Jungfernhof was an improvised Concentration Camp near Riga, Latvia, that used existing buildings from the former Mazjumprava Manor. The camp was in operation from December 1941 through March 1942 and served as overflow housing for 4,000 Jews from Germany and Austria, intended initially for transport to other camps. During the harsh winter of 1941-1942, 800 prisoners died from exposure, disease, and execution. In early spring 1942, dynamite blasted a mass grave in the frozen ground. The research objectives for this project were to define the physical properties of the soils at the site and to determine the location of former camp buildings and a possible mass grave(s). Methodologies focused on locating former buildings compared German military air photos, Google Earth satellite images, maps from 1942 and 1947, and survivor testimony obtained from the Latvian State Historical Archive, the Locker of Memory Project, and the Museum of the Jews in Latvia. Based on field analysis, soil texture was mostly silt, with some sand, and a distinct clay layer, indicating that soils formed in over-bank deposits from the Daugava River. The consistency or inconsistency of the soil layers can reveal areas that have been disturbed, most likely by human activities, which may have included the creation of a mass grave(s) behind a former camp building that, in survivor testimony, is called “the shed,” so determining the location of former camp buildings is essential in the process of locating the mass grave(s). Future research will include expanding a part of the project that utilizes ground penetrating radar (GPR) to study subsurface features and further soil analysis to confirm the presence or absence of anthropogenic features that point toward the exact nature of these inconsistencies.
Using Soil Analysis, Air Photograph, Satellite Image and Map Comparison, and Holocaust Survivor Testimony to Uncover the History of the Jungfernhof Concentration Camp Site in Riga, Latvia
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Student Abstract Submission