Welcome to Rebecca Erbelding's website!
I am an archivist and curator at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and a doctoral candidate at George Mason University. I am currently working on my doctoral dissertation, which is a chronological history of the War Refugee Board. I have also presented and published on the topics of perpetrator life in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, on Anne Frank in popular culture, and on the study of diaries from the Holocaust.
My research interests focus on the ways in which communities deal with historical incidents of widespread and random destruction, violence, and death. I am interested in the ways in which people, acting without the hindsight of history, react to outbreaks, try to protect themselves and loved ones, and what pieces of their lives they fight to retain and rebuild. Though most of my work focuses on the Holocaust (the ultimate example), I am also interested in epidemic disease, criminal activity, and natural disasters. Despite all of this, I am quite a happy person.
