“To Excavate or Not To Excavate-that is the Question:” Geo-science and Archaeology: Religious, Political and Economic Concerns in Investigating and Commemorating the Holocaust in Lithuania

• In Event: Politicization of the Holocaust in the 21st Century in Eastern Europe

Abstract

The University of Hartford Research group, a collaborative group of geo-scientists and archaeologists have worked together with local archaeologists, municipalities, religious authorities and government agencies to identify, map and excavate (where appropriate) sites associated with the Holocaust in Lithuania. Many sites associated the Holocaust are in areas where the locals wish to develop a site and our pre-emptive work helps them make an informed and sensitive decision about where to develop and where not to develop.

In this paper I will explore many of the considerations which have been a part of our work. Including (but not limited to):

1. Religious, especially Jewish, concerns about the sanctity of the mass burial sites.

2. Political, especially local [but also national], concerns about the presence of destroyed Jewish sites in the midst of populated municipalities throughout the country.

3. Economic, especially local concerns, about the discovery on public and private properties of Jewish sites on these properties and the ramifications of the discovery.

The debate about whether to “excavate or not excavate” is not a theoretical question but rather a dilemma which raises some of the basic questions of the Holocaust in the post-Holocaust world. A question such as: “How do the Jewish community [worldwide and locally] and local governments work together at a site associated with the Holocaust to properly preserve and commemorate the memory of what happened there?” Our research team works with local municipalities, the Jewish community, and local archaeologists to allow them to take our sub-surface mapping data and then either excavate or not excavate based upon our recommendations. My paper will deal with eight sites our research group has been involved with in Lithuania: The Great Synagogue of Vilna, HKP labor camp, Ponar burial pits, Forts IX, VII, IV, the Zaliakalnis Jewish Cemetery (Kaunas), and the Silute Nazi POW camp.

Author

• Richard A. Freund, Univ of Hartford