Description
35 km east of Lublin, Poland, a former sugar factory now forms part of a chemical manufacturing plant. Here, between 1942 and 1944, more than 5,000 men were trained as auxiliaries who would help the SS to deliver the “Final Solution” – the Nazis’ plan to eradicate the Jewish population of Europe. Lesser known, is the history of this site as a Soviet POW camp and a camp for Jews where harsh labour and ill-treatment (that often resulted in executions) were a daily occurrence. It was also here that the Nazis partially enacted Operation Erntefest (Harvest Festival), the single largest killing action in a single day during which around 43,000 Jews were murdered (6,000-10,000 of which were killed at Trawniki). Although two memorials do acknowledge some of the crimes committed at the site – and although many structures from the camp survive – the physical traces of the atrocities have long been overlooked. This paper will outline the main aims and some of the first results of the “Trawniki: Nexus of the Final Solution” project which has seen the first archaeological investigation of the former campscape taking place. It will consider how responses to the site since the end of World War II have preserved, hidden and destroyed sites of mass violence and demonstrate how historical research and advances in forensic archaeological methodologies are allowing the evidence of the Nazis’ crimes to be uncovered for the first time.This presentation was delivered to the Institute of Transnational & Spatial History at the University of St Andrews.
| Period | 27 Jan 2025 |
|---|---|
| Held at | University of St Andrews, United Kingdom |
| Degree of Recognition | National |