Richard A. Freund
University of Hartford
Director, Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies
10:30 a.m. November 1 2013 Lattie F. Coor Hall room 4403 free and open to all | no reservation required
The extermination camp, Sobibor, Poland was the site of a famous rebellion on October 14, 1943. Many books and movies have been made about the courage of those involved in the Rebellion. The camp was hurriedly buried by the Nazis after the Rebellion. Recent work at the camp has revealed elements about the Holocaust that were unknown nearly 70 years after Sobibor was closed. Dr. Freund’s team of geophysicists were followed by public television and a documentary is being finished on the work there. He will talk about the University of Hartford’s Sobibor project and the use of geophysics to solve archaeological questions without excavating the burials of the victims.
Dr. Freund is Director of the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies and Maurice Greenberg Professor of History at the University of Hartford. He has directed six archaeological projects in Israel and three projects in Europe on behalf of the University of Hartford including: Bethsaida, Qumran, the Cave of Letters, Nazareth, Yavne, Har Karkom, as well as projects in Burgos and Cadiz, Spain and at Sobibor, Poland. Dr. Freund is the author of seven books on archaeology and two books on Jewish ethics and over one hundred scholarly articles. He has appeared in 17 television documentaries, including most recently: “Finding Atlantis” on the National Geographic Channel. His latest books are: Digging Through the Bible: Understanding Biblical People, Places and Controversies through Archaeology (Roman & Littlefield, 2008) and Digging through History, Archaeology and Religion from Atlantis to the Holocaust (Rowman and Littlefield, 2012), a finalist for book of the year in religion.