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Buried Memories

Directly after the first chlorine gas attack in Ieper, Belgium, the German army deployed the same deadly weapon on the Eastern front in May 1915. The scale of the attack during the battle at Bolimów, Poland, was unprecedented: almost double the amount of chlorine gas was used in Bolimów than at Ieper, leaving thousands of people dead.

A hundred years later, Anna Zalewska, a Polish archaeologist, arrives at the banks of the River Rawka near Bolimów. To the naked eye, this area’s tragic past seems buried and forgotten. ​

Screenshot of Buried Memories

But as Anna identifies the lines of old trenches, she unearths human remains lying just under a thin layer of forest soil. When local people flock to the re-enactment of the historic battle, the past suddenly reveals its gruesome face with the pungent smell of chemical weapons, and the noise and chaos of combat. For Anna, too, her efforts bring the past alive for us in the present: “Archaeology may put an end to certain traumas. What we have to show may be difficult and heartbreaking, but it can enrich us.”

Screenshot of Buried Memories
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The first use of chemical weapons​​

World War I was unprecedented in its use of new methods of killing that came into being as Western nations had developed their industrial and scientific capabilities. Chemical warfare was one of the inventions that was then unleashed on human beings on a terrifying scale. From the very beginning of the war, the German and, on a smaller scale, the French army started using poisonous agents on the battlefield, to little effect. The first large-scale lethal attack took place at Ieper, Belgium, when in April 1915 the Germans used 160 thousand tonnes of chlorine gas against enemy troops, killing some 6 thousand men. In the spring, an ever larger attack took place on the Eastern Front, nearby a Polish town of Bolimów. The German army utilised over 260 tonnes of liquid chlorine. Within seconds of inhaling, the gas destroyed the victim's lungs, leading to death by choking.  An estimated 9 to 11 thousand people died.

Many of the casualties at Bolimów were Polish. Since the Polish territory was at that time partitioned between Russia, Germany and Austria, Poles were drafted into the opposing armies and killed each other in the battles of World War I. The use of toxic agents by all sides was widespread throughout the conflict. By the end of the war, some 124 thousand tonnes of chlorine, mustard gas, phosgene and other toxic agents had been released, causing death of some 90 thousand soldiers, and injuring some 1,250 million more. However, these figures do not include the number of people who died from poison gas related injuries years after the end of the war, or the number of men who survived but were badly incapacitated to the rest of their lives. It's only 100 years later that the first archaeological investigations are undertaken. See it in the above film 'Buried Memories'.

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