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I'm a PhD student researching the role of the archaeological dead in contemporary British society. Think of this as a scrapbook of all the interesting links, snippets of information and random bits and bobs I come across pertaining to death, dying and the dead. Enjoy?!

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    Poland’s Jews: A forgotten history Poland is marking the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising on Friday, one of the most remarkable acts of resistance in World War II, a period when the almost 1,000-year-old history of Polish-Jewish relations underwent its most severe test. How Poles and Jews behaved toward each other during 1939-1945 is still being evaluated and remains highly provocative here. This was clearly seen last November with the premiere of the movie Poklosie (“Aftermath”), a fictional thriller that told the story of a Polish man who returns to his hometown and discovers a dark secret about its past. During the war, at the instigation of the Nazis, local people, including his own father, rounded up the town’s Jews, locked them in a building and set it on fire. In the last 10 years or so it has become widely known that massacres like this actually happened in several Polish towns, most notably in Jedwabne, north-eastern Poland, where Poles at the instigation of the Nazis murdered more than 300 Jews. (Source: BBC News)

    Poland’s Jews: A forgotten history

    Poland is marking the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising on Friday, one of the most remarkable acts of resistance in World War II, a period when the almost 1,000-year-old history of Polish-Jewish relations underwent its most severe test.

    How Poles and Jews behaved toward each other during 1939-1945 is still being evaluated and remains highly provocative here.

    This was clearly seen last November with the premiere of the movie Poklosie (“Aftermath”), a fictional thriller that told the story of a Polish man who returns to his hometown and discovers a dark secret about its past.

    During the war, at the instigation of the Nazis, local people, including his own father, rounded up the town’s Jews, locked them in a building and set it on fire.

    In the last 10 years or so it has become widely known that massacres like this actually happened in several Polish towns, most notably in Jedwabne, north-eastern Poland, where Poles at the instigation of the Nazis murdered more than 300 Jews.

    (Source: BBC News)

    Astonishing new research shows Nazi camp network twice as big as previously thought Researchers have now catalogued more than 42,500 institutions used for persecution and death. The network of camps and ghettos set up by the Nazis to conduct the Holocaust and persecute millions of victims across Europe was far larger and systematic than previously believed, according to new academic research. Researchers conducting the bleak work of chronicling all the forced labour sites, ghettos and detention facilities run by Hitler’s regime alongside such centres of industrialised murder as Auschwitz have now catalogued more than 42,500 institutions used for persecution and death. The figure has shocked academics and more than doubles an earlier finding by the same team that up to 20,000 sites were used. It casts a disturbing new light on the sheer scale of the machinery of imprisonment and oppression put in place by the Nazis throughout Europe, from Italy to Russia. The team behind the research, based at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, told The Independent that they believe the evidence could also be crucial to survivors trying to bring cases for compensation against Germany and other countries for time spent in camps whose existence was hitherto obscure or undocumented. The editors of the vast project, which is being compiled from hundreds of scholars into seven volumes due to be published by 2025, estimate that between 15 million and 20 million were killed or imprisoned in the facilities set up by the Nazis and puppet regimes in occupied countries from France to Romania. The work, whose latest findings caused surprise among Holocaust academics when they were presented in Washington in January, draws together previously disparate records from dozens of archives, memorial sites and research bodies to create the first comprehensive catalogue of the facilities. Read more here.

    Astonishing new research shows Nazi camp network twice as big as previously thought

    Researchers have now catalogued more than 42,500 institutions used for persecution and death.

    The network of camps and ghettos set up by the Nazis to conduct the Holocaust and persecute millions of victims across Europe was far larger and systematic than previously believed, according to new academic research.

    Researchers conducting the bleak work of chronicling all the forced labour sites, ghettos and detention facilities run by Hitler’s regime alongside such centres of industrialised murder as Auschwitz have now catalogued more than 42,500 institutions used for persecution and death.

    The figure has shocked academics and more than doubles an earlier finding by the same team that up to 20,000 sites were used. It casts a disturbing new light on the sheer scale of the machinery of imprisonment and oppression put in place by the Nazis throughout Europe, from Italy to Russia.

    The team behind the research, based at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, told The Independent that they believe the evidence could also be crucial to survivors trying to bring cases for compensation against Germany and other countries for time spent in camps whose existence was hitherto obscure or undocumented.

    The editors of the vast project, which is being compiled from hundreds of scholars into seven volumes due to be published by 2025, estimate that between 15 million and 20 million were killed or imprisoned in the facilities set up by the Nazis and puppet regimes in occupied countries from France to Romania.

    The work, whose latest findings caused surprise among Holocaust academics when they were presented in Washington in January, draws together previously disparate records from dozens of archives, memorial sites and research bodies to create the first comprehensive catalogue of the facilities.

    Read more here.

    The rise of genocide memorials Members of England’s European Championship squad have visited the former Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camps. This comes as memorials and museums marking the sites of mass killings around the world witnessed an increase in visitors. A delegation led by Wayne Rooney and England manager Roy Hodgson took time out from training on Friday to visit the notorious death camp Nazi Germany operated on Polish soil after invading its neighbour during World War II. Another group headed by captain Steven Gerrard travelled to Oskar Schindler’s factory in Krakow. The visits received a mixed reaction from commentators, with the Daily Mirror’s Oliver Holt saying the “harrowing visit… made an extremely powerful statement” at a time “football is wrestling with new and grave concerns over racism among players and supporters”. But for the Daily Mail’s Melanie Phillips, it was a “deeply distasteful football PR stunt”, which was “intended to cleanse the besmirched reputation of English football”. Yet England’s players are not the first footballers to visit Auschwitz. Holland and Italy, who are also camped in Krakow, have already been, as have representatives of the German team. And they join the millions of tourists who have walked through the iron gates at Auschwitz bearing the legend Arbeit Macht Frei (work makes you free) to pay their respects. Last year, a record 1.4 million people visited the site, while Holocaust memorials all over the world are also seeing numbers soar. Click through to read the rest of the article.

    The rise of genocide memorials

    Members of England’s European Championship squad have visited the former Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camps. This comes as memorials and museums marking the sites of mass killings around the world witnessed an increase in visitors.

    A delegation led by Wayne Rooney and England manager Roy Hodgson took time out from training on Friday to visit the notorious death camp Nazi Germany operated on Polish soil after invading its neighbour during World War II.

    Another group headed by captain Steven Gerrard travelled to Oskar Schindler’s factory in Krakow.

    The visits received a mixed reaction from commentators, with the Daily Mirror’s Oliver Holt saying the “harrowing visit… made an extremely powerful statement” at a time “football is wrestling with new and grave concerns over racism among players and supporters”.

    But for the Daily Mail’s Melanie Phillips, it was a “deeply distasteful football PR stunt”, which was “intended to cleanse the besmirched reputation of English football”.

    Yet England’s players are not the first footballers to visit Auschwitz. Holland and Italy, who are also camped in Krakow, have already been, as have representatives of the German team.

    And they join the millions of tourists who have walked through the iron gates at Auschwitz bearing the legend Arbeit Macht Frei (work makes you free) to pay their respects.

    Last year, a record 1.4 million people visited the site, while Holocaust memorials all over the world are also seeing numbers soar.

    Click through to read the rest of the article.

    The Hidden Graves of the Holocaust

    A short piece on BBC Radio 4 - available on iPlayer for the next seven days.

    Jonathan Charles is given unique access to the team of British forensic archaeologists carrying out the first coordinated scientific attempt to locate the remains of Holocaust victims at the site of Treblinka’s death camp.

    Holocaust deniers who claim World War Two extermination camp Treblinka was not site of Jewish genocide proved wrong by...

    archaeologicalnews:

    A British forensic archaeologist has unearthed fresh evidence to prove the existence of mass graves at the Nazi death camp Treblinka - scuppering the claims of Holocaust deniers who say it was merely a transit camp.

    Some 800,000 Jews were killed at the site, in north east Poland, during the…

    Reading Bones to Identify Genocide Victims

    forensicanth:

    Rachel Nuwer, has written about the practical use of skeletal material in identifying genocide victims. The piece was published on The New York Times’ At War blog.

    The article describes some of the work of Dr Eric Stover, director of the Human Rights Centre at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr Stover has worked in Guatemala, Iraq, Rwanda and other locations in the wake of suspected genocide.

    The author can be followed on Twitter @RacheNuwer or RachelNuwer.com.

    (Source: )