Uncovering the Secrets of Sobibor -with scientists Dr. Philip Reeder and Yoram Haimi

Classrooms Without Borders is honored to bring these scientists to our global community to learn about the work to uncover the secrets buried underground at the Sobibor Extermination Camp.
Ironically, the effort to hide the camp inadvertently preserved it. Working with researchers from around the world, including Dr. Philip Reeder, this project used ground-penetrating radar, electrical resistivity tomography and magnetometers to perform high-tech subsurface analysis and mapping, ensuring that burial sites would not be disturbed.

Subsequent excavations uncovered artifacts of victims, including children, in their original locations along the walkways and buildings used to exterminate nearly 250,000 Jews. This project is a prime example of how the use of technology, conventional archaeology, and the testimonies of survivors uncovered this piece of history that was intended to remain hidden.

The trailer from the unfinished Documentary: Deadly Deception at Sobibor, will be shown.

Dr. Philip Reeder, dean of Duquesne’s Bayer School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, and a participant in research at Sobibor, was part of the research team that used science to uncover some of the secrets of the site. An environmental scientist specializing in paleo-environmental and paleo-climate reconstruction, he was responsible for all surveying and map production associated with the project.

Yoram Haimi, Israel Antiquities Authority regional archaeologist and Head Archaeologist for the Sobibor project, had two uncles perish at the extermination camp. Haimi will provide an illustrated lecture of his quest of a lifetime to uncover what truly happened at Sobibor.

Haimi’s presentation will chronicle what happened to his family, and in part the 250,000 other victims murdered during the Holocaust at Sobibor. An extermination camp on the remote edges of eastern Poland, it was the site for a successful, large-scale rebellion and escape on Oct. 14, 1943. Following the escape of about 300 Jewish prisoners, approximately 250 of which were subsequently hunted down and killed, the Nazis destroyed the camp and quickly buried it under tons of dirt, and then planted trees to stop word of the rebellion and escape from spreading and inspiring others.

Dr. Philip ReederDr. Philip Reeder is currently the Dean of the Bayer School of Natural and Environmental Sciences at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His current areas of research broadly focus on using science to write or rewrite history. He has been doing Holocaust-related research, as part of an international team of scientists, archaeologists, and historians, for the past ten years, mostly in Lithuania and Poland. As chief cartographer, he is responsible for all aspects of mapping and spatial analysis associated with these projects.

Yoram Haimi

After his release from the army in 1982, he moved to Kibbutz Nahal Oz and started working in a barn. After two years, he worked as a farmer. In 1996 he graduated with a BA in Archeology from Ben Gurion University, and in 2000 an MA in Archeology and Anthropology.

He has been working for the Israel Antiquities Authority for over 20 years, conducting archeological excavations and surveys, mainly in the southern part of the country in the Negev. For the past two years, he has been working as a curator at the Israel Antiquities Authority. Since 2007 he has been a partner in archeological research in the Sobibor extermination camp in Poland. The research continues to this day. Additionally, he hopes this year to submit my doctoral thesis at Tel Aviv University on archaeological research related to the Holocaust. The research continues to this day. Additionally, he hopes this year to submit my doctoral thesis at Tel Aviv University on archaeological research related to the Holocaust.

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