Unearthing memories from Nazi field

As they sat in a sloping field at the Majdanek death camp in spring 1943, waiting to be selected for work or extermination, the Polish Jews - survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising - took part in one final act of defiance.

Using their hands, they dug deep into the soil, burying their most precious possessions: watches, rings, gold coins, items of sentimental value.

"We knew it was the end of the line," said Adam Frydman, who was transported to Majdanek, aged 20, with his father and brother. "We could see the chimney burning, and we could smell the burning flesh. We thought, 'If we're going to die, why should we give our things to the Germans?"'

An estimated 170,000 people died at Majdanek: Russian prisoners of war and Polish dissidents as well as Jews. For 62 years the empty field at the camp, on the outskirts of Lublin, lay undisturbed. Only those who survived knew what the earth concealed.

Last month Frydman returned to Poland from Melbourne, where he has lived since the end of the war. He stood in the field, and pointed. The team of Israeli archaeologists began to dig. They found a semi-precious stone. One by one, the objects hidden by men and women who knew they were about to die yielded themselves.

The dig was organised by Yaron Svoray, an Israeli journalist who learned about the buried possessions while interviewing Holocaust survivors in Melbourne. Svoray teamed up with a New York film producer, Matt Mazer, and took four former Majdanek residents back to the camp.

Among them was Tessa Jacobs, 82, who buried a matchbox full of diamonds that a jeweller thrust into her pocket as they left Warsaw. The archaeologists did not find the diamonds. But by the end of a three-day dig, they had unearthed more than 50 items, including watches, wedding rings, a gold bracelet, a child's ring, American Eagle gold coins, gold-framed reading glasses and a miniature Catholic medallion - all found 10cm to 40cm beneath the surface.

The valuables have been lodged with the state museum at Majdanek, which co-operated on the project. The field will be excavated more widely next spring.

Frydman, 82, was among 15,000 Jews transported from Warsaw in 1943 after the uprising was put down. He spent seven weeks at Majdanek and believes he survived only because, thanks to his technical training, he was sent elsewhere to work in a munitions factory. Few people lived longer than three months. Of 12 family members sent to the camp, only he and his sister survived.

Standing in the field, Frydman could recall precisely where his family had sat. "I'm an older man, but my memory is still vivid."

For the film-makers, the project was about recreating a crime scene. For the survivors, it was about telling a story. "People like us will be gone soon," said Frydman. "We don't have much time left."

- INDEPENDENT