Evidence Found of Jewish Holocaust Victims at the Nazi Death Camp in Sobibór

It is estimated that 11 million people, 6 million of Jewish descent, were killed during the Holocaust of World War II.¹ In a recent survey,² it was found that two-thirds of young American citizens  (18-39) were unaware of this tragedy and almost half could not name a single concentration camp.  Clearly, we need to do more to educate the world on this tragedy which occurred just two generations ago.

Diepenbroek et al. recently published a paper citing evidence of Jewish remains at the Sobibór death camp in Poland. Ten sets of remains were discovered that were originally assumed to be from Polish victims of the communist regime. However, DNA analysis revealed that they were, instead, from Ashkenazi Jews who were murdered by the Nazi regime.³

Lineage marker analysis was performed on both haploid marker systems, mitochondrial and Y-chromosomal DNA. The two independent laboratories involved in this study (Szczecin, Poland, and Innsbruck, Austria) performed initial Sanger as well as confirmatory and extending mitogenome Massively Parallel Sequencing using the Applied Biosystems Precision ID mtDNA Whole Genome Panel.  The Y-chromosomal lineages were investigated using the Applied Biosystems YFiler Plus PCR Amplification Kit, their haplogroup status was estimated with the Nevgen Y-DNA Haplogroup Predictor and confirmed by direct Sanger sequencing of the signature mutations. The analysis of both maternal and paternal lineage markers indicated that these remains were similar, is some cases even indistinguishable, to lineages found within the Ashkenazi Jewish population. After this discovery, the remains were reburied, following prescribed Jewish rituals, at the place of their discovery.

Please read the open access article for more on the history and excavation of the  Sobibór camp, along with the details of the genetic analysis methods. And you can watch Dr. Diepenbroek in this webinar as she discusses her study.

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For research, forensic or paternity use only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

Sources:

1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/11-million-not-6-million-died-in-the-holocaust/2017/05/26/6fdcc270-3f1c-11e7-b29f-f40ffced2ddb_story.html

2. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/16/holocaust-us-adults-study

3. https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13059-021-02420-0