Necrosol as a Material Archive of Genocide

The Case of the Nazi German Mass Crimes in the Szpe˛gawsk Forest

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.30261

Keywords:

Aktion 1005, genocide, mass grave, necrosol, Pomeranian Crime of 1939, World War II

Abstract

The first months of World War II in Gdańsk Pomerania saw the mass murder of local intellectual elites, of people with mental disorders or disabilities and of representatives of the small Jewish community. The Germans usually hid the victims’ bodies in mass  graves. About 30 places of execution from this “bloody autumn of 1939” were destroyed in the second half of 1944, as part of Aktion 1005, an operation to conceal evidence of the crimes. In this paper, we present the historical context for the characteristics of the necrosol from one mass grave in the Szpęgawsk Forest, which was destroyed/desecrated by the Germans at the end of 1944. The research proves that even the destruction of mass graves by exhuming the bodies and burning them leaves material traces that allow for the reconstruction of the organisation of the crime and the methods of covering it up.

Author Biographies

  • Dawid Kobiałka, University of Lodz

    Dawid Kobiałka is an assistant professor at the Institute of Archaeology, University of Lodz, and head of the international and multidisciplinary research project entitled “An Archaeology of the Pomeranian Crime of 1939”, which is financed by the National Science Centre, Poland. His research interests include archaeology of the recent past, modern conflict archaeology, forensic archaeology and community archaeology.

  • Mikołaj Smykowski, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

    Mikołaj Smykowski is an assistant professor at the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnology, University of Adam Mickiewicz, Poznań, Poland. His academic interests focus on the environmental history of the Holocaust and the genocide–ecocide nexus. He is currently interested in multispecies ethnography, biodeterioration of heritage and the concept of bioreceptivity in contemporary design.

  • Tomasz Ceran, Institute of National Remembrance, Branch of Bydgoszcz

    Tomasz Ceran is head of the Historical Research Department of the Institute of National Remembrance Sub-Branch Office in Bydgoszcz. He holds a PhD in history, and graduated in history and international relations from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. His research interests include the German occupation of Poland during the World War II (especially Gdańsk Pomerania and Kuyavia), theories of totalitarianism and genocide studies.

  • Monika Fabiańska, University of Silesia

    Monika J. Fabian´ska is a professor at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Silesia in Katowice (Poland). Her research area comprises organic and inorganic geochemistry of fossil fuels and dispersed organic matter, in particular environmental forensics and the impact of bio- and fossil fuels on the environment.

  • Joanna Rennwanz, Polish Academy of Sciences

    Joanna Rennwanz is an assistant professor at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the head of the Environmental Archaeology Research Team at the Department of Prehistoric and Medieval Studies in Poznań. She specializes in archaeobotany. Her research interests include mainly the use of plants in prehistory and the early Middle Ages and the symbolic meaning of plants from modern funeral contexts, as well as selected issues in the field of contemporary archaeology.

  • Iwona Hildebrandt-Radke, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

    Iwona Hildebrandt-Radke is a professor at the Faculty of Geographical and Geological Sciences, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. She specializes in geomorphology, geoarchaeology and Holocene paleogeography. Her research focuses on landscape transformations and sedimentological and geochemical records in the context of human activity. 

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2025-06-25

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Vol. 11 No. 2 (2024): Special Issue: Polish Contemporary Archaeology

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How to Cite

Kobiałka, D., Smykowski, M., Ceran, T., Fabiańska, M., Rennwanz, J., & Hildebrandt-Radke, I. (2025). Necrosol as a Material Archive of Genocide: The Case of the Nazi German Mass Crimes in the Szpe˛gawsk Forest. Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, 11(2), 177-201. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.30261