The University of Glasgow are delighted to welcome Professor Caroline Sturdy Colls, Professor in Conflict Archaeology and Genocide Investigation at the University of Huddersfield, to present the 25th Holocaust Memorial Lecture, All That Remains? Objects from Treblinka Extermination Camp. This project is sponsored by The Association of Jewish Refugees.

Lecture Overview

As part of their efforts to hide their crimes, the Nazis and their collaborators attempted to destroy the traces of the sites they had constructed to wipe out European Jews and of the remains of those they had murdered. At Treblinka extermination camp, these efforts resulted in the demolition of camp buildings, the levelling of the landscape and the burning of the bodies of between 800,000 and one million people. However, forensic archaeological investigations in the camp terrain have resulted in the discovery of much physical evidence related to the camp. In this lecture, Professor Caroline Sturdy Colls will discuss the objects found during surveys and minimally invasive excavations and the ways in which analysis of them has revealed new information about a range of lived experiences at the camp.

Professor Caroline Sturdy Colls

Professor Caroline Sturdy Colls is a Professor of Holocaust Archaeology and Genocide Investigation and the Director of the Centre of Archaeology at the University of Huddersfield. Her expertise lies in the investigation of Holocaust landscapes and other sites of mass and interpersonal violence using forensic archaeological approaches. Since 2010, Prof Sturdy Colls has conducted the first archaeological investigations at Treblinka extermination and labour camps, and she recently completed her monograph 'Finding Treblinka: Forensic and Archaeological Perspectives' (Cornell University Press, 2025) which will provide new historical, spatial and material perspectives on the crimes perpetrated there. She has also supervised projects at more than 60 other Holocaust sites. Currently, she is the Principal Investigator on the project "Trawniki: Nexus of the Final Solution”, funded by the Claims Conference. She is also supervising a post-doctoral research project regarding mass grave investigation in Ukraine and has a long-running collaborative project with the Lake District Holocaust Project. Prof Sturdy Colls has published extensively on the subjects of Holocaust archaeology, forensic archaeology and missing persons. Her notable and recent monographs include 'Holocaust Archaeologies: Approaches and Future Directions', the 'Handbook on Missing Persons' and '‘Adolf Island’: The Nazi Occupation of Alderney'. Prof Sturdy Colls was a Visiting Fellowship at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (2016) and she delivered the prestigious Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Annual Lecture (also at USHMM) in 2020. In 2016, she was awarded the European Archaeological Heritage Prize for her work in modern conflict archaeology.