An archaeological evaluation of crimes committed in the Arnsberg Forest (South Westphalia, Germany) in the final months of the Second World War

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.