Wednesday 11 July 2018

Discovering a graveyard of bottles. The materiality of a German WW2 "Soldatenheim".

Running the "Soldatenheim" of "Durchgangslager Hanko" was one of the main tasks of the "DRK Schwestern" of the camp.

What a truly exciting day! When the going gets tough you can always rely on the help of an experienced crew to help out with excavating the really tough spots. Yesterday and today we had the pleasure of getting Lasse (SME) and border guard Mika to join us in the research of the German WW2 transition camp.

Thank you for your help Mika (top) and Lasse! 

Under the supervision me and Teemu, Lasse and Mika found truly amazing artefacts and helped us big time in excavating the "Soldatenheim Hanko" dump site. This area proved be a true gravesite... a gravesite of bottles that is.
Part of the amazing but rather monotonous finds of the "Soldatenheim Hanko".

One litre wine bottles and schnapps bottles and porcellain litter the area were German soldiers relaxed before going on home leave to Germany.

Wonderfully excavated find layer at the "Soldatenheim Hanko" dump site. Photo Lasse Nyman.

On the excavation site close to the "Ukrainerlager" or "Hilfsfreiwillige" area, the personal belongings of the German soldiers kept turning up as we extended the excavation are a bit to the east and west.


Excavating a "Schnapps" or a Gognac bottle.

 A flashlight battery.

 A razor knife.

 A German soldiers (civilian purchase) red comb.

A flash light.

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