Barnabas Balint
Research Topic
Accelerated Development into Adulthood: The Changing Roles of Young Hungarians During the Holocaust
Supervisor: Zoe Waxman
I am a Doctoral candidate 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. I am currently focusing on the experiences of Jewish youth during the Holocaust in Hungary under the supervision of Dr Zoe Waxman.
I have written, published and presented internationally on aspects of the Holocaust across Europe and hold Research Fellowships from the Center for Advanced Genocide Research at the University of Southern California and the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure. 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 informal community of students researching issues relating to the Holocaust that meets four times a term to discuss the latest scholarship and research. I also sit on the steering group for the Oxford Centre for the History of Childhood as a postgraduate representative and am a Fellow of the Oxford Interfaith Forum. In June 2021, I co-convened an international workshop entitled Rallying Europe: Intersectional Approaches To Youth In The Mid-Twentieth Century, and am co-editing a special issue of the European Review of History to publish our proceedings in early 2024. Outside of the academy, I have also organised an Oxford Events Series for Holocaust Memorial Day 2022, part of the Humanities Cultrual Programme funded by the Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities and the Magdalen College Trust. This series of 7 events with 18 speakers brought together members of the University and public to learn about the Holocaust and its contemporary relevance and was atteneded by over 600 people. 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
'Competing for the Youth: Jewish Scout Identity, Religion and Gender during the Holocaust in France', Holocaust and Genocide Studies, forthcoming (2023).
'“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.
'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
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, May 2023). Forthcoming August 2023.
Blog Posts
'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
'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.
'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).
'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 (forthcoming 2023).
Other
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).
Teaching
Final Honours School Paper - EWF13: Europe Divided, 1914-1989 (tutorials, 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)
I hold Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (AdvanceHE)
Media
Georgia L. Gilholy, 'UK hosts emergency meeting on millions of unclaimed Holocaust property stolen from Jews', Jewish News Syndicate (March 2023)
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)
