Exhumation And Reburial Of The War Dead By The Black Cross In Austria Between 1918 And 1938 From An Archaeological Perspective

Summary

In Austria the Black Cross is responsible for the creation of military cemeteries and other war graves for members of all nations and religious faiths, the graves of bombing victims as well as victims of political and racial persecution during the Second World War, and the care and maintenance of war graves from the time before or during the First World War. This lecture examines the methodological approach adopted by the institution for the  exhumation of individual and mass graves between 1918 and 1938, based on examples on the southern and eastern fronts, whilst at the same time exploring the different ways of identifying the war dead using modern archaeological and forensic methods. The talk concludes with a detailed analysis of why identifying and giving a name and face to the dead is important both for the bereaved families as well as for historians, archaeologists and the commemorative culture.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Archaeology Of Interwar Europe (1918-1939)   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 514