Mauser K98k bolt action rifle with a missing bolt used in eastern Poland

Mauser K98k (Karabiner Kurz) bolt action rifle acquired ca. 2005 by Yahad-In Unum while researching atrocities committed by Nazi Germany on the Jewish people in the Ukraine. The K98k was a shorter and lighter modification of the Gewher 98, the standard German Army infantry rifle. It was manufactured in 1935 and used by the German Army until the end of the war in 1945. In early September 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland and a few weeks later, the Soviet Union occupied eastern Poland, now Ukraine, under 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 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.