About Ari Barbalat

Ari Barbalat holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of California in Los Angeles. He lives in Toronto with his family.

NBN Episodes hosted by Ari:

Yaacov Nir, "Establishment and History of the Cyprus Detention Camps for Jewish Refugees (1946-1949) (Cambridge Scholars, 2024)

March 19, 2024

Establishment and History of the Cyprus Detention Camps for Jewish Refugees (1946-1949).

Yaacov Nir
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Yaacov Nir's Establishment and History of the Cyprus Detention Camps for Jewish Refugees (1946-1949) (Cambridge Scholars, 2024) explores the nature of…

Raanan Rein and Susanne Zepp-Zwirner, "Untold Stories of the Spanish Civil War" (Routledge, 2024)

March 10, 2024

Untold Stories of the Spanish Civil War

Raanan Rein and Susanne Zepp-Zwirner
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Untold Stories of the Spanish Civil War (Routledge, 2024) is the first scholarly volume to offer an insight into the less-known stories of women, chil…

Leona Toker, "Gulag Literature and the Literature of Nazi Camps: An Intercontexual Reading" (Indiana UP, 2019)

March 6, 2024

Gulag Literature and the Literature of Nazi Camps

Leona Toker
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Devoted to the ways in which Holocaust literature and Gulag literature provide contexts for each other, Leona Toker's Gulag Literature and the Literat…

Bryan Mark Rigg, "Japan's Holocaust: History of Imperial Japan's Mass Murder and Rape During World War II" (Knox Press, 2024)

March 5, 2024

Japan's Holocaust

Bryan Mark Rigg
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Japan's Holocaust: History of Imperial Japan's Mass Murder and Rape During World War II (Knox Press, 2024) combines research conducted in over eightee…

Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler, "The Jewish Annotated New Testament" (Oxford UP, 2017)

March 4, 2024

The Jewish Annotated New Testament

Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

First published in 2011, The Jewish Annotated New Testament (Oxford UP, 2017) was a groundbreaking work, bringing the New Testament's Jewish backgroun…

Roman Dziarski, "How We Outwitted and Survived the Nazis: The True Story of the Holocaust Rescuers, Zofia Sterner and Her Family" (Cherry Orchard, 2024)

March 3, 2024

How We Outwitted and Survived the Nazis

Roman Dziarski
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

In World War II's Poland, thirty year old Zofia Sterner and her husband Wacek refuse to be classified as Jews destined for extermination. Instead, the…

Peter Harmsen, "Bernhard Sindberg: The Schindler of Nanjing" (Casemate, 2024)

February 28, 2024

Bernhard Sindberg

Peter Harmsen
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

In December 1937, the Chinese capital, Nanjing, falls and the Japanese army unleash an orgy of torture, murder, and rape. Over the course of six weeks…

Maxine Lowy, "Latent Memory: Human Rights and Jewish Identity in Chile" (U Wisconsin Press, 2022)

February 27, 2024

Latent Memory

Maxine Lowy
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

In the first half of the twentieth century, Jewish immigrants and refugees sought to rebuild their lives in Chile. Despite their personal histories of…

Peter Harmsen, "Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze" (Casemate, 2015)

February 26, 2024

Shanghai 1937

Peter Harmsen
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Peter Harmsen's book Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze (Casemate, 2015) describes one of the great forgotten battles of the 20th century. At it…

Ivo Goldstein and Slavko Goldstein, "The Holocaust in Croatia" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2016)

February 25, 2024

The Holocaust in Croatia

Ivo Goldstein and Slavko Goldstein
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

The Holocaust in Croatia (U Pittsburgh Press, 2016) recounts the history of the Croatian Jewish community during the Second World War, with a focus on…

Bojan Aleksov, "Jewish Refugees in the Balkans, 1933-1945" (Brill, 2023)

February 24, 2024

Jewish Refugees in the Balkans, 1933-1945

Bojan Aleksov
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

The Balkans provided the escape route for tens of thousands of German Jews, and remained a place of refuge until the Nazis brutally shut it off with t…

Raanan Rein, "Populism and Ethnicity: Peronism and the Jews of Argentina" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2020)

February 23, 2024

Populism and Ethnicity

Raanan Rein
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Juan Perón's decade-long regime, from 1946 to 1955, is often presented as Nazi-fascist and antisemitic - claims that are strongly rooted in Argentina'…

Safwat Marzouk, "Egypt as a Monster in the Book of Ezekiel" (Mohr Siebeck, 2015)

February 21, 2024

Egypt as a Monster in the Book of Ezekiel

Safwat Marzouk
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Appealing to Monster Theory and the ancient Near Eastern motif of "Chaoskampf," Safwat Marzouk argues that the paradoxical character of the category o…

Mara Josi, "Rome, 16 October 1943: History, Memory, Literature" (Legenda, 2023)

February 20, 2024

Rome, 16 October 1943

Mara Josi
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Today I talked to Mara Josi about her new book Rome, 16 October 1943: History, Memory, Literature (Legenda, 2023). Rome. Saturday 16 October 1943. Th…

Alexander Henry, "War Through Italian Eyes: Fighting for Mussolini, 1940-1943" (Routledge, 2021)

February 19, 2024

War Through Italian Eyes

Alexander Henry
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

There is a popular notion that the Italian armed forces of the Second World War were an inferior fighting force. Despite the vast numbers taken prison…

Daphna Sharfman, "Jerusalem in the Second World War" (Routledge, 2024)

February 18, 2024

Jerusalem in the Second World War

Daphna Sharfman
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Daphna Sharfman's book Jerusalem in the Second World War (Routledge, 2024) is the first to present the unique story of the city of Jerusalem during th…

Matteo Millan, "The Blackshirts' Dictatorship: Armed Squads, Political Violence, and the Consolidation of Mussolini's Regime" (Routledge, 2022)

February 12, 2024

The Blackshirts' Dictatorship

Matteo Millan
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

On October 1922 Mussolini became head of the Italian government, a situation that would last for twenty years. That power was obtained was largely due…

Bjørn Westlie, "My Father's War: Confronting Norway's Nazi Past" (U Wisconsin Press, 2023)

February 11, 2024

My Father's War

Bjørn Westlie
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

My Father's War: Confronting Norway's Nazi Past (U Wisconsin Press, 2023) is simultaneously a history of the Nazi occupation of Norway in World War II…

Gila Green, "With a Good Eye" (Ace of Swords, 2024)

February 10, 2024

With a Good Eye

Gila Green
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Luna Levi is an ordinary 19-year-old with extraordinary problems. Her mother's acting career is more important to her than the stage of real life. Her…

George Eisen, "A Summer of Mass Murder: 1941 Rehearsal for the Hungarian Holocaust" (Purdue UP, 2022)

February 10, 2024

A Summer of Mass Murder

George Eisen
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Most accounts of the Holocaust focus on trainloads of prisoners speeding toward Auschwitz, with its chimneys belching smoke and flames, in the summer …

Dallas Michelbacher, "Jewish Forced Labor in Romania, 1940-1944" (Indiana UP, 2020)

February 6, 2024

Jewish Forced Labor in Romania, 1940-1944

Dallas Michelbacher
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Between Romania's entry into World War II in 1941 and the ouster of dictator Ion Antonescu three years later, over 105,000 Jews were forced to work in…

Marco Armiero et al., "Mussolini's Nature: An Environmental History of Italian Fascism" (MIT Press, 2022)

January 30, 2024

Mussolini's Nature

Marco Armiero, Roberta Biasillo, and Wilko Graf Von Hardenberg
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

In this first environmental history of Italian fascism, Marco Armiero, Roberta Biasillo, and Wilko Graf von Hardenberg reveal that nature and fascist …

Anton Weiss-Wendt, "On the Margins: Essays on the History of Jews in Estonia" (CEU Press, 2017)

January 29, 2024

On the Margins

Anton Weiss-Wendt
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Estonia is perhaps the only country in Europe that lacks a comprehensive history of its Jewish minority. Spanning over 150 years of Estonian Jewish hi…

John J. Michalczyk et al.. "Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ and the Holocaust: A Prelude to Genocide" (Bloomsbury, 2022)

January 27, 2024

Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ and the Holocaust

John J. Michalczyk, Michael S. Bryant, and Susan A. Michalczyk
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

For decades scholars have pored over Hitler's autobiographical journey/political treatise, debating if Mein Kampf has genocidal overtones and arguably…