Contemporary archeological bag with French text used during excavation of a mass execution site

Contemporary archeological bag used to transport a shovel found in 2005 by Yahad-In Unum in Khvativ, a small village in the Lvivska province of Ukraine, while excavating mass execution and grave sites uncovered by their research into the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany against the Jewish population. In September 1939, following Germany's invasion of Poland, areas of eastern Poland, now in Ukraine, were occupied by the Soviet Union pursuant to the terms of the German-Soviet Pact. In late June 1941, Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, a surprise attack on Russia. The military assault was coordinated with killing squads whose goal was the Final Solution, the elimination of all Jews from the conquered territories. With the assistance of trained collaborators and the local populace, the goal was achieved through deportations to killing centers and mass executions throughout the region. The lack of adequate rail transport meant that many villages had killing fields where the Jews were shot and buried in huge ditches, along with the bullets and other evidence. Through interviews with the remaining eyewitnesses, Yahad-In Unum locates and documents these remains of a Holocaust by bullets and offers respectful remembrance for the fallen.