We talk to Paul Bauman, a geophysicist from Hartford University in Connecticut, who is participating in international projects and who, at the invitation of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum, searched for traces of the past in the so-called Anielewicz bunker at 18 Miła Street and the Bersohn and Bauman Hospital at 60 Sienna Street, about the satisfaction that can come from working as a geophysicist, discovering the secrets of World War II, and the emotional nature of memory.
The results of your geophysical research are a wealth of potential finds—natural groundwater sources, unexploded ordnance, ancient burials, tunnels, industrial waste. Which of these are most interesting to you? The exploration process itself is arduous; it's the discovery that counts…
To the casual observer, our activities may seem extremely mundane. But by walking around with radar, we gather data and create a mental picture of what lies beneath us, like a painter slowly filling a canvas with brushstrokes. Returning to your question, two types of finds are particularly important to me. The first is water. We search for it in the most difficult, impoverished places on our planet, such as Uganda and where civil wars have devastated infrastructure, in refugee camps like Kukuma in northwestern Kenya, and in camps for Rohingya Muslims who fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar. Finding water for hundreds of thousands of refugees is incredibly satisfying. Likewise, finding it in the desert for people who desperately need it is especially satisfying. Especially when we succeed in places where other organizations' searches have failed. Projects related to World War II are equally satisfying; they have enormous significance for us. Last week we were in Kaunas, Lithuania, searching for the mass burial site of 50 people in Fort IX of the Kaunas Fortress. We also visited Ponary, Lithuania, the largest site of extermination in that country during World War II (in Ponary, located in the northeastern borderlands of the Second Polish Republic, the Germans murdered 80 people, including approximately 72 Jews – editor's note). The invitation from the Warsaw Ghetto Museum is also very important to us, as it allows us to undertake yet another important undertaking.
Yesterday, you and your team were working at Miła 18, where the so-called Anielewicz bunker was located. Did you discover anything there?
We're not sure yet, but we may have found a tunnel. I know there were as many as three hundred people in the bunker, so it was very large. Probably half the people managed to escape. Over a hundred people, both fighters of the ghetto uprising and civilians, committed suicide, and their bodies are still there. There must have been at least one tunnel leading to a sewer system; there could have been a maximum of six. We'll know more in about three months, once we analyze the data.
And this is how modern science helps to uncover the course of events related to the Holocaust in German-occupied Europe…
This use of science allows us to return to the past, 75 years after the end of the war, when few witnesses to those events are still alive. People expect eyewitness accounts, a dramatic narrative, and we can't provide that. However, thanks to science, we can maintain objectivity. We worked in the area where the Sobibór extermination camp was located. We wanted to find the location of the gas chambers. Fifty-four people escaped from the camp and survived until the end of the war. Many of them made maps of it. German and Ukrainian guards also did. They are all different. People have different understandings of space, and emotional factors play a role – we all remember reality differently. None of the former prisoners remembered where the gas chambers were, because none of those who were brought there survived.
You mentioned helping Rohingya refugees fleeing the genocide in Myanmar. Is the humanitarian aid you provide part of the Geophysicists Without Borders project?
That's right. It's a non-governmental organization. Thanks to them, among other things, we were able to come here to Poland. Regardless of where we travel or the funding provided by our sponsor, we always need good cooperation with local partners. The Warsaw Ghetto Museum provided us with historical knowledge, documentation—maps and photocopies—and access to research sites. Honestly, and I wouldn't say this if it weren't true, we've never experienced such a professional reception as we did in Warsaw.
Interviewed by Anna Kilian
