The re-interment is one of the last of a project, overseen by the National War Museum (Eesti sõjamuuseum), which has been ongoing across Estonia for around three years now and has seen the relocation of the remains of around 4,000 people from various, mostly mass graves.

However it is unique in that it involves the remains not of Red Army or German soldiers, but of 215 islanders, who were executed.

When a mechanical excavator broke ground Wednesday morning on Väike Linnapea hill next to Kuressaare Castle, following a religious ceremony, no one knew exactly what to expect.

"Apparently people executed during the German occupation were reburied here from the surrounding area. In fact, there is very little concrete information on that. If we look at what is written about this site in the cultural heritage register, it mostly mentions the date the monument was unveiled, but there isn't a single line about any reburial here," National War Museum archaeologist Arnold Unt told "Aktuaalne kaamera."

Once a depth of about two and a half meters had been dug, evidence began to appear revealing the fate of the islanders, sometime in the 1940s. Some of the remains exhibited signs of execution, such as a bullet wound to the head.
This mass grave is the last on Saaremaa, a strategically significant site fought over by Soviet and Nazi German forces in 1944, to be excavated — there have been about ten in total, including at Tehumardi, formerly a Soviet war grave site.

In this case, and given the remains are of local people, identifying them via DNA has been suggested, though at present there are no concrete plans to do so.

"There have been questions about whether that would be viable. At least for now, we won't be taking DNA samples. That said I think that will become clear once we know how many remains we find here, how large the burial is, and how they were laid to rest. All exhumed remains will be properly and respectfully reburied at the Saikla-Nõmme cemetery," Saaremaa municipality crisis preparedness adviser Gunnar Havi said.

A monument dedicated to the victims of fascism was erected in 1965 adjacent to the graves and is to be dismantled and relocated to the Sõrve Military Museum at the southern tip of the island and close to Tehumardi.

Over the past three years, the War Museum has carried out about a hundred reburials from mass graves to cemeteries, reinterring roughly 4,000 Red Army soldiers in the process. The work is now nearing its close.

"The work is scheduled to be completed this November. A total of 102 sites should be cleared — all locations in public space where burials have been found," Unt said.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine brought the status of Soviet-era statues, monuments, memorials and other installations into the limelight. In the case of human remains, these have been carefully documented and re-interred in graves elsewhere.

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