Once the last eyewitnesses of the Holocaust pass away, the significance of archaeology as a means of discovery, an archive and as a way to interpret the material evidence will inevitably increase. This new book by Richard A. Freund is the most recent example of how archaeological methods and techniques can successfully be used to research well-documented and well-known historical events such as the Holocaust.
Richard A. Freund has spent the last two decades collecting evidence of the Holocaust in countries across Europe. The archaeology of the Holocaust presents the results of this fieldwork and research, which focus on Jewish life and culture in Lithuania, Greece and Poland before and during the Holocaust. His aim is to highlight the diversity of the material evidence of the Holocaust, which extends far beyond the better-known examples of Auschwitz-Birkenau and the diary of Anne Frank.
A variety of archaeological sites dating to the Holocaust are presented in the chapters of the volume together with a consideration of the potential for applying archaeological prospection methods, both invasive and non-invasive, such as ground-penetrating radar, electrical resistivity tomography, lidar and photogrammetry. Freund demonstrates just how much physical evidence for the Holocaust has survived until the present day in accounts of a series of investigations that include: searching for the remains of three synagogues in Rhodes; locating mass burials and an escape tunnel in the Ponar forest in Lithuania; and discovering Jewish bathhouses in Vilna.
It must be noted that the book should be considered as a popular-science publication rather than a detailed scientific book; its stated objective is to present archaeological approaches to the study of the Holocaust to the general public and to students of related disciplines, such as geology, geography, history, Judaic studies to name a few. There is no doubt that the author has achieved this.
There are some weak points in the monograph, however. For example, the bibliography is limited to only a very few publications. Some of the figures are too small to read; others are not clearly reproduced and appear blurred. The history of archaeological research on the material remains of the Holocaust is rather brief, and each sub-section is relatively short, making it difficult for the reader to follow the arguments. The logic of the structure of the book is difficult to discern, with the same research revisited in several chapters. Research concerning mass burials at Fort IX in Kovno, for example, is discussed in various chapters of the publication. The flow of the book is impeded by what are, in my opinion, unnecessary digressions.
Having said that, I would like to highlight the strengths of the volume and suggest three things in particular that make the book a worthwhile read, especially for those who are not archaeologists. The first is that the author promotes non-invasive archaeology in the context of field research on the Holocaust. In the past, archaeological investigations have not always been undertaken in a manner sensitive to the Jewish faith and culture, particularly when dealing with human remains. Advances in non-invasive archaeological survey methods offer the possibility of performing research in a way that respects the victims, their families and the Jewish faith. This provides an ethical way to undertake the archaeology of the Holocaust.
The second is the cathartic nature of Holocaust archaeology. The history and archaeology of the Holocaust is dark and painful; it represents a horrific period in human history that is made manifest in the physical remains. Millions of Jews lost their lives during the Holocaust together with people of all faiths and none, and of many different nationalities. Richard A. Freund persuasively demonstrates that the archaeology of the Holocaust can be a beneficial social and cultural practice. An example of this is the account of the discovery of a tunnel, dug by Jews who escaped from the Ponar forest. The discovery was reported by the world's media and became the subject of a television documentary. Freund and his colleagues delivered many talks about the tunnel and its diggers, but the most poignant moment was a meeting with descendants of those who escaped from Ponar forest on 15 April 1944. Freund describes it as a unique experience that demonstrated the value of Holocaust archaeology: “it was hard not to feel, sitting with them that day, that they had achieved a moment of what can only be called ‘enlightenment’ that transcended the events themselves” (p. 240). In short, it is archaeology at its best.
The third and final strength of the book is the collection of testimonies of Holocaust survivors and their families. These are not simply collected, recorded and analysed, they are tied to the sites under investigation. Freund has actively sought out the experiences and memories of those who were connected, in one way or another, with the sites investigated during the field research. He has used these accounts together with artefacts and possessions to identify the anonymous victims of the Holocaust. In this way, archaeology can give a voice and identity to the millions of people who died in the Holocaust; the importance of this should not be underestimated.
To conclude, despite its limitations, The archaeology of the Holocaust has an important lesson to teach: that history is everywhere, and those who lived and died during the Second World War are part of that history. To use the author's own words, this book might “inspire people to study their own family's stories, and look for answers” (p. xiv), and the archaeological methods described in this volume offer the means to do it.
