My third report, and already stretching the limits of the issues I originally indented to cover. Not a Biblical artifact, nor a Biblical site, but indeed archaeology. Read it and you'll find out. Danny.

First Holocaust Archaeological Excavation by an Israeli

Although my chief interest has always been the biblical period, I believed that
archaeological method could be useful in illuminating recent history as well, especially that of the Holocaust which took place in Europe during the Second World War.
Archaeological research, I reasoned, could re-expose the concentration and extermination camps and so show in detail the working of the death machines which Nazis operated. Many of these were burnt and destroyed by the Nazis at the end of the war in attempt to conceal the atrocities committed there. With the exception of Auschwitz, most of these camps have very few visible remains today. Yet I never heard of an archaeological expedition working at a concentration or death camp, let alone by an Israeli, until lately.
It all started in 2005 when Yoram Haimi, an archaeologist from the southern district of the IAA (Israel Antiquities Authority) visited Yad Vashem to learn more about the fate of his uncles in the Holocaust. With the help of the librarian he found their names in transport 53 from France to Poland. It was bound to Sobibor, so Haimi decided to visit the camp. Sobibor was built in 1942 and was destroyed by the Nazis in 1943, after gassing to death 250,000 Jews and 1000 Poles.
Today Sobibor is mostly covered by a forest, with none of the buildings of the original camp in evidence. Only the railway tracks and memorials attest to its location and its horrific past. (see sample images here: http://www.silentwall.com/SobiborI.html)
This being the case, our knowledge of the plan of the camp and its operation is based only on eye-witness accounts and historical records.
(see such a study at: http://www.deathcamps.org/sobibor/maps.html)

In 2001 first attempts to reveal parts of the camp were made by prof. A. Kulla. He located four mass grave sites and a building he believed to have been part of the gas chambers. In October 2007 Haimi renewed the excavations at the edge of the building discovered by Prof. Kulla. Although only six squares were opened, the find indicated the building was not part of the gas chamber complex but the “barbershop”, the place where the victims were shaved before being taken for gassing. The small artifacts found included razors, scissors and a stone for sharpening knives.

Selected artifacts recovered in the renewed excavation at Sobibor.

Surprisingly they also comprised small glass perfume bottles originally made by a Dutch company named “Leerdam”. Haimi contacted them and tried to get information about the bottles but when the company when understood where they were found, they stopped collaborating with the research.

Bottom fragment of a perfume glass bottle found in Sobibor.
(c) Yehudith Himens

The Location of the “barber shop” fits well with a map drawn by Thomas Blatt, a survivor of Sobibor who worked there. (see his own web site on Sobibor at: http://www.sobibor.info)
From the “barber shop” the victims were taken along a narrow path demarcated by barbed wire (the “pipe”) to the gas chambers. Now that Haimi located the “barber shop” he plans he plans to follow the “pipe” in the hope of finding the gas chambers themselves.

An aerial photo of Sobibor today. The road marked in green is the probable route of the demarcated  path (The “pipe” or “Himmelstrasse”) that led the victims to the gas chambers after being shaved. In the next season Haimi plans to dig the end of the path, and hopefully  discover the gas chambers (marked in yellow).

Haimi has also created a web site for this excavation too (http://www.undersobibor.org).
Its aim is to present his findings, and to recruit volunteers and funds for the continuation of the project.

If my report will help in any way toward this goal, that would be my biggest reward.