Bones, gravestones: Belarus town grimly uncovers Jewish cemetery

GRODNO, Belarus--When the spring melt began, the people living on New Street made a horrific discovery. Mixed in with dirt from a construction site that had been dumped in front of their homes were human jawbones, femurs and even entire skulls.

The bones are the remnants of a vibrant Jewish community that was nearly wiped out in World War II, when Belarus was a Soviet republic. Its memory had been buried even deeper in 1963 when Soviet officials built a soccer stadium over a Jewish cemetery dating back to the 18th century and containing the graves of Jews who died during the…