Poland drought: Jewish tombstones and fighter jets uncovered as rivers run dry

[malaise]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/26/poland-drought-jewish-tombstones-and-fighter-jets-uncovered-as-rivers-run-dry
<snip>
As river levels in Poland fall to record lows in a prolonged drought, Jewish tombstones and a Soviet fighter plane with the remains of its pilots have been found in the riverbank, evidence of Poland’s tortured 20th-century history.

Those discoveries follow the findings of stone fragments from the early 20th-century Poniatowski bridge across the Vistula river in Warsaw, which the Germans blew up in 1944 as they crushed the Warsaw uprising. The bridge was rebuilt after the war.

“The Vistula river is hiding no end of secrets. They are everywhere,” said Jonny Daniels, head of the Jewish foundation From the Depths, who waded into a shallow area of the Vistula on Tuesday, picking up fragments of stones with Hebrew lettering.
The Vistula river is at its lowest water level since 1789.

Officials knew that archaeological remnants were hidden under the wild and murky waters of the Vistula and its tributaries, but it had been impossible to search for them until now. The Vistula, which flows 1047km (651 miles) from the Beskidy Mountains to the Baltic Sea, is now at its lowest level since measurements started in the late 18th century.

On Sunday explorers found the remnant of the Soviet fighter bomber in the Bzura river, a Vistula tributary, near the village of Kamion in central Poland. The pieces have been moved to a museum in nearby Wyszogrod. More recovery work is planned for Saturday.

[surrealAmerican]

1. The tombstones are apparently from a cemetery that was looted.

from the linked article:

The Jewish tombstones found in Warsaw are believed to come from the Bródno cemetery in the Polish capital’s Praga district. Once the resting place for 300,000 Jews, only 3,000 tombstones remain. The rest were removed during and after the war, used as building materials and to reinforce the Vistula’s banks.

[malaise]

2. Truth will out

Humans are despicable

[Enthusiast]

3. K&R! How incredible!

[malaise]

4. Climate change will expose lots of secrets

as rivers dry up