Holocaust Mass Graves

The Operation Reinhardt, initiated by Nazi Germany, aimed at murdering all Polish Jews. While the Germans deported the majority of the victims to extermination camps, i.e. Bełżec, Sobibór, Treblinka, they shot the others in mass executions on site - in the outskirts of towns or on Jewish cemeteries. We still know very little about these tragic events. What remains are mass graves and burial sites that still shape the landscape of formerly German-Poland (General Government). So far, we do not know the exact number of victims and killing sites. Yet, they are material remains of the so-called dispersed Holocaust. Their condition varies: some are maintained and marked as memorial sites, whereas others are barely recognizable in the landscape.

The interdisciplinary research project on Holocaust mass graves, initiated by the GHI Warsaw, brings together a team of researchers from several academic and non-academic (foundations, museums) institutions. They conduct research on the history of those mass shootings and the post-war history of killing sites. Among the results of the project will be an interactive map of the Holocaust mass graves, which offers basic information on the sites and their histories. In addition, archive queries, field research and oral history interviews are  planned. The team consists of historians, cultural scientists, sociologists, dendrologists, cartographers and specialists in the field of oral or digital history.

We will announce more information about the project shortly.

Team:

Magdalena Saryusz-Wolska (GHI Warschau)

Łukasz Krzyżanowski (University of Warsaw)

Anna Zalewska (University of Łódź)

Katarzyna Anzorge (University of Łódź)

Angelika Bachanek (Maria-Curie-Skłodowska-University Lublin)

Jacek Czarnecki (independent researcher)

Kamil Karski (Museum of the former concentration camp Płaszów)

Julia Machnowska (European Network Memory and Solidarity)

Krzysztof Malicki (University Rzeszów)

Elżbieta Muter (Krakow University of Agriculture)

Grzegorz Myrda (Historical Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences)

Agnieszka Nieradko (Fundation Zapomniane)

Tomasz Panecki (Historical Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences)

Diana Partel (University of Heidelberg)

Marta Pawlińska (University of Warsaw)

Aleksandra Szczepan (University of Potsdam)

Aniela Wrzesińska (Historical Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences)

Bruno Zwierz (University of Warsaw)

Iwona Żuk (Ipsylon Laboratory for Social Analysis)