(JTA) — A second mass grave of Jews killed by Romanian troops during World War II was discovered in northeast Romania.
The human remains were found near the village of Popricani, the site of a massacre of Jews carried out by Romanian troops allied with the Nazis.
In 2010, a mass grave containing 16 bodies was found in a forest near Popricani. More than 100 Jewish adults and children are believed to have been buried at the site, the Elie Wiesel National Institute for Studying the Holocaust in Romania announced at the time based on eyewitnesses to the 1941 shooting.
A team of archaeologists now has unearthed the second site, according to the institute, and discovered the remains of at least 40 people, including 12 children – one as young as 2 years old, the French news agency AFP reported.
An investigation by military prosecutors found in 2014 that the Popricani massacre was carried out by Romanian troops, despite Romania’s denial that it participated in Holocaust atrocities.
Some 15,000 Romanian Jews were killed during WWII in mass shootings and in labor camps, or on trains heading to death camps.
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