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Pavel Vařeka, the former dean of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen and current head of the Department of Archaeology, is currently leading a team investigating the remains of the concentration camp in Svatava near Sokolov. On the grounds of this camp, through which more than two thousand women passed between 1943 and 1945, they have discovered the foundations of the camp kitchen and part of the fence. The camp was burnt down after the war and most of the land was built over.

We talked to him about the archaeological research of the concentration camp in Svatava near Sokolov.

Can you tell us about how this concentration camp was discovered and what your first reactions were to the discovery?

The concentration camp was roughly known. A memorial had already been built on part of that camp in the 1950s and 1960s, and it still stands there today. However, this memorial occupies only a very small area of the camp, and exactly where the rest of the camp was located was unknown. We were able to obtain an image from an American reconnaissance plane from April 1945, which we projected onto the present terrain. We thus found out exactly where the camp was located and how it has survived to the present day.

Can you say something about the historical significance of the concentration camp and what effect it had on the population?

We are in the so-called Sudetenland, the territory that was annexed to the so-called Third Reich after the Munich Agreement. This means that there was a German population that was included in the majority after the war and was expelled from there. So we are working with the post-war historical memory that was shaped by the memorial I was talking about. The population here changed, new settlers came from different parts of Czechoslovakia and from abroad who had not experienced the Second World War in this place. They had never seen this concentration camp because they came here after the war.

Could you tell us what specific technologies or methods you and your team are using in this archaeological research?

We always work with non-invasive methods, so we look underground without having to pick up a pickaxe. Specifically, we have used geophysical methods, GPR and magnetometry. Colleagues from Masaryk University have carried out geophysical research here, on the basis of which we have determined our next course of action. We tested the results of the non-destructive research and the American image by uncovering. The non-destructive methods are followed by probing, where we look below the surface and compare the results with other methods. We're working to an accuracy of about one metre.

What role do students play in your research and how do they benefit from their participation?

The research is carried out as a field experience of archaeology students, both Czech from Pilsen and English from the University of Cambridge. Students are introduced to contemporary archaeological methods and learn hands-on in the field. Not only excavation, but also photodocumentation, photogrammetry, geodetic surveying, the use of drones and other methods. We have students from first year undergraduate to graduate students.

What specific areas does this research focus on?

The research is part of the Czech-Polish project "Biological Anthropology and Landscape Archaeology of Nazi Repressions: a Central-Eastern European Perspective". The project aims to study neglected material evidence of Nazi repression, especially the remains of lesser-known concentration camps. Specifically, it focuses on western Bohemia, where the Flossenbürg branch camp was located, and Silesia, with the Gross Rosen branch concentration camp.

Thank you for the interview.