Nazi-era graves to be dug up in Austria 
 
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 Officials in western Austria say exhumations are to take place at a psychiatric hospital thought to contain the remains of Nazi victims. 
 
 The remains of 220 people are buried at a cemetery in Hall in Tyrol province. 
 
 The Nazis murdered thousands of disabled people they thought unfit to live, deeming it "euthanasia". The hospital believes many died there as part of the programme. 
 
 A planned construction project has been halted to allow a full investigation. 
 
 Some 30,000 people were killed at one psychiatric hospital alone - Schloss Hartheim, near Linz in upper Austria. 
 
 Tilak, the company responsible for the Hall hospital, said the graves contained the remains of people buried between 1942 and 1945. 
 
 There were, it added, "suspicions that the dead [were] at least partially victims" of the programme of murders the Nazis referred to as "euthanasia". 
 
 'Dark chapter' 
 
 Exhumations are to begin when the ground thaws, probably in March. 
 
 Announcing that a commission of experts would be formed shortly to investigate, Guenther Platter, governor of Tyrol province, said he had been "deeply shaken" by the discovery. 
 
 "This dark chapter of history must now be carefully brought to light," he added. 
 
 Investigators would be seeking to identify the remains and establish the cause of death, Tilak representatives were quoted as saying by Austria's Die Presse newspaper. 
 
 Hospital historian Oliver Seifert said it was already clear that not all of those buried had been victims of the Nazis. 
 
 "We know that active killing went on at other institutions in Austria... but there are no indications of this at the moment in Hall," he told Reuters news agency. 
 
 Hall Hospital remains a functioning psychiatric hospital, with beds for 500 patients. ||||| A construction project has been halted after an Austrian psychiatric hospital graveyard was found to contain the remains of what are believed to be Nazi victims, the BBC is reporting. 
 
 The remains of 220 people are buried at a cemetery in Hall in Austria's Tyrol province, and authorities believe many were physically or mentally disabled people who died as part of the Nazi euthanasia program. Thousands of people with disabilities were deemed unfit to live and killed by Nazi troops under the program. 
 
 "We know that murder was actively carried out at other psychiatric institutions, by overdosing patients, neglect or undernourishment," Oliver Seifert, a historian who recently found documents relating to the graveyard is quoted by the Guardian as saying, noting that the remains are expected to be fully exhumed by March. "At this stage we can't say that all 220 people were victims of the Nazi euthanasia program, but one of the central questions we will be looking into is how they died." 
 
 While the existence of the cemetery had long been known, hospital officials say it was not considered to be connected to the Nazi killing campaign until the discovery of a list of those buried there while hospital archives were being moved. 
 
 Hospital spokesman Johannes Schwamberger released a statement confirming that a planned construction project had been suspended indefinitely to allow an investigation and to identify the dead. Deputy hospital director Christian Haring said in comments cited by the Associated Press that suspicions were aroused in part by the fact that there was "a noticeable increase in deaths at the Hall Institute" between 1942 and 1945.
– Mass exhumations at an Austrian psychiatric hospital are expected to shed light on a lesser-known aspect of the Nazi's murderous agenda: the killing of thousands of disabled people who, regardless of race, didn't fit the Third Reich's vision of an ideal society. The "euthanasia" programs are thought to have quietly murdered patients in mental hospitals across Axis territory. Austrian officials will exhume 220 bodies buried in a hospital cemetery in the Austrian town of Hall between 1942 and 1945 to look for evidence they were murdered, the BBC reports. The exhumations won't begin until March, putting a a planned construction project on hold. "This dark chapter of history must now be carefully brought to light," says the local governor. Click here for more.