Polish archaeologists have recently identified skeletons of three Catholic nuns killed by Russian soldiers at the end of World War II.
The Russian army invaded Poland in 1944 after the occupation of Germany, hoping to gain control by imprisoning, banishing and killing Polish soldiers, civilians and members of its religious community.
Historical reports from 1945 – the year of the VE day – showed that the soldiers killed seven nuns from the order of St. Catherine of Alexandria. Researchers searched a Gdańsk site for the first time this summer, and the Polish Institute for National Remembrance (IPN) reported finding the remains of Sister Charytyna.
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According to an IPN statement, the further excavation at a local community cemetery in Orneta in October 2020 revealed the additional remains of who are presumably Sister Generosa, Sister Krzysztofora and Sister Liberia.
The three nuns all served in the Marian Hospital in Olsztyn where they worked as nurses in the winter of 1945.
Two areas have been designated for archaeological work after the team’s documentation on funerals, including the former residences of the St. Catherine Sisters.
However, the archaeologists would have to dig deeper and finding the nuns would have to be a “temporary excavation” of second burials.
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In December, IPN announced that they had tracked down the remains of the last three nuns: Sister Rolanda, Sister Gunhilda and Sister Bona.
During the excavation, the crew found religious artifacts, including ‘religious medals, cross pages, elements of religious clothing and religious rosaries’.
Pathologists from the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Gdańsk will now examine the skeletons to confirm their identity and gain a better understanding of their lives and the devastating nature of their deaths.
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Some facts are already known by IPN, which reported that Sister Generosa was locked in the attic of the hospital and ‘abused’.
Sister Krzysztofora died at 42 after soldiers stuck out her eyes, chopped off her tongue and stabbed her 16 times with bayonets. Sister Liberia was shot after leaving an air strike shelter.
IPN notes that Catholic clergy in Poland want to be blessed for the slain sisters St. Catherine.