The overall goals of this project were to illuminate the beginning of the Holocaust in Kaunas what was then the capital of Lithuania, by providing non-destructive evidence of the mass murders at Fort IX, and a snapshot of a Jewish town at the onset of World War II. Specific objectives of this project included using geophysical methods to identify, describe, and delineate the mass graves at Fort IX in Kaunas and nearby Rumsiskes in Lithuania, and to map the pre-World War II submerged Jewish town (shtetl) of Rumsiskes. This project used non-invasive drone based mapping techniques to provide a more rapid approach to mass burial mapping, and inclusion of metal mapping using a ground based gradiometer, a drone based magnetometer, and an EM61. An additional aspect of this project was to continue from previous investigations in the use of geophysical methods to investigate Holocaust sites in a manner that may initiate further work including excavations and memorialization.
