Battle of Waterloo skeleton, ashes of 8000 Nazi victims found

It was a banner week for grisly discoveries. In Belgium, the remains of just the second full skeleton from the Battle of Waterloo were unearthed. In Poland, the discovery of two mass graves containing the ashes of at least 8000 people was announced.

The remains of the soldier from the Battle of Waterloo were said to be found in remarkable condition. A team of British veterans and active-duty soldiers, working with the non-profit group Waterloo Uncovered, found the skeleton while working with archaeologists.

The site of the dig is in an area that served as a field hospital more than 200 years ago. Experts said this could be the first British corpse to be excavated since the end of the battle, one of the bloodiest in the history of the British army.

The Battle of Waterloo was a massive confrontation between French forces, led by Napoleon Bonaparte, and the armies of the United Kingdom, led by the Duke of Wellington.

In Poland this week, special investigators announced the discovery of two mass graves in the Bialuty Forest, about 100 miles north of Warsaw. The victims were mostly inmates of a nearby Nazi prisoner camp.

The graves consisted of two pits, ten feet deep and filled with at least 17 tons of ashes. It’s estimated at least 8000 people are buried there.

Investigators with Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance discovered the graves. The institute said most of the victims were likely Polish elites, military and resistance fighters, or Jewish inmates.

Starting in March 1944, the Nazis began secretly burying the bodies in the forest. Karol Nawrocki, the head of the Institute of National Remembrance, said the bodies “were brought out, burned and pulverized in order to prevent this crime from ever being known, in order to prevent anyone taking responsibility for it. These efforts were not successful.”

The institute investigates Nazi and Communist crimes against Poles and can bring charges against suspects if they are still alive.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.