Mass graves found of 70 witnesses to Nazi atrocities

AT LEAST two mass graves containing dozens of people killed by the Nazis have been found on property used by the Austrian army, government officials said yesterday.

An army statement suggested some of the remains may be those of US pilots shot down and imprisoned during the Second World War.

Police Colonel Rudolf Gollia, an interior ministry spokesman, said his ministry planned talks with the owners of the site to discuss exhumation, adding it was not yet clear whether the army owned the property or was renting it.

The mass graves are located in bomb craters underneath an army sports field in the southern city of Graz. Officials said they contained about 70 bodies of victims killed by the SS to eliminate witnesses to Nazi atrocities shortly before Soviet troops arrived.

The graves were identified from wartime photos, taken from US bombers, showing open graves and bodies. US authorities made the images available at the request of Austrian historians tasked with researching war crimes at the site. A statement on the Austrian army website said up to 219 people were massacred at the location.