Barnabas Balint
Research Topic
Negotiating Age: Young Jewish Identities during the Holocaust in Hungary
Supervisor: Zoe Waxman
I studied for my doctorate in History at Magdalen College, with a specific interest in the history of the Holocaust and its impact on society. Before starting my DPhil, I completed my undergraduate degree in History at the University of Exeter in 2019, where I was awarded the Jean Henderson Prize for the Finalist with Best Academic Performance in European History, after which I completed my master’s at Oxford in 2020. My multi-lingual research (in English, French and Hungarian) combines the history of childhood, gender and identity to explore Jewish youth responses to persecution during the Second World War. My DPhil research focused on the experiences of Jewish youth during the Holocaust in Hungary under the supervision of Professor Zoe Waxman. I am currently the Miles Lerman Center for the Study of Jewish Resistance Research Fellow at the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
I have written, published and presented internationally on aspects of the Holocaust across Europe. For my doctoral research, I have held Research Fellowships from the Center for Advanced Genocide Research at the University of Southern California, the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure, and a 2023-24 Scouloudi Fellowship at the Institute for Historical Research. At Oxford, I teach and mark for a range of undergraduate papers in Modern History, for which I hold Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy. I am also committed to having an impact outside the academy; I have been employed as a Communications Officer for the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, have organized major outreach conferences for schools at the Universities of Exeter and Oxford, and was joint 2021/2 Postgraduate Representative for the British Association of Holocaust Studies. Furthermore, in support of Holocaust education and commemoration I have led ceremonies, written blog posts, conducted training sessions and spoken to UK national leaders including the Chief Rabbi, Metropolitan Police Commissioner, and Prime Minister.
Activities
At Oxford, I founded and co-convene the Holocaust Studies Reading Group, an TORCH 'Critical Thinking' community of students researching issues relating to the Holocaust that meets four times a term to discuss the latest scholarship and research. I am also a Fellow of the Oxford Interfaith Forum and previously sat on the steering group for the Oxford Centre for the History of Childhood as a postgraduate representative. I have organised multiple international workshops, including Rallying Europe: Intersectional Approaches To Youth In The Mid-Twentieth Century (June 2021), papers from which have now been published in a special issue of the European Review of History that I co-edited. Most recently, I co-organised two workshops, on 'Mapping the Holocaust' and 'Animals and the Holocaust', both of which are planned for publication, too. Outside of the academy, I have consistently organised an Oxford Events Series for Holocaust Memorial Day, attended each year by hundreds of people both in person and online. In 2022, this was awarded funding from the Humanities Cultrual Programme of The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities and the Magdalen College Trust. For the 2021/2 academic year, I was the joint Postgraduate Representative for the British and Irish Association of Holocaust Studies, working with Charlie Knight from the University of Southampton to support postgraduate students and organise the annual BAHS Postgraduate Conference. We are subseqently co-editing a special issue of Holocaust Studies: A Journal of Culture and History.
Publications
Journal Articles
- 'Traces of youth: reconstructing Hungarian women’s lives during the Holocaust', European Review of History 31.3 (2024), https://doi.org/10.1080/13507486.2024.2354680.
- 'Competing for the Youth: Jewish Scout Identity, Religion and Gender during the Holocaust in France', Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 37.3 (Winter 2023), 390–403, https://academic.oup.com/hgs/advance-article/doi/10.1093/hgs/dcad052/7492419.
- '“I am now their father too”: The multi-layered meanings of family letters from the Jewish Maquis in France during the Second World War', Jewish Culture and History 24.2 (2023), https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1462169X.2023.2192638.
- 'Coming of Age During the Holocaust: The Adult Roles and Responsibilities of Young Hungarian Jews in Auschwitz-Birkenau', The Journal of Holocaust Research 35.1 (2021), 20-40, https://doi.org/10.1080/25785648.2020.1863637.
Special Issues Edited
- Barnabas Balint and Charlie Knight, 'Transnational Holocaust studies in history and memory', Holocaust Studies: A Journal of Culture and History (2024), https://doi.org/10.1080/17504902.2024.2397161.
- Katharina Seibert and Barnabas Balint, 'Rallying Europe: young women and men searching for a life and a future', European Review of History 31.3 (2024), 331–348, https://doi.org/10.1080/13507486.2024.2354676.
Book Chapters
- 'The Tiyul: Rescuing Jews by Smuggling across the Hungarian-Romanian border', in John Paul Newman, Ljubinka Škodrić, and Rade Ristanović (eds.), Anti-Axis Resistance in Southeastern Europe, 1940-1944: Forms and Varieties (Balkan Studies Library, Brill: Leiden, 2023), pp. 265–286, https://brill.com/display/book/9783657790395/BP000020.xml.
Blog Posts
- 'Uncovering Local Jewish Histories: Hungarian Jewish Community History Books', European Holocaust Research Infrastructure Document Blog (July 2024).
- 'Barnabas Balint: “I am now their father too”: the multi-layered meanings of family letters from the Jewish Maquis in France during the second world war (Jewish Culture and History)', Parkes Institute Blog (April 2023)
- 'Identifying the author of an anonymous diary from the Holocaust in Hungary', European Holocaust Research Infrastructure Document Blog (March 2023).
- '“One gold child’s bracelet”: Traces of Children in Stolen Property Documents from the Holocaust in Hungary', Oxford Centre for the History of Childhood (November 2022).
- 'Reflections on the Children & Heritage Colloquium', The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (August 2022).
- 'A Year in Review – the BAHS Postgraduate Community 2021/22', British Association for Holocaust Studies (August 2022).
- 'BAHS Postgraduate Conference 2022', British Association for Holocaust Studies (June 2022).
- 'Hidden in the Archive: An Unknown Leaflet from a Jewish Aid Organization in 1948', USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research (May 2022).
- 'Oxford Holocaust Memorial Events Series 2022: It falls to us to tell their stories', The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (March 2022).
- 'From Jewish Refugee to Senior Dean: The Life of Karl Leyser', Illuminating Magdalen: The Blog of Magdalen College Library (January 2022).
- 'Digital Tools for Understanding the Holocaust: Visualisations in the EHRI Document Blog', Digital Holocaust Memory (November 2021).
- '“They became my children too”: The Multi-layered meanings of family letters from the Jewish Maquis in France', European Holocaust Research Infrastructure Document Blog (July 2021).
- 'Concentration Camp Documents and Hungarian Jewish Lives: Prisoner Registration Cards from the Arolsen Archives', The Institute of Historical Research History Lab Blog (May 2021).
- 'Children’s Drawings of the Genocide in Darfur', Yet Again (October 2020)
- 'Remembering Srebrenica 25 Years On: An Interview with Safet Vukalić', Yet Again (August 2020)
- 'Relief Workers in the Aftermath of the Second World War: Two British Heroes of the Holocaust', British Association of Holocaust Studies Blog (October 2019).
- 'Recognising the "Anonymous" Resistors: Everyday Heroes in Occupied Hungary', European Holocaust Research Infrastructure Document Blog (October 2018).
- 'Learning from the Past to Build a Better Future', Seeking Protection: the Blog of the IHRA (August 2018).
- 'Words of Resistance: HMDT Youth Champion Board', HMDT Blog (January 2018).
Obituaries
- 'Ernest Simon Obituary', The Guardian (20th March 2023).
- 'A Tribute to Barbara Winton', British Association for Holocaust Studies (September 2022).
Book Reviews
- 'Dan Stone, Fate Unknown: Tracing the Missing after World War II and the Holocaust. Oxford University Press, 2023, 464 pp. ISBN 9780198846598', Central European University Review of Books (2024).
- 'Amy Williams and Bill Niven, National and Transnational Memories of the Kindertransport: Exhibitions, Memorials, and Commemorations. Boydell & Brewer Inc., Rochester, NY, 2023. xii, 272 pp. £105. ISBN 978-1-64014-130-8', Journal of Jewish Studies 75.1 (2024).
- 'A Summer of Mass Murder. 1941 Rehearsal for the Hungarian Holocaust. George Eisen. Purdue University Press, 2023. xxv + 379 pp. $99.99 (hardcover), $39.99 (paperback), ISBN 9781612497754', Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 23.2 (2024).
- 'The Third Reich’s Elite Schools: A History of the Napolas: by Helen Roche, Oxford University Press, 2021. xx + 524 pp. £98 (hardback)', Holocaust and Genocide Studies (2024).
- 'The Children’s Republic of Gaudiopolis: The History and Memory of a Budapest Children’s Home for Holocaust and War Orphans: by Gergely Kunt, Budapest: Central European University Press, 2022. xii + 236 pp., $75.00 / €63.00 / £54.00 (hardback)', Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth 16.3 (2023), 509-511.
- 'In Hitler’s Munich: Jews, the Revolution, and the Rise of Nazism: by Michael Brenner, Princeton University Press, 2022, 392 pp., £21 (hardback)', Social History 48.2 (2023).
- 'Women's Experiences of the Second World War: Exile, Occupation, and Everyday Life. Edited by Mark J. Corwley and Sandra Trudgen Dawson. The Boydell Press, 2021. xx + 224 pp. £75.00.', History - The Journal of the Historical Association 107/376, (June 2022), 606-607.
- 'The Last Ghetto: An Everyday History of Theresienstadt: by Anna Hájková, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2020, 364 pp., £14.95 (hardback)', Cultural and Social History 19/4 (2022), 503-505.
Other
- 'Project Description: Intersectional Approaches to Jewish Youth During the Holocaust in Hungary', European Holocaust Studies V: Childhood during War and Genocide: Agency, Survival, and Representation (2024), 276-282, https://doi.org/10.46500/83535599-013.
- Reviewer - 'Stolen Children' page in 'Who were the victims of the national socialists?', European Association of History Educators - EUROCLIO (April 2023).
- Teaching Resource - Eli Sassoon and Barnabas Balint, 'Teenage Victims of Nazi Persecution', for Holocaust Memorial Day 2023, Union of Jewish Students Website (January 2023).
- Interview - 'Barnabas Balint, Magdalen College Oxford on Innovation and Enterperneurship in Holocaust Memory', Western Galilee College, Israel (August 2022).
- Public Lecture - 'Growing Up Jewish During the Holocaust in Hungary', University of Southern California Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research, (April 2022).
- National Campaign - 'Light the Darkness' national moment of commemoration for Holocaust Memorial Day 2022, Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (January 2022).
- National Campaign - 'UK Ceremony for Holocaust Memorial Day', Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (January 2022)
- Chair - 'Theme Launch for Holocaust Memorial Day 2022', Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (March 2021)
- 'International Jewish Organizations During the Holocaust: Towards a Transnational History of the Women’s International Zionist Organisation', The Journal of the Oxford University History Society XII (2020).
- 'Beyond Antisemitism: Hungarian Ideological and Pragmatic Motivations for the Holocaust', Midlands Historical Review 2 (2018), https://portal.issn.org/resource/ISSN/2516-8568.
Prizes
- Shortlisted - Royal Historical Society's Alexander Article Prize 2024
- University of Exeter's Jean Henderson Prize for the Finalist with Best Academic Performance in European History 2019
Teaching
- Final Honours School Paper - EWF13: Europe Divided, 1914-1989 (tutorials, essay marking, revision sessions, and collections marking)
- Final Honours School Paper - EWF14: The Global Twentieth Century, 1930-2003 (collections marking)
- Final Honours School Paper - XXV: France from the Popular Front to the Liberation 1936–1944 (classes, classwork marking)
- Preliminary Examination Paper - Living With the Enemy: The Experience of the Second World War in Europe (tutorials, essay marking)
- Hertford College, Oxford, Visiting Students Programme Tutor - Tutorials on 'The Holocaust: History and Memory'
- Stanford House, Oxford Tutor - Tutorial in Interdisciplinary Area Studies, focusing on the history of Soviet Jewry (tutorials, gobbets marking)
- Admissions Test Marker (History), St Anne's College, Oxford
- BTh Theological Studies Marker - University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education
- I hold Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (AdvanceHE)
Conferences/Workshops Organised
- Barnabas Balint & Charlotte Gibbs, Animals and the Holocaust, Magdalen College Oxford, July 2024
- Barnabas Balint, Cailee Davis, & Niamh Hanrahan, Mapping the Holocaust, Institute of Historical Research, May 2024
- Barnabas Balint & Charlie Knight, British and Irish Association for Holocaust Studies Postgraduate Conference, Imperial War Museum, London, May 2022
- Katharina Siebert & Barnabas Balint, Rallying Europe: Intersectional Approaches to Youth and Gender in Mid-20th Century Europe, University of Oxford and University of Vienna, online, July 2021
Public Engagement Projects
Events - Holocaust Memorial Day 2024
- University of Exeter - Holocaust Memorial Schools Conference (22nd January 2024)
- University of Oxford - Holocaust Studies Reading Group (25th January 2024)
- Magdalen College, University of Oxford - Laura Marks CBE in conversation with Dinah Rose KC (25th January 2024)
- Magdalen College Library, University of Oxford - Book display for Holocaust Memorial Day (January 2024)
- Oxford City Council - Holocaust Memorial Day Ceremony (26th January 2024)
- University College Birmingham - Holocaust Memorial Day Lecture (26th January 2024)
Events Series - 'Ordinary People, Extraordinary Stories: Dedicated to Barbara Winton', Oxford Holocaust Memorial Events Series 2023 (7 events, January - February 2023)
Humanities Cultural Programme Project - 'Oxford Holocaust Memorial Events Series 2022: One Day When We Tell Their Stories', The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities - A Humanities Cultural Programme Funded Project (7 events, January - February 2022)
- Online Event - The Importance of Personal Stories of the Holocaust (January 2022)
- Online Event - Survivor Testimony: From Yellow Star to Pop Star (February 2022)
- Online Event - Remembering the Holocaust in the UK: Challenges and Opportunities (February 2022)
- Online Event - Academic Panel Discussion: Holocaust Perpetrators (February 2022)
- Blog Post - The Oxford Holocaust Memorial Events Series 2022 (February 2022)
- Blog Post - The Oxford Holocaust Memorial Events Series 2022 Quotes (March 2022)
- Blog Post - Oxford Holocaust Memorial Events Series 2022: It falls to us to tell their stories (March 2022)
Events Series - 'Postgraduate Events Series', co-convened with Charlie Knight (University of Southampton), British Association for Holocaust Studies (November 2021 - August 2022)
- Dr Alex Kay Book Talk - Empire of Destruction (November 2021)
- James Bulgin - IWM Holocaust Galleries Talk (November 2021)
- Andy Pearce - Holocaust Consciousness in Britain: A Response to the Claims Conference Survey (December 2021)
- Diversity of Religious Responses to the Holocaust (April 2022)
- Teaching Difficult Histories (August 2022)
Interviews - 'Ambassador Newsletter', Holocaust Educational Trust (June 2021- October 2022)
- Steven Frank BEM (October 2022)
- Annick Lever BEM (May 2022)
- Dov Forman (January 2022)
- Selma van de Perre (June 2021)
Events Series - 'Oxford Holocaust Memorial Lecture Series', (14 events, January - February 2021)
Media
- Georgia L. Gilholy, 'UK hosts emergency meeting on millions of unclaimed Holocaust property stolen from Jews', Jewish News Syndicate (March 2023)
- Roxy Moore and Julie Fitzpatrick, 'Gender and the Holocaust ECR/Postgraduate Workshop', Holocaust and Genocide Research Partnership (September 2022)
Holocaust Memorial Day 2024
- 'Speech at Holocaust Memorial Day Commemorations', Oxford City Council (January 2024)
- 'Oxford remembers the Holocaust and worldwide genocides', Oxford Mail (January 2024)
- 'South West pupils mark Holocaust Memorial Day at University of Exeter', University of Exeter (January 2024)
- 'Exeter University Holocaust Memorial School Conference', BBC Spotlight (January 2024)
- 'Exeter University Holocaust Memorial School Conference', ITV West Country (January 2024)
Holocaust Memorial Day 2023
- 'Holocaust Remembered: Oxford Ordinary People, Extraordinary Stories', Oxford University (January 2023)
- 'Barnabas Balint Interview on Mornings with Julie Skentelbery', BBC Radio Cornwall (January 2023)
- 'Magdalen Student Organises Holocaust Memorial Events Series', Magdalen College, Oxford (January 2023)
- “‘Peace isn’t just the absence of war’: Smajo Bešo OBE, Bosnian Genocide Educational Trust Founder and Chair”, The Oxford Student (January 2023)
- 'South West pupils take part in Holocaust Memorial Day conference at the University of Exeter', The Exeter Daily (January 2023)
- Lewis Clarke, 'Pupils mark Holocaust Memorial Day in moving conference', Devon Live (January 2023)