Method and apparatus for holding and/or treating a sample material. A sample material may be positioned in a vessel between top and bottom flexible films where the flexible films are connected together by a substantially rigid support structure that surrounds the sample material. A crushing force may be applied to the sample material via the top and bottom flexible films, e.g., to pulverize the sample at cryogenic temperatures. A sample holder may have two vessels, one arranged for applying a crushing force to a first sample and another for holding a sample for other processing, such as a histology analysis.