Theme:
3. The Life of Archaeological Heritage in Society
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Disappeared and Forgotten: Nazi Concentration Sub-camps, Forced Labour Camps, and Other Types of Camps as Neglected Archaeological and Heritage Sites
Content:
Recent archaeological research focused on concentration and other types of Nazi camps have demonstrated that archaeological approaches and methods not only complement fragmentary historical (written and oral) sources, but also open up new questions connected with the materiality of European dark heritage and totalitarian pasts. The main concentration camps, whose names have become symbols of Nazi atrocities, were supplemented by hundreds of sub-camps, many of which have been forgotten and their exact locations unknown. However, it was the ubiquitous sub-camps, as well as forced labour, and other types of smaller camps, that formed the Nazi “campscape” which was entangled with war infrastructure and logistics. Hundreds of thousands of prisoners and forced labourers who were housed in these locations worked in appalling conditions in war production facilities. Unlike the main concentration camps and Holocaust extermination centres, historical memory formation has often ignored the material remains of smaller camps in the post-war period. Due to the vast number of these sites, most of them lack any kind of memorialization and heritage protection. Additionally, places where mass violence and crimes against humanity took place currently face development and construction activities that erase archaeological evidence of this kind at an alarming rate.
We invite contributors to explore the tangible dark heritage of Nazi concentration sub-camps, forced labour, and other types of neglected sites such as Arbeitserziehungslager, Jugendschutzlager, Polizeihaftlager, Sammellager für Juden or Zigeuner Anhaltelager.
Keywords:
dark heritage, contemporary archaeology, campscape, concentration sub-camps, forced labour
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Pavel Vareka (Czech Republic) 1
Co-organisers:
Gilly Carr (United Kingdom) 2
Claudia Theune (Austria) 3
Paweł Konczewski (Poland) 4
Affiliations:
1. University of West Bohemia
2. University of Cambridge
3. University of Vienna
4. Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences
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