trowel
Object numberM2011/005
Titletrowel
DescriptionSteel trowel (handtool) used by Richard Wright in the excavation of a mass grave site at Serniki, Ukraine, 1990. It is engraved with the manufacturers initials W.H.S.
Richard Wright A.M. is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at University of Sydney. In 1990-1991 the Australian government commissioned him to investigate the horrors of mass graves in Ukraine originating from the Holocaust of WW2. From 1997-2000 he was Chief Archaeologist for ICTY in Bosnia. His team had the grim task of finding mass graves, examining the forensic evidence contained in them, and recovering the bodies. He has given expert testimony at several war crimes trials in The Hague. In 2009 he was Senior Forensic Adviser to Oxford Archaeology during the exhumation and anthropological study of 250 Australian soldiers from WW1 mass graves at Fromelles, in NE France.
In September 1942, German troops rounded up Jews in the northern Ukrainian village of Serniki and marched them through the forest to their death. Local officials assisted the Germans as they dug a burial trench 40 meters long and 5 meters wide, and systematically murdered 850 Jewish men, women and children. The victims were predominantly females, many of whom were elderly, and children under the age of 16.
In 1990 the scientific investigation of mass graves was in its infancy when Richard and his wife Sonia started the excavations of three mass graves dating from the Holocaust in Ukraine. Serniki became an important archaeological site when the Australian Government carried out investigations into Nazi War Crimes. An excavation was commissioned with the aid of the Russian Government and the material evidence recovered led to the first trial of a War Criminal in an Australian Court.
Sydney Jewish Museum is the repository of the archaeological evidence recovered from the excavation.
Richard Wright A.M. is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at University of Sydney. In 1990-1991 the Australian government commissioned him to investigate the horrors of mass graves in Ukraine originating from the Holocaust of WW2. From 1997-2000 he was Chief Archaeologist for ICTY in Bosnia. His team had the grim task of finding mass graves, examining the forensic evidence contained in them, and recovering the bodies. He has given expert testimony at several war crimes trials in The Hague. In 2009 he was Senior Forensic Adviser to Oxford Archaeology during the exhumation and anthropological study of 250 Australian soldiers from WW1 mass graves at Fromelles, in NE France.
In September 1942, German troops rounded up Jews in the northern Ukrainian village of Serniki and marched them through the forest to their death. Local officials assisted the Germans as they dug a burial trench 40 meters long and 5 meters wide, and systematically murdered 850 Jewish men, women and children. The victims were predominantly females, many of whom were elderly, and children under the age of 16.
In 1990 the scientific investigation of mass graves was in its infancy when Richard and his wife Sonia started the excavations of three mass graves dating from the Holocaust in Ukraine. Serniki became an important archaeological site when the Australian Government carried out investigations into Nazi War Crimes. An excavation was commissioned with the aid of the Russian Government and the material evidence recovered led to the first trial of a War Criminal in an Australian Court.
Sydney Jewish Museum is the repository of the archaeological evidence recovered from the excavation.
Production date 1990 - 1990
SubjectHolocaust
Object nametools
Dimensions
- length: 230.00 mm
width: 80.00 mm
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Professor Richard Wright