Jewish cemetery dug up to make way for supermarket in Poland

WARSAW, Poland – Authorities say human remains from an old Jewish cemetery in Poland have been dug up and dumped unceremoniously in an empty lot to make way for the construction of a supermarket, parking lot and an electrical transformer station.

Poland's Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich, who is originally from New York, described it Thursday as a "full-out scandal" and the worst desecration of a Jewish cemetery that he has witnessed in the 17 years that he has served in Poland.

Under Jewish law, human remains should not be disturbed.

The desecration occurred in Siemiatycze, a town in eastern Poland of some 15,000 people that was about 60 percent Jewish until the Holocaust.

Today no Jews live there.

Construction has been halted as prosecutors investigate the case.