Caroline Sturdy Colls

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Caroline Sturdy Colls
Born1985 (age 37–38)
NationalityBritish
Education Staffordshire University
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 Conflict Archaeology and Genocide Investigation at Staffordshire University, and serves as director for the Centre of Archaeology there. She 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 ethical and 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 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 murdered directly on side.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treblinka extermination camp</span> German extermination camp near Treblinka, Poland in World War II

Treblinka was an extermination camp, 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

<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; more than 1.47 million Jews were murdered in just 100 days from July to October 1942.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Opoczno</span> Place in Łódź Voivodeship, Poland

Opoczno(listen)) is a town in south-central Poland, in eastern part of Łódź Voivodeship, previously in Piotrków Trybunalski Voivodeship (1975–1998). It has a long and rich history, and in the past it used to be one of the most important urban centers of northwestern Lesser Poland. Currently, Opoczno is an important road and rail junction; its patron saint is Saint Cecilia, and the town is famous across Poland for its folklore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evidence and documentation for the Holocaust</span> Evidence for the genocide of Jews in World War II

The Holocaust—the murder of about six million Jews by Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1945—is the best-documented genocide in history. Although there is no single document which lists all Jewish victims of Nazi persecution, there is conclusive evidence that about six million were murdered. There is also conclusive evidence that Jews were gassed at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Operation Reinhard extermination camps, and in gas vans, and that there was a systematic plan by the Nazi leadership to murder them.

<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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alderney camps</span>

The Alderney camps were prison camps built and operated by Nazi Germany during its World War II occupation of the Channel Islands. The Channel Islands were the only part of the British Isles to be occupied.

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 John Demjanjuk case. 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. John Demjanjuk was first accused of being Ivan the Terrible at the Treblinka concentration camp. Demjanjuk was found guilty of war crimes and was sentenced to death by hanging. Exculpatory material in the form of conflicting identifications from Soviet archives was subsequently released, identifying Ivan the Terrible as one Ivan Marchenko, leading the Supreme Court of Israel to acquit Demjanjuk in 1993 because of reasonable doubt. Demjanjuk was later extradited to Germany where he was convicted in 2011 of war crimes for having served at Sobibor extermination camp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berek Lajcher</span>

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">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>

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.

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.

References

  1. 1 2 Staff Profiles (2014). "Dr Caroline Sturdy Colls". Staffordshire University . Retrieved 2 April 2014.
  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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