The Centre of Archaeology welcomed Dr Robert Ehrenreich to speak about his research regarding Holocaust-era material culture this week.

Dr Ehrenreich is the Director of National Academic Programs at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

His lecture, “Token, Trophy or Talisman: Holocaust-Era Mica from the Theresienstadt Glimmerwerke” explored how and why slave labourers took and retained objects during the Holocaust.

An interdisciplinary audience comprising students and staff from Staffordshire University attended the lecture. Dr Ehrenreich also toured the Centre’s facilities and the University’s Digital Kiln where he viewed various VR experiences that the Centre has been developing with colleagues in Games Design.

Dr Ehrenreich has recently written an article with Professor Caroline Sturdy Colls from the Centre of Archaeology about the value placed upon objects from Treblinka extermination camp and he is working on a co-edited volume about the material culture connected to difficult histories.

More information about Dr Ehrenreich’s work can be found here: https://ushmm.academia.edu/RobertEhrenreich