Locating Jacob Gens : A Subsurface Geophysical Investigation in Rasu Prison, Vilnius, Lithuania

Abstract

Jacob Gens, a Lithuanian Jewish army officer who held senior leadership positions in the Vilnius Ghetto was shot by the Nazis and buried with his journals within the courtyard of Rasu Prison, Vilnius, Lithuania. The objective of the project was to try to non-invasively locate the burial site of Jacob Gens. To search below the grassed prison yard we used a Sensors and Software pulseEkko1000 ground penetrating radar (GPR) system. To provide adequate depth of penetration, vertical and horizontal resolution, an antennae frequency of 225 MHz was utilized with a step size of 0.05 m along grid transects. The transects were collected 0.25 m apart with 43 lines in the x-direction and 63 lines in the y-direction, resulting in a 13 x 16 m grid. Using EkkoProject and Voxler software programs the collected transects were collated and processed to provide 2D and 3D views of the datasets. Using radar stratigraphic principles and burial site dimensions of 2 m x 2 m, a possible location has been identified and proposed for future excavation.