Construction Workers Discover World War II–Era German Burial Ground in Estonia

Around 35,000 German soldiers died in Estonia during World War II while fighting Soviet troops, according to the German War Graves Association. To this day, construction workers still occasionally find their graves. While building a memorial to victims of communism in a park near Estonia's capital city of Tallinn, laborers recently discovered the remains of around 100 German soldiers, Deutsche Welle reports.

The bodies were buried separately instead of in a mass grave. Experts think the burial ground is part of a German military cemetery, and say it's unclear whether more bodies remain to be found. Archaeologists will survey the area before construction resumes, and the deceased soldiers will be reburied at an already established German cemetery nearby, according to Estonian broadcasting unit ERR.

The communist Soviet Union absorbed the Baltic countries during the war, but they were also periodically occupied by Nazi Germany. Decades later, in 1995, Estonia and Germany signed an agreement that allowed the latter country to restore and operate war cemeteries and memorials in Estonia commemorating their fallen soldiers.

Twelve German cemeteries exist today in Estonia (the one in the above image is located in Narva), but reburial efforts are still likely far from over: Between 3000 and 4000 German soldiers were interred around Tallinn alone, the BBC notes, and an additional 10,000 or so prisoners of war also died in labor camps during the war, in addition to soldiers killed on Estonian territory. Many of these graves were either unmarked or destroyed, according to the German War Graves Association.

[h/t Deutsche Welle]