Poles to Exhume Mass Grave of Jews Killed in Massacre

WARSAW — With the main rabbi of the Polish capital watching, workers removed soil Thursday from a mass grave of Jews in preparation for an exhumation to determine how many people died.

Poland’s Jewish community reluctantly accepted the government’s decision to exhume the bodies of Jews massacred nearly 60 years ago in the northeastern town of Jedwabne as part of an inquiry that also will examine whether anyone should be criminally charged.

Jewish law allows exhumation only in very rare, extreme cases and under strict conditions.

The massacre was long remembered with a memorial that falsely blamed the Nazis for killing about 1,600 Jews in the village. A book published last year disclosed that the slayings were carried out by the victims’ Polish neighbors.