Death and life Valley. Environmental memory of the Pomeranian crime of 1939 in Chojnice

Abstract

This article concerns Chojnice’s Death Valley, Poland – the execution site from the Second World War. We discuss the historical and archaeological contexts related to German mass crimes committed near the town during the war. Next, we outline the theoretical framework of our argument. The key chapters of the text are a case study that shows Death Valley also as a place full of life. Thanks to environmental anthropology, it is possible to identify those elements of mass killing sites that have not yet been included in the mainstream of historical and archaeological research on this type of landscape.