Scientific Research

In 2019, Director Dr. Karen Frostig was tasked by Riga’s municipality, to find a lost mass grave at the Jungfernhof concentration camp. This was presented as a condition for future memorial development at the site.

Following months of research, Frostig found and invited internationally renowned Holocaust archeologist, Prof. Dr. Richard to come to Jungfernhof, to conduct land surveys in search of a mass grave. Using non-invasive Ground Penetrating Radar (ERT) in combination with drone surveys, Dr. Freund, the Bertram and Gladys Aaron Professor of Jewish Studies at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, VA, and author of The Archaeology of the Holocaust: Vilna, Rhodes, and Escape Tunnels was joined by Professor Harry Jol of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, one of most accomplished Ground Penetrating Radar specialists in the world, Working together with Professor Philip Reeder, Dean of the Bayer School of Science, Duquesne University and an expert team of experienced geophysicists, they began their research at the Jungfernhof concentration camp in July 2021.

Twenty-first century non-invasive mapping technologies can detect rocks, glass, metal and bones at the molecular level, located more than four meters below the surface of the earth. The surveys include a search for a mass grave, possible determination of the boundaries of the camp and any additional impressions about physical structures and farmland that would be indicative of prison life at the camp: Dr Freund’s investigation of the site is organized as a three-step process, beginning with testimony, a comparative examination between old photos (1944 photographs found online) and google earth, and implementation of Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT), which works as a ground penetrating radioactive device. ERT sends radio waves into the ground measuring the electrical resistance of various substrates, producing almost immediately, a 2-D map of what lies below.

The goal was to locate:

1.  The mass grave of 600 to 800 prisoners (German and Austrian Jews), who died or were killed in winter of 1941-1942, and buried in the field adjacent to the buildings of the camp, as recorded in the trial proceeding of camp commandant Rudolf Seck in 1961.

2. The remains of structures of the camp (outdoor latrines and barracks), as currently only 3 out of 14 building can be found or traced above the ground.

GPR and ERT confirm two separate mounds. From Richard: “Here we can see just how the mass graves were dug in a very clear square configuration with a trench in between. The extended red area in the center is an example of how close to the surface the area where this anomaly was located only a few centimeters below the surface and may indicate that the original permafrost was broken in this area when the digging began. It also clearly delineates the two different mounds separated by only a few feet in between…specifically, the two mounds or trenches are each about 10 m wide and about 50 m apart.”

By applying scientific tools to investigate what is not visible to the naked eye, the camp’s history will come to light. In this manner, scientific evidence will interact with the larger body of research supplied by the project historian and research coordinator.