Press Release
Mass Holocaust Grave Found in Latvia
“Photogammetry consists of tens of thousands of individual photographs stitched together from a drone we brought.” Dr. Richard A. Freund, Bertram and Gladys Aaron Professor In Jewish Studies at Christopher Newport University.
In July 2021, Dr. Richard Freund, a world-renowned Holocaust archeologist led a team of geospatial scientists to Latvia to conduct the first geospatial survey of the land. Scientific evidence identifying the exact location of a mass grave is now confirmed.
“We mapped the subsurface of the site using a revolutionary new technique. Experts from around Riga came to watch this new process for documenting a Holocaust era site. We employed some of the most sophisticated non-invasive geoscience technologies including GeoSLAM, EM-61, Ground Penetrating Radar, and Electrical Resistivity Tomography. We created a complete map of the camp, the historical location of Jungfernhof and the mass grave.”—Dr. Richard Freund, Christopher Newport University, Newport News, VA.
Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) “Pit anomaly.” Scientific team, Dr. Richard Freund, Dr. Phil Reeder, Geographer and Cartographer. Dean of the Bayer School of Science, Duquesne University and Prof. Harry Jol, Geographer and Anthropologist. Ground Penetrating Radar Specialist, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
Beginning with drone surveys, followed by Tomography (ERT) and ground penetrating radar (GPR), scientists used three-D models to confirm the presence of a trench, 20 x 20 meters maximum, and about two meters or six feet below surface of the earth. The trench/burial pit displayed right angle features that are consistent with a man-made mass grave, able to accommodate as many as 800-1,000 people.
“For many Holocaust survivors and descendants of victims, the date and place of murdered relatives is vague or missing altogether. Sites of murder coupled with the disturbing evidence of a mass grave warrants our deepest attention. Efforts to bring this forgotten camp into the realm of public memory, to engage Latvian officials, Holocaust scholars and descendant families worldwide in a process remembrance, has been the focus of my work.”—Prof. Karen Frostig, Lesley University, and Resident Scholar, WSRC, Brandeis University.
Dr. Frostig is the Founding Director of the Locker of Memory memorial project to the victims of the Jungfernhof concentration camp. She is the granddaughter of murdered victims deported to the camp. Ilya Lensky, Director of the Museum “Jews in Latvia” and partner to the Locker of Memory project was the primary Latvian historian at the site, coordinating the work with Latvian authorities. Staff and students from Canada and the USA were also present
Findings confirmed historic eyewitness testimony, indicating a mass grave at the camp contained up to 800 bodies of victims. The Jungfernhof concentration camp, Latvia’s first concentration camp, was established in December 1941 and dismantled in March 1943. Imprisoning 3984 Reich Jews deported from four cities, Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Vienna, and Hamburg, 148 persons survived. The site, home to the Mazjumprava Manor, was recently turned into a recreational park.
