What is our Goal?

Yahad-In Unum’s largest initiative is to locate, collect evidence and document every site of mass execution of the Jews in Eastern Europe

You mention both “sites of mass execution” and the “graves” – are these in the same place?

Yes, the Jews were shot and buried in the same location. The Germans dug a ditch somewhere in the town (or, very often commissioned village residents to dig it for them.) They then gathered the village’s Jewish residence and shot them individually so that they fell directly into the ditch. The Nazis covered the ditch, with many of the victims still alive, and left without any marking of what had occurred. We are working to find these sites, many of them unknown from any archive.

Why are these graves missing?

The Nazis made sure to destroy as much evidence as they could before they left the village. Over the years, land grew over these graves, and many of them are now hidden under gardens and parks. The only ones who really know the location of these graves are those who watched the massacres occur.

For years, nobody ever thought that many of the villagers, children at that time, saw the executions. Now, through Yahad-In Unum’s efforts, these witnesses finally have a comfortable platform in which to speak. Because Father Desbois conducts our interviews, many of the witnesses, who are mostly not Jewish, feel more at ease telling all these horrors to a Priest than they otherwise would.

With their testimony, our team is given the direction and information it needs to locate the missing graves and to establish the facts.

Why is it so important to find these graves?

The Nazis took as many efforts as possible to ensure that no one knew about these graves; Yahad-In Unum believes it is necessary to deny the Nazis success, even if after the fact. We believe that is vital to both history and for our future that no genocide goes unnoticed.

Further, these Jewish victims were buried without honor. Yahad-In Unum believes it important to find these graves so that they can finally give the innocents the proper Jewish burial they deserve.

Finally, without locating these graves, it will be very hard to accumulate the evidence we need to prove that the massacre occurred. This evidence is necessary, as it source for historians in future generations, and it is used to counter arguments of Holocaust deniers.

What is our process in finding these graves?

Our process is both scientific and comprehensive. Several researchers are looking on the Soviet and German archives, these archives are then treated, translated and studied to become our historical bases to our research team to go in these countries and to interview the witnesses to find the exact localization of the graves (many of them unknown in the archives) then to our on-the-ground crew starts its search for the physical evidence. Once we locate the grave, we have ballistic experts who analyze the bullets and casings that we collect as the mean proof that the shooting took place.

The team returns to Paris where they transfer the video testimonies to DVD, translate them to French and English and archive the physical evidence. We will soon be housing all of our evidence in a one-of-a-king  study center in Paris.

Why is there a deadline for this project?

The surviving witnesses are in their late 70’s and early 80’s, and their first-person accounts of history will soon no longer be available. The window of opportunity to collect the evidence is rapidly closing. Without eyewitness testimony, it will be impossible to identify the location of the mass graves and collect the evidence of the genocide. Please help support us, so that we have the funds to complete our urgent and important mission.