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Israeli Archaeologist Digs Up Past at Infamous Sobibor Death Camp

(AP-Washington Post) After learning that two of his uncles were murdered in the infamous Sobibor death camp, Israeli archaeologist Yoram Haimi embarked on a landmark excavation project that is shining new light on the workings of one of the most notorious Nazi killing machines, including pinpointing the location of the gas chambers where hundreds of thousands were killed. Unlike other camps that had at least a facade of being prison or labor camps, Sobibor and the neighboring camps Belzec and Treblinka were designed specifically for exterminating Jews. Victims were transported there in cattle cars and gassed to death almost immediately. But after an October 1943 uprising, the Nazis shut it down and leveled it to the ground, replanting over it to cover their tracks. Because there were so few survivors - only 64 were known - there has never been an authentic layout of the camp, where the Nazis murdered 250,000 Jews in 18 months. Over five years of excavations, Haimi has been able to remap the camp and has unearthed thousands of items, helping to identify some of Sobibor's formerly nameless victims. Once his work in Sobibor is done, Haimi hopes to move on to research at Treblinka and other destroyed death camps.
2012-08-24 00:00:00
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