Steroids aid in human decomposition fluid identification in soils of temporary mass graves from World War II

As katherine verdery notes, dead bodies have had political lives in virtually every civilization since antiquity. They frequently emerge as powerful metaphors of change, especially after a time of crisis when the meaning of political symbols is redefined. This is vividly exemplified by what happened to the exhumed bodies of various ethnic groups in the former Yugoslavia (Verdery 1999, 1–22). Postwar discourse is another site in which dead bodies frequently emerge as metaphors. Some of the most unforgettable sights concerning World War II are pictures of huge piles of exhumed human bodies from the mass graves of Jews. We know that these are not skeletons of those who have died natural deaths because these images have often been shown along with the pictures of inmates of the concentration and death camps, emaciated to the point of nonrecognition as living human beings. Through this process, the pictures have acquired an independent status as encoded language: they signify unbelievable evil committed against humanity, and they display the moral weakness of the rest of humanity that failed to resist and end such atrocities.

Download Full-text

Modern military relief forms of Chernihiv Region – their types, morphological and morphometric features

Physical Geography and Geomorphology ◽

10.17721/phgg.2019.4-6.04 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 96 (4-6) ◽

pp. 36-42

Author(s):

Yurii Filonenko ◽

Roman Fedorets

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Field Research ◽

Forest Steppe ◽

Military Operations ◽

World War ◽

Mass Graves ◽

Morphometric Features ◽

The Military ◽

The Village

Investigation into relief forms which arose on the territory of Chernihiv region in the 2nd half of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries from anthropogenic activities for military purposes were conducted in all districts of the region. During the work field research was actively used as well as encyclopaedic and Internet materials were applied. The morphological and morphometric features of denudation and accumulative forms of military relief which appear as a result of military operations and exercises, construction of warehouses and equipment of their security zones, erection of defence objects and arrangement of mass graves (fraternal graves) and so on were studied in detail. In particular, defensive fighting positions (including tank and cannon), trenches, breastworks, blindages, dugouts, traces of grenades from shells and bombs together with areas of proving grounds, training centres, airfields and monuments of various sizes and shapes were explored. The research results suggest that most objects which can be classified as military relief forms of World War II naturally occur in places where major battles in strategically important directions of offensive of both opposing sides took place. The findings also revealed that many military relief forms of the WWII period have undergone significant deformation as a result of development of scree formation processes, plane erosion, eolian processes, influence of various representatives of biota as well as agricultural and forestry human activities. In addition, in the southern (forest-steppe) part of the region such relief forms occur considerably less frequently than in the northern (Polissia). This is most likely due to greater plowing of the territory and, consequently, greater anthropogenic load of the agrarian type, which relatively quickly levelled military relief forms in the postwar period. A special place among all the objects of military relief of Chernihiv region of the WWII period is occupied by the museum-memorial complex of guerrilla glory “Lisograd”. It is located in the middle of forest near the village of Jeline in Snovsk district. Here, on the site of the former guerrilla camp, defensive fighting positions, trenches and residential (dugouts) structures of those times were reconstructed in the 2000s. The largest modern military relief forms within the territory of Chernihiv region are the military proving ground in Honcharivske (Chernihiv district), the Desna training center with its own proving ground near Desna (Kozelets district) as well as functioning and defunct military airfields and air bases near Horodnia, Dobrianka, in the village of Maliiky (Chernihiv district), Chernihiv, Pryluky and Nizhyn.

Download Full-text

Selected Elements in the Soils Covering Mass Graves from World Wars I and II in Southeastern Poland

Minerals ◽

10.3390/min11030275 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 275

Author(s):

Józef Żychowski

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

World War I ◽

Forest Nursery ◽

Slope Gradient ◽

World War ◽

Burial Site ◽

Mass Graves ◽

Forest Margin ◽

Low Levels ◽

Different Content

This study evaluates the reasons for the different content of eight selected elements, Cu, Pb, Zn, S, K, Na, Ca and P, in the upper sections of soil profiles covering mass graves in southeastern Poland. The burial sites include 18 mass graves from World Wars I and II, an active parish cemetery, an old kirkut (Jewish cemetery) and, as a comparative site, a forest nursery. Chemical analyses were carried out using atomic absorption spectroscopy. Among the elements were P and Ca, which dominate in the soils covering the burial sites from World War II. Higher amounts of the elements analysed were found at sites where many people were buried in a small area. The burial sites dug in pure sand revealed a lower content of the elements analysed, particularly Ca and P. In places where human ashes were scattered, Ca and P prevailed. The comparative site, a wet forest margin, is characterized by low levels of S and relatively higher amounts of Ca and P. In the soils covering World War I graves P, in particular, prevails over Zn, Pb and Cu. Differences in the concentrations of the elements studied depend on the type and age of the burial site, the type of soil, the slope gradient and water content prevailing at the site and the proximity to mass graves and cemeteries found close to each other.

Download Full-text

Jasenovac

Medicine Science and the Law ◽

10.1177/0025802420940894 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 002580242094089

Author(s):

Roger W Byard

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

Religious Groups ◽

World War ◽

German Government ◽

Mass Graves ◽

Independent State ◽

Sava River ◽

Detention Camps ◽

The Sava River

Jasenovac was a camp run by the Ustaše Supervisory Service (UNS) of the Independent State of Croatia during World War II. It was located approximately 100 km south-east of Zagreb on the banks of the Sava River. Although the purpose of, and number of deaths in, the camp have been debated, it appears that a significant number of Serbs, Roma and Jews died and/or were executed at this site between 1941 and 1945. The site demonstrates that not all detention camps at this time were controlled by the German government and that cultural/religious groups other than the Jews were detainees. Balkan mass graves may therefore derive from different conflicts at different times, and so establishing accurate conclusions from excavations often requires a verifiable and plausible context and an understanding of burial processes.

Download Full-text