THE TUNNEL WAS SMALL, DUG USING SPOONS AND CUPS AND SET AMID THE SPLENDOUR OF A FOREST IN LITHUANIA. BUT THE STORY BEHIND IT IS OF ATROCITIES, HORROR AND ULTIMATELY ESCAPE. NICK FARIS REPORTS.
The Nazi prisoners knew they were going to die. The 70 Jews, nine Russians and one Pole had been held in a pit in a Lithuanian forest and assigned a grisly task — burning thousands of bodies at one of the first sites of Nazi genocide.
A major geophysical discovery reveals what the “Burning Brigade” did next: they dug a tunnel, using spoons and cups, and organized a desperate breakout. This week, researchers — who included Calgary geophysicist Paul Bauman — finally pinpointed the tunnel’s location. Speaking with the National Post’s Nick Faris, Bauman describes what it was like to work on the project. This is an edited version of their conversation.
Q What is the history of the Burning Brigade’s tunnel?
A The Germans saw Lithuania as the place to start testing their ideas of exterminating the Jewish population, experimenting with ways to kill people en masse. They brought them to this site in the Ponar forest (now called Paneriai), marched them to the pits (which had been dug by their former allies, the Russians) and shot them, 10 by 10. More than 100,000 people were killed. By the end of 1943, the Nazis saw they were going to lose the war, and wanted to destroy all evidence of these atrocities.
Q How did this involve the Burning Brigade?
A Their duty was to burn these 100,000 bodies. At various points during the burning, some of them actually came across remains of family members: wives, brothers, sisters. It completely destroyed any reason for them to live, other than vengeance — and to bring these atrocities to light. And it also completely removed any sense of fear they had and inspired the drive to escape.
Q Tell me about the breakout.
A They tunnelled for 76 days. It appears they tunnelled 35 metres. On April 15, 1944 — the last day of Passover, the Jewish holiday of freedom — they made their break. Somewhere during the break, some branches cracked and the Nazis were alerted. There was a second barbed wire fence the brigade wasn’t aware of. There was a minefield, as well. Some of the escapees were shot. Some were blown up by the mines. They were chased by dogs. The surrounding villagers were very hostile to the escapees. They wandered through the countryside for five days, literally sleeping in manure piles to hide the scent they were imbued with from burning bodies for months.
Q How many of the 80 escaped?
A Twelve were able to escape. Eleven survived, and all of those 11 fought with Jewish partisans hiding in the forest until the end of the war.
Q Why is the tunnel such a significant discovery?
A It is hardly one of the great engineering feats of the world. It’s a small tunnel, 70 by 60 centimetres. But the story behind it, the will to survive, the resiliency, the courage, the drive to live and to fight back — this tunnel brings to light, almost 75 years after it was built, the knowledge of what happened in Lithuania. The longer I was there and the more I thought about the escape, the more powerful it became to me.
Q How hard is it to find a tunnel?
A Tunnel detection isn’t easy. I didn’t think we had much of a chance to find this one, because it was so small, so narrow. Once we realized we were onto something, you start to have time to think about the implications and what this all means.
Q What technique did you use?
A Electrical resistivity tomography. It’s an imaging technique, similar to X-rays or MRIs or ultrasounds. It slices up the earth in terms of its electrical properties. The idea is that the tunnel will have different electrical properties than the surrounding material. Different moisture content — like the water soaked up by the tunnel’s wood shoring in this very rainy forest — made the ability of the material in the tunnel to conduct electricity different enough that it showed up very, very clearly.
Q Aside from the tunnel, is there anything around Paneriai that would remind visitors of the atrocities?
A The pit that’s preserved the best is one the Burning Brigade lived in, Pit Six. The other five pits are largely filled in, mostly with human remains. There’s a very small museum — essentially, it’s a house. Small, but very powerful. Then it’s in a forest, a beautiful forest, very much like an east coast, Quebec or Ontario forest: mixed maple and oak trees, moss, a little bit hilly, full of birds, very little light penetration, some pine trees. Another element you definitely notice is a train track. That’s how the Nazis brought many of the victims. Periodically, you hear the train whistle in the distance, and then it comes closer and closer, and then moves away.