‘Earth conceal not my blood’

Abstract

Millions of people are known to have died during the Holocaust. The remains of some have been found, but the remains of the majority have not. Only a handful of investigations have been carried out at Holocaust sites by archaeologists, the majority in the last decade but few have included the search for graves. This situation presents something of a paradox: why do corpses form a central part of Holocaust iconography and yet they remain illusive in the physical sense? Why haven’t large-scale searches for Holocaust victims been carried out? How is it possible that the remains of so many people have not been found? How might we go about finding them in the future? Through the presentation of a case study from the author’s own research, this paper will consider these questions and highlight the challenges that archaeologists will likely face should they choose to investigate Holocaust sites in the future. It will be shown how, providing these challenges are addressed, it will be possible to locate previously unmarked sites, characterize burial environments, examine human remains, and shed new light on practices of killing and body disposal.