Description:

HEFNU Series: Holocaust Studies and Contemporary Issues

New Research on Treblinka: Landscapes, Evidence, and Memory

Tuesday, January 27, 2026, 11 AM PT/1PM CT/2PM ET

As one of the most emblematic sites of Nazi mass murder, Treblinka remains central to ongoing efforts in Holocaust research, education, and commemoration. This HEFNU program brings together three leading scholars whose recent work offers groundbreaking insights into Treblinka’s history, landscape, and legacy. Chad Gibbs, author of Survival at Treblinka draws upon recently discovered sources and novel research methods to fundamentally reassess Jewish resistance at Treblinka—both before and during the revolt. Jacob Flaws, whose new book Spaces of Treblinka reconceptualizes the camp through spatial and environmental history, revealing there were more witnesses to Treblinka than previously realized, as the transnational groups near and within the camp overlapped and interacted. Caroline Sturdy Colls, a pioneering forensic archaeologist and author of Finding Treblinka: Forensic and Archaeological Discoveries, draws on her extensive fieldwork at Treblinka to illuminate material evidence long obscured by Nazi efforts at concealment.

Together, their research highlights how interdisciplinary methods, survivor testimony, spatial analysis, and archaeology, continue to deepen our knowledge of Treblinka more than eighty years after its operation. The program will explore how this new scholarship informs urgent contemporary issues, including the preservation of sites of atrocity, the fight against Holocaust distortion, the role of evidence in public discourse, along with the fundamental responsibility of the witness. By revisiting Treblinka through multiple lenses, this session underscores the enduring relevance of rigorous scholarship to sustaining historical truth in an era of rising antisemitism and escalating challenges to historical memory.

Registration is required:  https://northwestern.zoom.us/meeting/register/8Zqrd_KORfalYg7r7FnjnQ