On 5 November last year, the remains of 199 people, including five victims of Jewish origin, were laid to rest in the mass grave. The human remains came from the mass grave at the fascism victims' memorial at Väike‑Linnape next to Kuressaare Castle, which had been erected in the 1960s and whose excavation began a month earlier.

Although Gramberg says he was initially given to understand that the old memorial stone would also be moved to the cemetery, the new burial site currently shows only an unmarked patch of earth.

Gramberg visited the site to inspect the situation and is dismayed by what he saw.

"When I was on holiday in Saaremaa this year and wanted to see what was happening at the cemetery, the picture was quite grim — the mass grave at Saikla‑Nõmme cemetery is almost no longer visible," Gramberg described.

Reburial site almost not visible

"There was no memorial plaque. There is one memorial stone that was already there earlier, when people executed during the German occupation were reburied from another location. But this mass grave did not have any plaque at all," Gramberg said.

Gramberg is especially troubled by the fact that the final resting place of people murdered solely because of their Jewish ethnicity has been left unmarked. "Among them are five people of Jewish origin who were shot in Saaremaa only because they were Jews," he said.

"There is no information that they cooperated with the Soviet occupation. One of them was a doctor, another and his wife were merchants who had a shop on Lossi Street in Kuressaare. When Soviets arrived, the shop was nationalized, so it is very unlikely that he cooperated with the occupation authorities. Another person buried there was Savel Kletski, who was a member of the Tallinn Defense League district and an athlete. He was a motorsport athlete who held 11 records. He was shot in Kuressaare, and the police issued a certificate stating that the reason for his execution was that he was a Jew," Gramberg said.

Gramberg added that at the site of the Jewish executions in the Loode oak grove near Kuressaare, there had also been a memorial stone, which was broken last year.

Gramberg pointed out that the fascism victims' memorial at Väike‑Linnape near the castle (authors architect Allan Murdmaa and sculptors Matti Varik and Riho Kuld ‑ed.) did not contain Soviet symbolism, so he does not understand why it was removed at all.

"That is one thing. Another thing is that the commission working under the Government Office, which reviewed all Soviet‑era memorials, found that this memorial stone did not need to be relocated. It was not connected to military personnel; only civilians and Estonian citizens are buried there. Then Saaremaa municipality decided that reburial was necessary. Fine, they reburied them, but some respect must be shown, because these people can no longer stand up for themselves," Gramberg said.

War Museum: workload slows grave marking

The director of the Estonian War Museum, Hellar Lill, explained the situation by the large workload that has accompanied the institution during the wave of reburials in recent years. Lill admits that new grave markers have not yet been dealt with, as there are several similar sites in Estonia.

"As for the necessary explanations, markings and stories about where these people were reburied from and where they originally were, I admit that we simply have not yet had time to deal with it," Lill said. "There are more such places in Estonia, and usually we agree with local governments on how to place information boards or markers."

Lill noted that he also read the Estonian Jewish Museum's social‑media post about the mass grave. "I would clarify that the question there was why the remains were reburied at all if the monument did not have Soviet symbols. The monument was not relevant in that sense; it was a matter of relocating a war grave located in an unsuitable place," he added.

Lill rejected criticism about insufficient dignity in the reburials, emphasizing adherence to laws and proper handling. "First of all, these reburials have certainly been carried out with dignity and properly. The remains have certainly been treated with more respect than in the public places where they were previously," he said.

However, there is no specific timetable for installing markers. When asked when names and explanations about the victims should appear at Saikla‑Nõmme, Lill replied that there is no such deadline.

The War Museum representative promised that the issue will eventually be resolved.

"I believe that we will resolve these matters in cooperation with Saaremaa municipality, as with other municipalities, and I do not see a problem — we will get them done," he assured.

Lill could not currently give a precise answer about the present location of the old monument dismantled from behind Kuressaare Castle. Previously, Saaremaa municipal authorities had spoken of a plan to move it to the Sõrve military museum.

This year, the War Museum still has a few planned war graves left to rebury, but war graves that were not marked and that emerge from the ground during construction work do not disappear, so this work will likely continue for years, Lill said.

Until official markers are installed, the mass grave at Saikla‑Nõmme cemetery remains visually unnoticeable and appears to an uninformed passerby as just a random mound of earth.

Gramberg solved the situation temporarily on his own: "According to Jewish tradition, a stone is placed on the grave, so I found a stone there and placed it on the grave, because otherwise it would be completely unmarked."

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