ABSTRACT

In recent years an historical reappraisal has been carried out of one of the worst crimes – outside of prisons and concentration camps – committed in Germany by the SS and Wehrmacht in the final months of the Second World War: the execution of 208 forced labourers by firing squad in the Arnsberg Forest near Warstein and Meschede (Westphalia, western Germany) by the ‘Division for Vengeance’ of the SS in March 1945. The use of archaeological research methods allowed us to (1) pinpoint both the scenes of the crimes and the events, (2) recover and classify finds attributed to both the victims and the perpetrators and (3) uncover and record in their historical context concrete finds and features from when the atrocity occurred, the period of the initial burial of the victims by US troops in May 1945 and their exhumation in 1964, with the aim of preserving them for future presentations.

摘要

近年来，对纳粹党卫军和国防军在二战最后几个月在德国犯下的最严重罪行之一——监狱和集中营之外——进行了历史性的重新评估：解雇 208 名强迫劳动者1945 年 3 月，党卫军的“复仇分部”在 Warstein 和 Meschede（德国西部威斯特法伦州）附近的 Arnsberg 森林中进行了调查。考古研究方法的使用使我们能够 (1) 查明犯罪现场和犯罪现场事件，（2）恢复和分类归因于受害者和肇事者的发现和（3）在其历史背景中发现和记录从暴行发生时的具体发现和特征，即美军最初埋葬受害者的时期在 1945 年 5 月和 1964 年的挖掘中，以保存它们以供将来演示。