The Heart of Terror: A Forensic and Archaeological Assessment of the Old Gas Chambers at Treblinka

At the extermination camp at Treblinka in Poland, the Nazis murdered between 900,000 to one million people. When they abandoned the camp in 1943, they tried to hide the traces of their crimes. This resulted in the popular perception that the camp had been destroyed and no systematic attempt was made to locate the evidence of the crimes or to find the graves of the victims. However, this paper will outline how historical and archaeological research has demonstrated that a considerable amount of evidence from the camp does survive. The results of search for the first (old) gas chambers at Treblinka will be outlined and it will be demonstrated how, through the use of a range of interdisciplinary state-of-the-art techniques, a more accurate picture of the camp is emerging. The implications of this work for enhancing education, commemorative and visitor experiences will also be discussed.