have been discovered beneath a school playground in Riga. The playground, located on Kartupelu Street in the Pardaugava suburb, is now the site of a massive excavation effort led by the "Legenda" search unit, which has been working for days to exhume the bodies. The approximately 600 soldiers had fought on the side of the Axis powers during the Second World War, and were captured and made prisoners of the Soviet Army until their deaths. The soldiers died between 1944 and 1949, and their bodies were buried in a mass grave. While not all of the soldiers' bodies have been recovered yet, the authorities have already identified some and will be able to identify the rest of the soldiers thanks to records from military hospitals kept during the War. Though the soldiers fought on the side of the Nazis, their ethnicities vary, and include Latvians, Germans, Poles, Austrians, Slovaks, Belgians, French and even one soldier from Tatarstan.

The remains of the soldiers will be re-buried at the German cemetery in the town of Pinki, in a special cemetery for Nazi soldiers who perished in Latvia during the War. A memorial plaque for these 600 victims will be put up in Pinki as well. Luckily for the students resuming school in the autumn, once all the remains have been removed from the dug-up playground, it will be levelled again and grass will be replanted on the field.