Ana Bărbulescu
Senior researcher and head of the research department at Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Bucharest, Romania. Associate Professor in the Department of Jewish Studies at the University of Bucharest. Author of the book The Cultural Elite and Antisemitic Rhetoric in Interwar Romania (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025), together with Alexandru Florian. Dr. Bărbulescu’s research interests include the social history of the Transnistria ghettos, forced labour of the Romanian Jews, antisemitism in interwar Romania, and Holocaust memory in post-communist Romania.
Unlike the anti-Semitic texts of any period, the caricatures — as images — allow us to grasp a particular, and due to their post-factum character, ungraspable knowledge of the past. In this module Ana Bărbulescu reassess the portrayal of the Jewish community through caricatures published in interwar Romanian press, focusing on Porunca Vremii, a notable journal of the far-right political frame that frequently employed this visual tool. Given the unique nature of these caricatures and their ability to evoke shared attitudes and stereotypes among their audience, this module examines how these images reflect and influence societal perceptions.