WORCESTER, Mass. – Clark University’s Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies has acquired the Holocaust Numismatic Collection of Robert Messing (’59), of Woodstock, N.Y., and is making it available to students and faculty for research and classroom use beginning in September.

The Messing collection consists of coins and notes issued for use in Holocaust labor camps and ghettos (including Buchenwald, Lodz, Mitelbau, Terezín and Westerbork), related journals and articles, and a paper detailing how the money was created and used.

Messing, an amateur numismatist who has written widely about Jewish monetary items, graduated from Clark with a bachelor of arts in philosophy and spent 50 years in the computer automation industry. He first became interested in archeology and ancient numismatics after his first trip to Israel in 1959. He later participated in numerous archeological digs in Israel where he uncovered ancient coins, mosaics and Roman glass, and has identified and cleaned artifacts from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. He is a founding member of the American Israel Numismatic Association.

“My donation to Clark’s Strassler Center will ensure that when there are no more Holocaust survivors left to tell their story, these bills and coins will serve as a visceral reminder to academics, scholars and all who see and touch them of a terrible history that must never be repeated,” wrote Messing.

This summer, Marisa Natale (’17),  a history major who concentrates in Holocaust and genocide studies, will catalogue the money and will consider how Messing’s donation could benefit Clark students in other scholarly disciplines including history, economics, and art history. “The consequences of this research have the potential to be far-reaching – ­­­both in expanding our understanding of the Holocaust and our understanding of economic violence in other genocides,” she said.

For more information on the collection, contact Jean Hearns at jhearns@clarku.edu.­­­­­­­