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At the end of August 1941, the Nazi German Einsatzgruppe, together with German Police Battalion 320 and Ukrainian auxiliaries, killed approximately 23,600 persons (mainly Jews) at Kamianets-Podilskyi. While some researchers assert that Roma were deported from Hungary and Hungarian-occupied Transcarpathia (present-day Ukraine) despite the absence of official reports, other scholars argue that Hungarian leaders may have planned to ethnically "cleanse" the area of Roma, but the plan was never executed, resulting in no deportations or deaths. This article presents new findings that support the former position, and argues that roughly one thousand Roma were expelled from Transcarpathia. New evidence includes a report detailing the ongoing operation to expel Roma, census data indicating a significant reduction in the Roma population near the border, as well as indications that individuals other than Jews were expelled, likely Roma. Only circumstantial evidence-verbal orders to eliminate Roma and reports of Roma killings by the same special commando in different locations-supports the claim that Roma were killed in the August 1941 massacre, though later reports from 1942 explicitly identify Roma victims. After analyzing this new evidence, the author supports the claim that Roma were deported and potentially killed earlier than had previously been known.

The history of the ethnic borderlands of Hungary and Romania in the years 1867–1944 were marked by changing national borders, ethnic conflicts and economic problems. Using a local case study of the city and county of Szatmár/Satu-Mare, this thesis investigates the practice and social mechanisms of economic nationalizing. It explores the interplay between ethno-national and economic factors, and furthermore analyses what social mechanisms lead to and explain inclusion, exclusion and annihilation. The underlying principle of economic nationalizing in both countries was the separation of citizens into ethnic categories and the establishment of a dominant core nation entitled to political and economic privileges from the state. National leaders implemented a policy of economic nationalizing that exploited and redistributed resources taken from the minorities. To pursue this end, leaders instrumentalized ethnicity, which institutionalized inequality and ethnic exclusion. This process of ethnic, and finally racial, exclusion marked the whole period and reached its culmination in the annihilation of the Jews throughout most of Hungary in 1944. For nearly a century, ethnic exclusion undermined the various nationalizing projects in the two countries: the Magyarization of the minorities in dualist Hungary (1867–1918); the Romanianization of the economy of the ethnic borderland in interwar Romania (1918–1940); and finally the re-Hungarianization of the economy in Second World War Hungary (1940–1944). The extreme case of exclusion, namely the Holocaust, revealed that the path of exclusion brought nothing but destruction for everyone. This reinforces the thesis that economic nationalizing through the exclusion of minorities induces a vicious circle of ethnic bifurcation, political instability and unfavorable conditions for achieving economic prosperity. Exclusion served the short-term elite’s interest but undermined the long-term nation’s ability to prosper. 

I sin självbiografiska bok ger Margit Silberstein en gripande inblick i hur överlevande från Förintelsen präglats av sina upplevelser och hur traumat förts vidare till deras barn. Boken hade vunnit på en mer gedigen beskrivning av den historiska kontexten i norra Transsylvanien, varifrån Silbersteins föräldrar kom. När det gäller de ungerska aktörernas roll som pådrivande bakom deportationerna av judar till Auschwitz förbiser framställningen deras ansvar.

This review essay evaluates the evolution of the Hungarian journal of social history, Korall társadalomtörténeti folyóirat (Coral: A journal of social history), founded in 1999 as a new forum of social history research. Korall promoted two distinct understandings of social history, stated only implicitly in the first years of the journal, but later elaborated more explicitely by the editors, as core definitions of their research programme. A first, narrow acceptation places social history within the field of (historical) sociology and favours structural approaches and concepts specific to the social sciences rather than the actual historical context. A second definition is wider, including a variety of topics such as environmental history, cultural history, economic, and demographic history, being meant to function as a powerful counter-discourse against positivistic, traditional and political-orientated history, still dominant in contemporary Hungarian historiography. Based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative content analysis, the review essay argues that, during its eight years of existance to date, Korall has undergone a process of internationalization. Although most articles published in the journal continue to focus on topics pertaining to the history of Hungary—especially during the "dualist period," 1867-1918—references to international events, authors, and theories have lately acquired a greater importance

This article investigates the power of national narratives and the lack of genuine efforts to come to terms with the past in Hungary and Romania. Hungary and Romania have experienced a common history marked by conflicts, changing borders, and totalitarian regimes. The two countries have not succeeded in overcoming issues in their common past. Instead, national narratives have been institutionalized in textbooks and among historians, even in the international context. Historians have narrated the nation's history under the strong influence of political agendas. This political force supports the hegemonic positions of the national narratives today. The national narratives are not only disseminated domestically, but are also reflected in articles about the two countries in encyclopedias abroad, such as the Swedish National Encyclopedia (Nationalencyklopedin). Romania has undertaken more efforts to come to terms with its past than Hungary has, in assuming responsibility for the Holocaust and investigating crimes against humanity during communism for example. Hungary's position on the Holocaust has been contradictory. On the one hand, Hungarian officials have admitted the Hungarian state's responsibility. However, on the other hand, leading historians appointed by the Hungarian government have explicitly claimed that Nazi-Germany alone was responsible for the Holocaust. The officially sanctioned responsibility assumed by the Hungarian and Romanian governments should be seen as sign of political correctness rather than genuine reconciliation. Politicians and historians in Hungary have together launched a campaign of historical revisionism, which is most visible with regard to the interwar and Second World War periods, in order to strengthen the national consciousness among its citizens. This campaign has reinforced the exclusive ethnic perspective of Hungary's history, and serves as a norm for present day politics. In both Hungary and Romania national narratives maintain a hegemonic position thanks to the support from politicians and some historians. This undermines reconciliation and accountability with regard to both the individual and the shared history of the two nations.

Svenska Historikermötet i Umeå 14–16 juni 2023

Titel: Högskolan Dalarna och folkskoleseminariets historia – Perspektiv på lärarutbildningen i Falun, ca 1875–1970

Den som har inflytande över utformandet av en lärarutbildning och blivande lärares kunskapssyn, kan också komma att påverka framtida generationers sätt att se på samhället och världen (Hartman 2012, Bejerot & Hasselbladh 2020). Vid folkskoleseminariet i Falun bedrevs lärarutbildning från etablerandet 1875 fram till det att verksamheten succesivt övergick i lärarhögskolans regi 1968–70.  I en mening sammanfaller dessa nära på hundra år av lärarutbildning därmed också med framväxten av det moderna Sverige.

I antologiprojektet ’Högskolan Dalarna och folkskoleseminariets historia’ riktas fokus mot en rad tidigare outforskade aspekter av hur seminarietraditionen, i ett specifikt lokalsamhälle, etableras och förändras under olika tidsperioder. Enligt tidigare forskning hade den 1842 inrättade folkskolan uppgiften att legitimera ett traditionellt, religiöst och auktoritärt samhällssystem (Petterson 1993, Lundahl 2005). Längre fram i tiden, inte minst från sekelskiftet 1900 och framåt, kom folkskolan dock att alltmer betraktas som ett centralt redskap i det moderna samhällets utvecklande av medborgares agens, kvinnlig frigörelse och samhällsutveckling (Linne 1996). Under femton år med start 1864 etablerades i Sverige fem folkskoleseminarier för kvinnor. Först ut var Stockholm och Skara som 1864 ombildades från att utbilda män till att utbilda kvinnor. Därefter etablerades folkskollärarinneseminarier i både Falun och Kalmar år 1875 och fyra år senare följde ett femte i Umeå (Sörensen 1942). Seminarieetableringarna i Falun och övriga orter innebar en ökning i andelen kvinnliga lärare under slutet av 1800-talet och i förlängningen kom den patriarkala skolordningen att utmanas (Florin 1987).

Beslutet den 30 april 1875 att anlägga ett folkskoleseminarium i Falun, säger något om behovet av lärare på den svenska landsbygden, men också något om Faluns historiska bakgrund som lärdomsstad (Claesson 2015, Liljas 2019:2021, Ödman 1995). Möjligen finns också lokala och aktörsburna förklaringar till den utpräglat progressiva profil som med tiden kom att växa fram vid folkskoleseminariet i Falun (Linné 1996:2006). I projektets delstudier görs exempel på pregnanta avsteg från folkskolans normer av framträdande lärarutbildare som Valborg Olander och Anna Sörensen. Med utgångspunkt i ett mycket rikt arkivmaterial blir det också möjligt att följa hur de och andra lärarutbildare i valet av uppgifter och utformningen av textnära kommentarer söker påverka de blivande lärarinnorna i deras sätt att se på kunskap, undervisning och lärarskap. Utifrån än mer kritiskt orienterade perspektiv på verksamheten granskas också urvalsprinciperna för rekryteringen av nya lärarinnor och interkulturella aspekter av den faktiska verksamheten.

Genom dessa nedslag berörs därmed också hur professionaliseringen av läraryrket tar form i relation till ett bildningsanspråk - vilket ofta tycks gravitera mot medborgerliga och könsutjämnande principer. Under den föreslagna sessionen till historikermötet i Umeå presenteras fem av dessa bidrag:

Juvas Marianne Liljas presentation fokuserar på Valborg Olanders (1861-1943) reformerande insatser vid folkskoleseminariet i Falun och har titeln ’’’Det varma hjärtat”: Valborg Olanders pedagogiska arv i Faluseminariets historia’.

I presentationen ’Folkskolelärarinneseminarier i Sverige: en jämförelse mellan Falun och Umeå, 1875–1915’ intar Emil Marklund en komparativ ansats. Folkskollärarinneseminariet i Umeå grundades 1879, blott fyra år efter seminariet i Falun. 

Utifrån rubriken ’Kunskaps- och undervisningsideal i förändring: Pedagogiska examensuppsatser vid Falu folkskoleseminarium 1915–1937’ analyserar Anders Persson de skriftliga kommentarer som dåtidens lärarutbildare lämnar på de blivande lärarinnornas texter.

I ´En lärare blir till. Om ideal och normer för blivande lärare på folkskollärarseminariet i Falun år 1876–1909´presenterar Ulrika Norburg exempel på hur rekryteringsprocessen av blivande lärarinnor vid seminariet gick till.

Anders Blomqvist presentation ’Perspektiv på seminariet i krigs- och brytningstider 1940–1960:  genus, klass och etnicitet’ fokuserar på erfarenheter från Faluseminariet under tiden för Andra världskriget och efterföljande år.

Ordförande: Simon Lundberg, Umeå universitet.

Discussant: Anna Götlind, Stockholms universitet.

This article examines the establishment of the legal framework that led to the destruction and elimination of Jewish communities in Croatia and Romania during World War II. It argues that both regimes, supported by domestic fascist ideologies, evolving antisemitism, and inspired by the Nazi regime, promulgated anti-Jewish legal norms to present and establish new political, ideological, and social values and categories to their citizens. This article employs the theoretical framework of norms developed by Paul Morrow, whereby norms are seen as practical prescriptions, permissions or prohibitions. We argue that these destructive norms served as guidelines for individuals within the fascist new worldview and new reality. As such, these norms received state authorisation and implementation, serving as the ‘legal’ basis for the institutional destruction of unwanted citizens. This gave local and state actors a ‘legal’ pretext for the persecution and murder of Jews, who were stripped of their rights, assets, properties and right to life. The article concludes that the two legal frameworks enacted the process by which Jewish communities in Croatia and Romania faced a devastation of unseen proportions, which testifies to the importance and impact of legal norms on individuals, be they victims, bystanders or perpetrators.