Note: Madeline Fuerstenberg, the CVPost’s community reporter, is part of a UW-Eau Claire student-faculty team that is currently examining the subsurface of possible Holocaust sites in Lithuania. This is the first of her reports on her experiences.
By Madeline Fuerstenberg, Community Reporter
Last week I sorted through hundreds of artifacts left behind by 50,000 Jewish Lithuanians who were executed at a Holocaust extermination site. I held, photographed and cataloged every single item.
Hundreds of buttons and bullet shell casings. Rusted belt buckles and broken glasses frames. A single child’s shoe.
Many people don’t realize this, but Lithuania played a major role in the initial stages of the Holocaust. Vilnius, the nation’s capital, was once known as the “Jerusalem of the North,” until its Jewish population was nearly wiped out as thousands of people were taken from their homes and sent to extermination sites like Ponar and Fort IX.
It was at Ponar where the earliest examples of a systematic extermination took place prior to the implementation of the “Final Solution.”
Student-faculty research team
It was at Fort IX in Kaunas, however, where I and five other UW-Eau Claire students spent several days – working and learning.
We are here on a research trip with UW-EC Geography Prof. Harry Jol, who has been taking students with him to Lithuania every summer for several years now. Here, we use ground penetrating radar to examine the subsurface of known or suspected Holocaust sites all around the country.
Some of these sites include the Great Synagogue of Vilna, the Lost Shtetl – or small Jewish community – of Rumšiškes, several mass burials and other lost structures of historical relevance. The scientific methods we use are non-invasive. No digging is involved.
GPR sends electromagnetic and FM radio waves down into the soil via two antennae. The waves travel through the subsurface and reflect off substances of varying compositions, bouncing back toward the antennae. These waves are then translated into images on a screen, allowing us to see any discrepancies or obstructions in the earth’s natural stratigraphy.
That was my very watered-down definition. I’m a journalist, not a geographer.
Second year on team
This is my second year joining Jol and his team of geographers. While I do enjoy helping with the research when I am needed, my primary purpose here is to document and report.
Upon arriving at Fort IX this week, I was asked to pick up an additional task.
Fort IX was excavated by a team of Soviet archaeologists from the 1960s through the ‘70s. It is estimated that 14 trenches were dug by these archaeologists. In a series of field diaries, one of the lead archaeologists gave vague, inexact details about what was found at each location. Today, most of these artifacts remain on Fort IX grounds, in the archives of the on-site museum.
Our lead archaeologist, Prof. Richard Freund of the University of Hartford, asked the museum to bring us these artifacts. He wanted me to photograph and catalogue every item in order for him to determine which items might be susceptible to further scientific testing – hairs or fabrics, for example.
It took me four or five hours. Freund said I was making history as I photographed the first item – a rusted pocketknife. These items had not been thoroughly documented before.
‘. . . a surreal experience’
It was a surreal experience – holding the items that many people died with. Hairs remained wrapped around some of the glasses frames. Pieces of torn cloth clung to some of the buttons. Some photos were still visible on the seven passports that were found.
The Soviets also collected fragments of human bone, but we were not shown them.
In truth, this trip has been full of surreal moments – as was last year’s trip. I have stood atop mass graves and I’ve looked down into the trenches where thousands of bodies were burned.
I always try to picture how these sites might have looked back then, but my mind will never truly be able to comprehend the horrors that occurred.
These are experiences that few people will ever get to have, and I feel extremely lucky in that regard.
Two weeks of research remaining
We still have another two weeks of research ahead of us. Every site we go to, we have cameras and documentarians following our every move. Major city and government officials have visited our work sites and thanked us for our efforts.
Every day, we spend up to 12 hours out in the field, working with geoscientific professionals from different parts of the world. By the end of our first week, we were joined by several students from the University of Hartford.
For our final week abroad, our UW-EC team will separate from the rest and move on to Latvia, where we will use GPR to study the geomorphology of coastal sand dunes. This means we will look at the way Earth systems affect natural landforms.
It has been a hectic week in Lithuania. There is so much to do and learn, yet so little time to do either. In the midst of all this exposure to new cultures, history and science, I look forward to writing about it all and sharing these incredible experiences with the Eau Claire community.