The Archaeology of the Holocaust:
Vilna, Rhodes and Escape Tunnels
Wednesday, March 25th
At the height of World War II, the Nazis rounded up and killed over 100,000 Jews from Vilna, Lithuania and from the ancient island of Rhodes in eastern Greece. Two ancient cities where Jews had lived for centuries were destroyed within three years. Vilna was knows as the “Jerusalem of the North,” and was seemingly destined to be forgotten. The Jews of Rhodes were seen as the elite of Sephardic Jewry, and they too, were almost forgotten. Until now. Freund and his team of students and staff have recovered what was thought to be a “lost history.” Join us as he recounts the dramatic escape from Ponar on the last night of Passover, 1944 and the escape tunnel they dug and learn what we now know about the last days of the 2,300-year-old Jewish community of Rhodes. Learn how archaeology and geoscience are transforming our understanding of the Holocaust.