Any doubts about the existence of mass graves at the Treblinka death camp in Poland are being laid to rest by the first survey of the site using tools that see below the ground, writes forensic archaeologist Caroline Sturdy Colls. When the Nazis left Treblinka in 1943 they thought they had destroyed it. They had knocked down the buildings and levelled the earth. They had built a farmhouse and installed a Ukrainian "farmer". They had planted trees, and - contemporary reports suggest - lupins. But if they thought they had removed all evidence of their crime, they hadn't. For a forensic archaeologist, there is a vast amount to study.
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| Memorial at Treblinka death camp. |
Until relatively recently the technology has not been available to investigate the sites of the Holocaust in such a way. Aerial photography from the 1940s can now be supplemented with satellite imagery, GPS and mapping software. A range of geophysical surveying tools, seen in action below also exists, including ground penetrating radar, resistance survey and electrical imaging. (BBC).
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| Ground-penetrating radar (above) - sends pulses of radar into the earth and records the reflections. |
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| About 800,000 Jews - almost one in six victims of the Holocaust - were slaughtered at Treblinka between spring 1942 and August 1943. The Hidden Graves of the Holocaust will be broadcast in the UK on Monday 23 January at 20:00 GMT on BBC Radio 4. It can also be listened to online. |
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| The Rail sign. |
