CHANGING PERSPECTIVES OF THE HOLOCAUST USING GEOPHYSICS

At least 300 Jewish people were executed by the Nazis and their Latvian collaborators near the lighthouse in the Liepāja Civil Harbor. Latvia and its Baltic counterparts, Lithuania and Estonia, are located on the Baltic coast and were all significantly impacted by the Holocaust. Testimony from a survivor of the Liepāja killings states the Jews were made to dig trenches, and upon being executed were buried in the trenches. The execution site is notable as the only one to have been filmed, done by a German man named Reinhard Wiener. Since 1944, when Luftwaffe aerial imagery of the area around the lighthouse was taken, the coastal dune region has become an industrial port complex, including new buildings. After WWII, in 1945, the State Extraordinary Commission of the USSR investigated the area, noting the existence of multiple execution sites. The primary goal of the research is to locate more execution trenches. A pulseEKKO SmartTow ground penetrating radar (GPR) system with 500 MHz antennae and a step size of 0.02m triggered by an odometer was used to image the subsurface. GPR emits electromagnetic signals into the subsurface, which are then reflected to the surface to the receiver antenna. Data were collected in a 7m x 20m grid [line separation 0.25m] located 25m NW of a WWI-era fortress. Topographical data of the grid were collected every 1m utilizing a survey rod and a Topcon RL-H4C laser leveler. The data were processed using EKKO_Project 5 software with the reflections being analyzed using radar stratigraphic principles. Review of the data shows a rectangular feature crossing the grid at (0,12) and (7,17) greater than 7m in length. The feature resides 0.8m below the surface and remains apparent for another 0.4m for a total thickness of 0.4m. A GPR line that transects our feature of interest shows a channel-like reflection pattern 3m wide and 0.4m thick. Based on our team’s research, the rectangular reflection pattern is likely an execution trench. Similar reflection signatures have been identified by earlier research at the site. Based on the Wiener film, previously held perspectives of the lighthouse killings in Liepāja are that only one execution trench exists. However, based on our research in locating this interpreted execution trench, one can conclude more execution trenches exist in the coastal landscape by the lighthouse.