About this item
In the summer of 2016 acclaimed archaeologist Richard Freund and his team made news worldwide when they discovered an escape tunnel from the Ponar burial pits in Lithunia. This Holocaust site where more than 100,000 people perished is usually remembered for the terrible devastation that happened there. In the midst of this devastation, the discovery of an escape tunnel reminds us of the determination and tenacity of the people in the camp and the hope they continued to carry. The Archaeology of the Holocaust takes readers out to the field with Freund and his multi-disciplinary research group as they uncover the evidence of the Holocaust, focusing on sites in Lithuania, Poland, and Greece in the past decade. Using forensic detective work, Freund tells the micro- and macro-histories of sites from the Holocaust as his team covers excavations and geo-physical surveys done at four sites in Poland, four sites in Rhodes, and 15 different sites in Lithuania with comparisons of some of the work done at other sites in Eastern Europe. The book contains testimonies of survivors, photographs, information about a variety of complementary geo-science techniques, and information gleaned from pin-point excavations. It serves as an introduction to the Holocaust and explains aspects of the culture lost in the Holocaust through the lens of archaeology and geo-science.
About the Author
Dr. Richard A. Freund is the Maurice Greenberg Professor of Jewish History and Director of the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Hartford. Professor Freund has directed over a dozen archaeological projects on behalf of the University of Hartford in Israel, including sites associated with the beginnings of Christianity and Judaism at Nazareth, Bethsaida, the Cave of Letters, Yavne and Qumran (site of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls) . In addition, he has directed projects on behalf of the University of Hartford in Spain (2 sites) , Poland (3 sites) , Rhodes, Greece (four sites) and Lithuania (15 sites in Lithuania) .Dr. Freund's work has been featured in the New York Times, Time magazine, Reader's Digest, Newsweek, Archaeology, three major articles in Smithsonian magazine and featured on the BBC, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and Fox News and in hundreds of media outlets worldwide.His work is featured in 20 television documentaries from National Geographic, CNN, Discovery, History Channel and PBS. His most recent work in Lithuania has been chronicled in a recent NOVA PBS science series episode: "Holocaust Escape Tunnel" on the new discoveries made in the Ponar burial pits and the Great Synagogue of Vilna, Lithuania that has been seen around the world. His most recent work on "The Good Nazi" was viewed [in Hebrew] on April, 2018 on Israeli TV for Holocaust Memorial Day and will be on US and Canadian TV for this year's Holocaust Memorial Day. Dr. Freund is the author of over 100 scholarly articles and twelve books (written or co-edited) including: Digging through History (Rowman & Littlefield, 2012; paperback 2016) . In spring, 2019 his 12th book was published: Archaeology of the Holocaust: Vilna, Rhodes, and Escape Tunnels (Rowman &Littlefield, 2019) .
