At the edge of the campus of the University of Kassel a new building should be constructed. It will be 200 millions Euros expensive. But now the work on the construction site can’t go on. Two weeks ago workers found human skeletons buried there. Until now 60 skeletons have been found. 18 young policemen and students worked from morning till evening to excavate the bones carefully without destroying valuable information.
In one area the skeletons are placed side by side, in another area only a few steps away it looks as if they were just thrown into a pit. The skeletons are mostly intact apart from the upper ones, whose skulls are broken. The police and the scientists suppose that the huge construction vehicles might have destroyed them by driving over them when they were only covered with a thin layer of soil.
Very special is the fact that there are no remains of clothes, jewelry, toys, shoes, items made of metal or simply buttons near the bodies. It seems as if these people have been buried totally naked. The teeth of the bodies are remarkably white and complete, so they have been young when they died. Among the bodies are only three women and no children. At the fence around the huge pit mostly a crowd of people can be found. Most of them are very quiet. They use to ask: „ Did they already found out, what people are buried here?“ Some of the people have laid down flowers at the fence and one of them has written a letter in which he wishes that the dead people might get a worthy burial and might rest in peace there.
Vivitur in genio, cetera mortis erunt. Translation: Our spirits will survive, all other is mortal. This is a picture from the famous anatomist Vesalius.
In fact, the most important question is now, who the dead people have been, why they died and if it may be a crime. Well it’s different from series like „Crossing Jordan“, the specialists in forensic medicine are trying to find out more about the time when these people have died, but it is very difficult. So a lot of theories have been made in the meantime, which all aren’t completely satisfying:
In the Middle Ages the burial place was directly in front of the city wall, so some people thought the skeletons might be the remains of soldiers who died during battles in front of the city walls. But this theory is obviously not right, because no skeleton shows any damages or defects which might have been the consequence of a violent death.
After the city walls have been broken down a sick bay came into being after 1800 at this place, which had to disappear because of an artillery-barrack with horse-stables in about 1870. The today found mass-graves are exactly placed under the barrack yard of that time. Not too far away there was a former cemetery and a military cemetery. Mostly people have been buried at these cemeteries. Only in some cases there have also been burials outside the cemeteries: Felons, suicides and unchristened people. But this stopped at the beginning of the 19th century.
Later the Henschel-locomotive-plant grew in the neighborhood of the mysterious gravesite and at some time it grew so big, that the barracks were broken down and new factory buildings came into being at this place. It is known that already at that time bones have been found there when new factory buildings have been constructed. Until March 1945 locomotives and tanks have been produced there. So some people supposed that maybe prisoners of war or forced laborers have been buried there. But there is nothing to be found in the archives, even though burying outside of cemeteries or even killing of 60 or more people never remains unnoticed. Two witnesses who spent their entire youth near this town-area deny any manslaughter at this place. They would have noticed that, because they grew up near the grave-site and they did a lot of research about this time and the town-history in common when they were grown-ups.
Other people believe that the skeletons are the remains of victims of the bomb attacks against Kassel. But in this case nobody would have removed their clothes before burying them.
Also other crimes during the last period of the war seem to be impossible, because the killing of people of such high number can’t kept secret and all known cases of murder have been punished after the war like the case of 78 Italians who have been shot because of theft of foodstuff. The murderers of the Italians have been punished after 1945. After WW II a car dealer constructed his shop there. Since then the skeletons have been buried 2 meters under the floor of this building.
The specialists in forensic medicine are now sure that the skeletons are much, much older than 50 years, so they are no victims of WW II and there is no need for the criminal investigation department to carry on their investigations. Because of the discoloration of the bones and the fact that no skeleton shows any dental treatment (before WW II only rich people could afford dental treatment) and because of chemical examination of the bones the grave site is no longer a place for investigations by the police.
But there is already a new theory of the historian Christian Presche. He believes that the bodies are victims of a typhus-epidemic, which raged in 1814 in Kassel. But nobody can make sure that the people are really died of typhus, because such diseases don’t leave any traces at the bones. But why are not children among the victims of such epidemic? Maybe they have been buried elsewhere? Presche has found an old newspaper article of 1866 in which reports about the epidemic in 1814:
Because a lot of troops came into the town in 1814, a very malicious kind of typhus raged in Kassel. Many inhabitants died at that time. Because the military-hospital of Kassel, the Charite, could not care for so much ill soldiers, a nearby barrack was also used as a military-hospital. Nowhere else have been died more soldiers than in this barrack. Because they couldn’t carry all bodies downstairs any more, they installed a huge slide at a window leading directly to a wagon, which transported the bodies to the cemetery on the area of the barrack. The victims have been buried totally naked.
So far the old newspaper article. This would match perfectly. It would be a plausible explanation for the age of the bodies (only young people) and for the fact, that only three women and no children are among them: The women might have been nurses. First they might have buried the bodies side by side with clasped hands in some of the mass graves, but when the disease raged more and more and after the construction of the slide for the bodies they were only thrown into a pit without any care about how they are lying there. Or the bodies have been removed later when there wasn’t enough space for new burials.
What shall happen now to the about 60 (or more) skeletons? In the juridical point of view these skeletons are no longer bodies, because they are older than 50 years. So the University is responsible for what will happen to the bones. At the moment it seems as if the University and the Community of Kassel will both feel responsible for the skeletons and it seems as if they will be bury them at the town-cemetery. Mayor Junge said: „They have been inhabitants of our town. We do have a historical memory.“ Because the police is no longer responsible for further investigations about the death of these people, the University will take over further investigations. And there will be a memorial for these people in the new building of the University. The burial will already been next week as I read in the newspaper.
Watch this video about the work on the grave-site. You needn't understand German, just look: 60 skeletons found near the University. Click here for pictures.
Because of the copyright I don't have I can't show you any pictures here at my blog. So you may use the links for pictures and videos.
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Picture: Vesalius; skeleton; public domain
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