Human Remains and Identification
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Human remains and identification HUMAN REMAINS AND VIOLENCE Human remains and identification Human remains Human remains and identification presents a pioneering investigation into the practices and methodologies used in the search for and and identification exhumation of dead bodies resulting from mass violence. Previously absent from forensic debate, social scientists and historians here Mass violence, genocide, confront historical and contemporary exhumations with the application of social context to create an innovative and interdisciplinary dialogue. and the ‘forensic turn’ Never before has a single volume examined the context of motivations and interests behind these pursuits, each chapter enlightening the Edited by ÉLISABETH ANSTETT political, social, and legal aspects of mass crime and its aftermaths. and JEAN-MARC DREYFUS The book argues that the emergence of new technologies to facilitate the identification of dead bodies has led to a ‘forensic turn’, normalizing exhumations as a method of dealing with human remains en masse. However, are these exhumations always made for legitimate reasons? And what can we learn about societies from the way in which they deal with this consequence of mass violence? Multidisciplinary in scope, this book presents a ground-breaking selection of international case studies, including the identification of corpses by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the resurfacing ANSTETTand of human remains from the Gulag and the sites of Jewish massacres from the Holocaust. Human remains and identification will appeal to readers interested in understanding this crucial phase of mass violence’s aftermath, such as researchers in history, anthropology, sociology, forensic science, law, politics, and modern warfare. Élisabeth Anstett is a Researcher in Social Anthropology at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France, and a Director of the Corpses of Mass Violence and Genocide Programme funded by the European Research Council Dreyfus ( Jean-Marc Dreyfus is Reader in Holocaust Studies at the University of Manchester, UK, and a Director of the Corpses of Mass Violence and Genocide Programme funded by the European Research Council E ds ) ISBN 978-0-7190-9756-0 9 780719 097560 www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk HUMAN REMAINS AND VIOLENCE Cover design: www.riverdesign.co.uk Human remains and identifi cation HUMAN REMAINS AND VIOLENCE Human remains and violence aims to question the social legacy of mass violence by studying how diff erent societies have coped with the dead bodies resulting from war, genocide and state sponsored brutality. However, rather paradoxically, given the large volume of work devoted to the body on the one hand, and to mass violence on the other, the question of the body in the context of mass violence remains a largely unexplored area and even an academic blind spot. Interdisciplinary in nature, Human remains and violence intends to show how various social and cultural treatments of the dead body simultaneously challenge common representations, legal prac- tices and morality. Th is series aims to provide proper intellectual and theoretical tools for a better understanding of mass violence’s aft ermaths. Series editors Jean-Marc Dreyfus and É lisabeth Anstett ALSO AVAILABLE IN THIS SERIES Destruction and human remains: disposal and concealment in genocide and mass violence Edited by É lisabeth Anstett and Jean-Marc Dreyfus Human remains and mass violence: methodological approaches Edited by Jean-Marc Dreyfus and É lisabeth Anstett Governing the dead: sovereignty and the politics of dead bodies Edited by Finn Stepputat Human remains and identifi cation Mass violence, genocide, and the ‘forensic turn’ Edited by É lisabeth Anstett and Jean-Marc Dreyfus Manchester University Press Copyright © Manchester University Press 2015 While copyright in the volume as a whole is vested in Manchester University Press, copyright in individual chapters belongs to their respective authors, and no chapter may be reproduced wholly or in part without the express permission in writing of both author and publisher. Published by Manchester University Press Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7190 9756 0 hardback ISBN 978 1 5261 1675 8 paperback ISBN 978 1 5261 2501 9 open access First published 2015 This electronic version has been made freely available under a Creative Commons (CC-BY-NC-ND) licence. A copy of the licence can be viewed at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Typeset by Out of House Publishing iv Contents List of illustrations page vii List of contributors x Acknowledgements xvi Introduction: why exhume? Why identify? 1 É lisabeth Anstett and Jean-Marc Dreyfus 1 Bitter legacies: a war of extermination , grave looting, and culture wars in the American West 14 Tony Platt 2 Final chapter: portraying the exhumation and reburial of Polish Jewish Holocaust victims in the pages of yizkor books 34 Gabriel N. Finder 3 Bykivnia: how grave robbers, activists, and foreigners ended offi cial silence about Stalin’s mass graves near Kiev 59 Karel C. Berkhoff 4 Th e concealment of bodies during the military dictatorship in Uruguay (1973–84) 83 Jos é L ó pez Mazz vi Contents 5 State secrets and concealed bodies: exhumations of Soviet-era victims in contemporary Russia 98 Viacheslav Bitiutckii 6 A mere technical exercise? Challenges and technological solutions to the identifi cation of individuals in mass grave scenarios in the modern context 117 Gillian Fowler and Tim Th ompson 7 Disassembling the pieces, reassembling the social: the forensic and political lives of secondary mass graves in Bosnia and Herzegovina 142 Admir Jugo and Sari Wastell 8 Identifi cation, politics, disciplines: missing persons and colonial skeletons in South Africa 175 Nicky Rousseau 9 Bury or display? Th e politics of exhumation in post-genocide Rwanda 203 R é mi Korman 10 Remembering the Japanese occupation massacres: mass graves in post-war Malaysia 221 Frances Tay Index 239 Illustrations 2.1 Shmuel Laksman overseeing the reburial of the Popowski and the Zadok families from Ż elech ó w and three unidentifi ed women in the Jewish cemetery in Ż elech ó w, May 1947. From A. W. Jasny (ed.), Yizker- bukh fun der zhelikhover yidisher kehile; Sefer yizkor li-kehilat zhelihov (Chicago: Tsentrale zhelikhover landsmanshaft in Shikago, 1953), p. 322. page 39 2.2 Survivors from Skierniewice surround the collective grave of the town’s Jewish victims and the monument erected in their memory during its unveiling in August 1947. From I. Perlow (ed.), Seyfer skernyevits: Lezeykher der fartilikter kehile kdushe (Tel Aviv: Irgun yoytsey skernyevits beyisroel mit der hilf fun skernyevitser landsmanshaft in nju-york, 1955), p. 664. 42 2.3 Speech by Simcha Mincberg to mark the reburial of victims from Wierzbnik and unveiling of the monument dedicated to their memory, 1945. From M. Schutzman (ed.), Sefer virzbnik-starakhovitz (Tel Aviv: Mif’al ha-va’ad ha-tzibori shel yotz’ey virzbnik- starakhovitz ba-’aretz uve-tefutzot, 1974), p. 346. 43 2.4 Mordechai Braf of Otwock kneels beside the coffi n of his sister Freydl-Masha in 1945 aft er he had exhumed her body from the mass grave in which nineteen members of his family had been buried viii List of illustrations helter-skelter aft er the Germans shot them. Mordechai Braf’s own caption reads: ‘Aft er prolonged digging a frightful picture revealed itself before our eyes. For what seemed like an eternity we stood in shock. Th e corpses of my sister Freydl- Masha (Frania), the wife of Shimon Friedman, who was present at the site, and their six children were completely intact – three years aft er they were murdered! It was as if they hadn’t yet made peace with their fate.’ From S. Kanc (ed.) Sefer zikaron ’otwotzk kartshev; Yizker-bukh tsu fareybikn dem ondenk fun di kheyruv-gevorene yidishe kehilos otvotsk karschev (Tel Aviv: ‘’Irgun yotz’ey ’otvotzk be-yisra’el’ bay der mithilf fun di otvotsker un kartshever landsmanshaft n in frankraykh, amerike un kanade, 1968), col. 973. 46 2.5 Ephraim Weichselfi sh (centre) and Y. Fasserstein (left ) bear the coffi n holding the ashes taken from Che ł mno during the ceremony, presided over by Rabbi David Kahane (above right), to rebury them in Kutno, 1945. From D. Shtokfi sh (ed.), Sefer kutnah ve-hasevivah (Tel Aviv: ’Irgun yotz’ey kutnah ve-hasevivah be-yisra’el uve-hutz la-’aretz, 1968), p. 404. 47 2.6 Survivors from Kutno surround the monument unveiled in 1945, during the reburial of ashes from Che ł mno, in memory of the town’s Jewish victims; Ephraim Weichselfi sh is visible in uniform to the far left . From D. Shtokfi sh (ed.), Sefer kutnah ve-hasevivah (Tel Aviv: ’Irgun yotz’ey kutnah ve-hasevivah be-yisra’el uve-hutz la-’aretz, 1968), p. 403. 48 3.1 KGB offi cers look on as a forensic expert examines human bones extracted from the Bykivnia mass graves. April 1971. Source: Tymon Kretschmer, with permission to publish from Mieczys ł aw G ó ra, deputy chair of Polish government investigations at Bykivnia. Th e original is in an unpublished picture album dated April 1971 and called ‘Fotodokumenty mesta massovogo unichtozheniia liudei v period nemetsko-fashistskoi okkupatsii g. Kieva (19-i kvartal Dneprovskogo lisnichestva upravleniia zelenoi zony)’. 66 List of illustrations ix 7.1 Mass burial at Branjevo farm: Donje Pilica area, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Courtesy of the ICTY. 150 10.1 Workers using rudimentary tools to excavate the mass grave at Parit Tinggi.