The struggle to survive and work: Archaeology in Latvia during the German occupation (1941-1945)

Scholars examining the historiography of archaeology in Latvia pay little attention to its practice during the German occupation of World War II. This chapter aims to address this imbalance, examining the question of whether archaeology in Latvia became all but defunct during these years. Available information, although limited, indicates that no 'master plan' for National Socialist archaeology in Latvia can be detected, largely because the changing situation on the military front forced the occupiers to be flexible and pragmatic. Some limited research did occur, but little documentation remains. The main actors in the field of archaeology were the Piemineklu valde (PV) [the Monument Board] and the Valsts Vesturiskais muzejs (VVM) [the State Historical Museum]; they did all they could to maintain and preserve Latvian archaeology and heritage during the war. During the "German times", institutions devoted to archaeological research do appear, at least for a while, to have kept working as if there were no Nazi or Communist occupations. Although contemporaneous Press reports indicate that some basic concepts of National Socialism did exist in Latvian archaeology at that time, current research indicates that not a single Latvian archaeologist was a convinced Nazi, rather the opposite was true.