Caroline Sturdy Colls

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Caroline Sturdy Colls
Born1985 (age 39–40)
NationalityBritish
Education University of Birmingham
Known for Forensic investigation of Treblinka extermination camp

Caroline Sturdy Colls (born 1985) is a British archaeologist and academic, specializing in Holocaust studies, identification of human remains, forensic archaeology and crime scene investigation. She is Professor of Holocaust Archaeology and Genocide Investigation at University of Huddersfield, and serves as director for the Centre of Archaeology there. Previously she was a Professor and Director of the Centre of Archaeology at University of Staffordshire. Prof Sturdy Colls also undertakes consultancy for the UK Police forces. Her main area of interest is the methodology of investigation into the Holocaust and genocide murder sites with special consideration given to religious norms associated with the prohibition of excavating a grave. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Sturdy Colls graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2007 with a BA(Hons) in Archaeology and Ancient History, and with the MPhil in Archaeological Practice in 2008. In 2012 she completed her PhD thesis in Archaeology and Antiquity at the University of Birmingham, titled "Holocaust Archaeology: Archaeological Approaches to Landscapes of Nazi Genocide and Persecution". [1] She is the author of numerous scientific publications, lectures and selected books on the subject, [5] [6] not to mention TV interviews and documentaries. [7]

Archaeological studies

Sturdy Colls led a team of archeologists in the most recent excavations on the grounds of the Treblinka extermination camp Museum, resulting in the discovery of several floor tiles believed to have been used in the lining of the gas chambers. The tiles were made by Dziewulski & Lange ceramic factory in Opoczno. Her discovery became a subject of the Smithsonian film made for television. [8] Approval for a limited archaeological study was issued for the first time in 2010 to a British team from Staffordshire using non-invasive technology and Lidar remote sensing notably, because neither the authorities nor the Jewish religious leaders in Poland allowed excavations at the camp out of respect for the dead. Sturdy Colls analyzed soil resistance at the site with ground-penetrating radar. [9] Features that appeared to be structural were found, two of which were thought to be the remains of the gas chambers, and therefore the study was allowed to continue. [10]

The archaeological team discovered three new mass graves. [11] At the site of the previously unknown foundations several yellow tiles were unearthed, pressed with a symbol D✡L resembling a “Star of David”. The logo was soon identified as the pierced mullet star belonging to the Polish ceramics factory from Opoczno founded by Jan Dziewulski and brothers Józef and Władysław Lange. [12] [13] It was therefore not the Star of David as reported by the Israeli Ynet News service which made the announcement. [11] [ improper synthesis? ] The tiles located by the ground-penetrating radar were claimed to provide the first physical evidence of the existence of the gas chambers in Camp Two. [8] [11] [14] [15] For her work, Sturdy Colls was awarded a medal of honor by Treblinka extermination camp Museum. [16]

Selected publications

Books
Book Chapters
Papers

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Extermination camp</span> Nazi death camps established to systematically murder

Nazi Germany used six extermination camps, also called death camps, or killing centers, in Central Europe, primarily Occupied Poland, during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million people – mostly Jews – in the Holocaust. The victims of death camps were primarily murdered by gassing, either in permanent installations constructed for this specific purpose, or by means of gas vans. The six extermination camps were Chełmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Extermination through labour was also used at the Auschwitz and Majdanek death camps. Millions were also murdered in concentration camps, in the Aktion T4, or directly on site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treblinka extermination camp</span> Nazi extermination camp in Poland (1942–1943)

Treblinka was the second-deadliest extermination camp to be built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, 4 km (2.5 mi) south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The camp operated between 23 July 1942 and 19 October 1943 as part of Operation Reinhard, the deadliest phase of the Final Solution. During this time, it is estimated that between 700,000 and 900,000 Jews were murdered in its gas chambers, along with 2,000 Romani people. More Jews were murdered at Treblinka than at any other Nazi extermination camp apart from Auschwitz-Birkenau.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belzec extermination camp</span> Nazi German death camp in occupied Poland

Belzec was a Nazi German extermination camp in occupied Poland. It was built by the SS for the purpose of implementing the secretive Operation Reinhard, the plan to murder all Polish Jews, a major part of the "Final Solution", the overall Nazi effort to complete the genocide of all European Jews. Before Germany's defeat put an end to this project more than six million Jews had been murdered in the Holocaust. The camp operated from 17 March 1942 to the end of June 1943. It was situated about 500 m (1,600 ft) south of the local railroad station of Bełżec, in the new Lublin District of the General Government territory of German-occupied Poland. The burning of exhumed corpses on five open-air grids and bone crushing continued until March 1943.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Reinhard</span> Code name for the creation of German extermination camps in Poland in World War II

Operation Reinhard or Operation Reinhardt was the codename of the secret German plan in World War II to exterminate Polish Jews in the General Government district of German-occupied Poland. This deadliest phase of the Holocaust was marked by the introduction of extermination camps. The operation proceeded from March 1942 to November 1943; about 1.47 million or more Jews were murdered in just 100 days from late July to early November 1942, a rate which is approximately 83% higher than the commonly suggested figure for the kill rate in the Rwandan genocide. In the time frame of July to October 1942, the overall death toll, including all killings of Jews and not just Operation Reinhard, amounted to two million killed in those four months alone. It was the single fastest rate of genocidal killing in history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treblinka, Masovian Voivodeship</span> Village in Masovian Voivodeship, Poland

Treblinka is a village located in eastern Poland, situated in the present-day district of Gmina Małkinia Górna, within Ostrów Mazowiecka County in Masovian Voivodeship, some 80 kilometres north-east of Warsaw. The village lies close to the Bug River. It has 350 inhabitants.

<i>Grossaktion</i> Warsaw Nazi operation to deport and murder Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto during WWII

The Grossaktion Warsaw was the Nazi code name for the deportation and mass murder of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto during the summer of 1942, beginning on 22 July. During the Grossaktion, Jews were terrorized in daily round-ups, marched through the ghetto, and assembled at the Umschlagplatz station square for what was called in the Nazi euphemistic jargon "resettlement to the East". From there, they were sent aboard overcrowded Holocaust trains to the extermination camp in Treblinka.

"Ivan the Terrible" is the nickname given to a notorious guard at the Treblinka extermination camp during the Holocaust. The moniker alluded to Ivan IV, also known as Ivan the Terrible, the infamous tsar of Russia. "Ivan the Terrible" gained international recognition following the 1986 case of Ukrainian–American John Demjanjuk. By 1944, a cruel guard named Ivan, sharing his distinct duties and extremely violent behavior with a guard named Nicholas, was mentioned in survivor literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sobibór Museum</span> Polish WWII death camp museum

The Sobibór Museum or the Museum of the Former Sobibór Nazi Death Camp, is a Polish state-owned museum devoted to remembering the atrocities committed at the former Sobibor extermination camp located on the outskirts of Sobibór near Lublin. The Nazi German death camp was set up in occupied Poland during World War II, as part of the Jewish extermination program known as the Operation Reinhard, which marked the most deadly phase of the Holocaust in Poland. The camp was run by the SS Sonderkommando Sobibor headed by Franz Stangl. The number of Jews from Poland and elsewhere who were gassed and cremated there between April 1942 and 14 October 1943 is estimated at 250,000; possibly more, including those who came from other Reich-occupied countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berek Lajcher</span> Jewish physician and social activist

Berek Lajcher was a Jewish physician and social activist from Wyszków before the Holocaust in Poland, remembered for his leadership in the prisoner uprising at Treblinka extermination camp. More than 800,000 Jews, as well as unknown numbers of Romani people, were murdered at Treblinka in the course of Operation Reinhard in World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josef Hirtreiter</span> SS officer and war criminal

Josef Hirtreiter was an SS functionary of Nazi Germany and a Holocaust perpetrator who worked at Treblinka extermination camp during the Operation Reinhard phase of the Holocaust in Poland. In July 1946, Hirtreiter was arrested by U.S. military occupation authorities and confessed to working at Treblinka. In 1951, Hirtreiter was convicted of killing 10 people, mostly children aged one or two, and sentenced to life in prison. He was released from prison in 1977 and died several months later in a home for the elderly in Frankfurt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willi Mentz</span>

SS-UnterscharführerWilli Bruno Mentz was a member of the German SS in World War II and a Holocaust perpetrator who worked at Treblinka extermination camp during the Operation Reinhard phase of the Holocaust in Poland. Mentz was known as "Frankenstein" at the camp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Möller (SS officer)</span>

Max Möller was an SS functionary in Nazi Germany and a Holocaust perpetrator. He worked at the Treblinka extermination camp during the Operation Reinhard phase of the Holocaust in Poland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theodor van Eupen</span>

Theodor van Eupen was a member of the SS of Nazi Germany. A Holocaust perpetrator, he served as the commandant of the Treblinka I forced-labour camp (Arbeitslager) in occupied Poland during its entire course of operation. Unlike the parallel Treblinka extermination camp subordinate to the Operation Reinhard authorities in Berlin, Treblinka I was controlled by the SS and Police Leader in Warsaw. The labour camp was liquidated on 23 July 1944, ahead of the Soviet advance. By then, more than half of its cumulative number of some 20,000 inmates had died from summary executions, hunger, disease, and mistreatment. The regular workforce consisted of 1,000–2,000 prisoners, terrorized by staff of about a dozen SS-men and 100 Wachmänner guards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zdzisław Łukaszkiewicz</span> Polish judge and researcher

Judge Zdzisław Łukaszkiewicz was a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Poland upon the conclusion of World War II. The Commission has been replaced, upon the collapse of the Soviet-imposed communism in Poland, with the government-affiliated Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) serving similar purpose at present. Łukaszkiewicz was the author of the first historical research into the Nazi German extermination camps including Majdanek and Treblinka, on the territory of occupied Poland during the genocidal Operation Reinhard of the Holocaust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Otto Stadie</span>

Otto Stadie was a German nurse and member of the Action T4, the Nazi forced euthanasia programme. During the Holocaust in occupied Poland he kept the register of stolen gold and diamonds at the Treblinka extermination camp. He was convicted in the first Treblinka trial of 1965.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Opoczno S.A.</span>

Opoczno S.A. or ZPC Opoczno, known in Polish as the Zespół Zakładów Płytek Ceramicznych Opoczno, is the largest producer of ceramic tiles in Poland. For almost half a century the foundry enjoyed a monopoly status in the local market. Established in the town of Opoczno originally in the mid 19th century, it became the first and largest ceramic tiles manufacturer already in Congress Poland under the Russian partition.

The archaeology of the Holocaust is the study of material remains linked to the Holocaust. This research was initiated at Nazi extermination camps in Central Europe, but has since been applied across Europe in locations linked to Nazi atrocities and war crimes, as well as in locations where Jewish life and culture was affected during World War II.

Route to Paradise is a 2020 British short documentary film written, produced and directed by Thomas Gardner. The film follows a team of archaeologists from Staffordshire University as they attempt to uncover the former Calgarth Estate, the site where 300 Jewish children were re-located to after being liberated from Nazi Germany's concentration camps during the Holocaust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treblinka labor camp</span> German Nazi labor camp

The Treblinka labor camp was a German Nazi labor camp operating from September 1941 to 23 July 1944. It was located in Gmina Kosów Lacki in the Sokołów County, along the Siedlce–Sokołów Podlaski–Małkinia railway line, near the village and railway station of Treblinka, from which it derived its name.

References

  1. 1 2 Staff Profiles (2024). "Dr Caroline Sturdy Colls". University of Huddersfield . Retrieved 15 January 2025.
  2. ↑ Channel 5 (27 November 2013), Treblinka: Inside Hitler's Secret Death Camp Episodes. Channel 5 Broadcasting.
  3. ↑ Andy Tootell (23 January 2012), Treblinka: searching for the Holocaust's hidden graves. Ideas Lab Predictor Podcast, the University of Birmingham.
  4. ↑ Goldsmiths' Centre for Research (28 February 2014), Gone but not forgotten: Archaeological approaches to the site of the former Treblinka Extermination Camp. Archived April 7, 2014, at the Wayback Machine Centre for Research Architecture (with biographical note).
  5. ↑ Sturdy Colls, Caroline (2012). "Holocaust Archaeology: Archaeological Approaches to Landscapes of Nazi Genocide and Persecution". Journal of Conflict Archaeology. 7 (2): 70–104. doi:10.1179/1574077312Z.0000000005. S2CID   218645146.
  6. ↑ Centre of Archeology (27 January 2014), 'Finding Treblinka: Archaeological Investigations at Treblinka Extermination and Labour Camps' by Dr Caroline Sturdy Colls. Archived 2014-04-07 at the Wayback Machine Public Lecture Series. Staffordshire University, Book launch.
  7. ↑ Alan Boyle (29 March 2014), Archaeologists Delicately Dig Up Nazi Death Camp Secrets at Treblinka. NBC News
  8. 1 2 Smithsonian Channel (24 February 2014). "Treblinka: Hitler's Killing Machine". The watershed discovery of Star of David tiles confirms the existence of Treblinka's gas chambers and becomes the key to reconstructing the death camp's sinister workings. Smithsonian Institution. 4:52 min. trailer on YouTube. Archived from the original on 30 March 2014. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  9. ↑ Ronen, Gil (30 March 2014). "Archaeologists Find Treblinka Gas Chambers". Israel National News.com. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
  10. ↑ Sturdy Colls, Caroline (22 January 2012). "Treblinka: Revealing the hidden graves of the Holocaust". BBC News Magazine. Archived from the original (Internet Archive) on 11 October 2014. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  11. 1 2 3 Ynetnews (3 March 2014). "Tiles found in Treblinka confirm existence of gas chambers". Israel Jewish Scene, Internet Archive. Ynet News. Archived from the original on 1 April 2014. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  12. ↑ Waldemar Oszczęda (2008). "Jak to z opoczyńskimi "skarbami" było" [How it was, with the Opoczno treasures]. B. & Wł. Baranowski, J. Koloński – "Katalog zabytków budownictwa przemysłowego w Polsce", PAN, 1970. Opoczno.Republika.pl. Archived from the original on 3 April 2010. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  13. ↑ Dr Paweł Budziński (22 December 2009). "Towarzystwo Akcyjne Dziewulski i Lange". "Z rozwoju przemysłu ceramicznego. Dwie fabryki Tow. Akc. Dziewulski i Lange." Świat, nr 1/1908. Tygodnik Opoczyński TOP nr 51 (650) weekly. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  14. ↑ Boyle, Alan (29 March 2014). "Archaeologists Delicately Dig Up Nazi Death Camp Secrets at Treblinka". NBC. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  15. ↑ Pappas, Stephanie (31 March 2014). "First Excavation Of Nazi Death Camp Treblinka Reveals New Horrors". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  16. ↑ "Holocaust medal of honour awarded to Treblinka archaeologist". BBC News. 8 August 2022. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
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