Visualizing intimate geographies of genocide: A spatial analysis of the Holocaust in Węgrów County, Poland (1942–1944)

Abstract

This article investigates the relationship between physical and social space and the experiences of Jews during the Holocaust in a small county in rural Poland: Węgrów County, located north-east of Warsaw. The focus of this article is a cluster map representing the murders of 3771 individual Jews – 35% of the Jewish population as it was recorded in 1940 – in the years 1942–1944. This cluster map is supplemented with alternative maps – a deep map and a story map – in response to ethical issues associated with quantifying Jewish lives and human tragedy. The cluster map shows the extent of brutal violence that took place during the 1942 liquidations of the ghettos, and the different survival strategies undertaken by Jews afterwards. Particularly, it unveils that many individuals fled to forested areas in response to the liquidation of the ghettos, and that attempts were made to escape the trains leading to the Treblinka death camp. This article demonstrates the value in applying spatial tools to research new fields of history, and the innovative ways in which visualizations can engage existing historical research.