Exhumation work in Lviv completed: remains of 130 Polish Army and Wehrmacht soldiers found. PHOTOS
Exhumation work at Lviv’s old Holoskivske Cemetery was completed on September 28. The excavations uncovered 113 complete sets of remains of Polish Army soldiers killed in September 1939, as well as the remains of 17 Wehrmacht servicemen.
The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance reported this, according to Censor.NET.
Details of the research
The work began on August 25, 2026, with the aim of exhuming, examining, and subsequently reburying the remains of Polish Army soldiers.
Scattered remains whose affiliation has not yet been established were also found. They likely belong to two additional people.
In addition, numerous items were discovered during the exhumation, including military identification tags, medallions, buttons and other uniform components, personal belongings, cartridge cases and other items.
The research was carried out by Ukrainian Memory LLC with the participation of Polish experts — staff from the Institute of National Remembrance of Poland and the Medical University of Wrocław. The work took place in accordance with the agreements of the Ukrainian-Polish Working Group on National Remembrance.
More about Holoskivske Cemetery
- According to the Institute of National Remembrance, fighting between Wehrmacht and Polish Army units took place on the outskirts of Lviv in September 1939. One of the battle sites was the village of Holosko Velyke, near Lviv. Polish Army servicemen killed in the fighting were buried in a mass grave in the village cemetery. In 1958, Holosko Velyke became part of the city of Lviv.
- In 2019, searches were conducted in the former village of Holosko Velyke, within the grounds of the old Holoskivske Cemetery, to locate the remains of Polish Army servicemen killed in September 1939. The searches revealed indications of burial sites.
- On June 4, 2026, permission was granted to exhume and examine the remains that had been located.
