The Archaeology of the Holocaust
Vilna, Rhodes, and Escape Tunnels
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- $41.99
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- $41.99
Publisher Description
In the summer of 2016 acclaimed archaeologist Richard Freund and his team made news worldwide when they discovered an escape tunnel from the Ponar burial pits in Lithunia. This Holocaust site where more than 100,000 people perished is usually remembered for the terrible devastation that happened there. In the midst of this devastation, the discovery of an escape tunnel reminds us of the determination and tenacity of the people in the camp and the hope they continued to carry.
The Archaeology of the Holocaust takes readers out to the field with Freund and his multi-disciplinary research group as they uncover the evidence of the Holocaust, focusing on sites in Lithuania, Poland, and Greece in the past decade. Using forensic detective work, Freund tells the micro- and macro-histories of sites from the Holocaust as his team covers excavations and geo-physical surveys done at four sites in Poland, four sites in Rhodes, and 15 different sites in Lithuania with comparisons of some of the work done at other sites in Eastern Europe. The book contains testimonies of survivors, photographs, information about a variety of complementary geo-science techniques, and information gleaned from pin-point excavations. It serves as an introduction to the Holocaust and explains aspects of the culture lost in the Holocaust through the lens of archaeology and geo-science.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Freund (Digging Through History: Archaeology and Religion from Atlantis to the Holocaust), a Jewish history professor at the University of Hartford who has led archaeological expeditions, explains how recently developed high-tech tools have facilitated discoveries about the Holocaust, in this fascinating volume based largely on his experiences in the field. As he notes, Jewish law condemns disturbing human remains; the use of "noninvasive geoscience" tools like ground-penetrating radar enables scientists to obtain images to identify potential excavation sites before any digging is planned. He describes his team's work in Rhodes and in Lithuania, which included extensive research into what was known about the areas to be explored before any planning was undertaken, including interviews with survivors. In Lithuania, Freund's team discovered both an escape tunnel dug from a concentration camp and burial pits suggesting that the Nazis began carrying out their "final solution" six months before it was formally discussed at the notorious Wannsee Conference of 1942. Not everything will be clear to the lay reader, who may, for instance, wonder why a standard principle of geology dictates that "the most ancient layer is below the most recent layer of construction." Despite that, this is a valuable addition to the topic that makes good use of the author's expertise.
