Edith Balas (z”l)
June 20, 1929 – November 16, 2024
Edith Balas was born in Cluj, Romania. She recalled having a wonderful childhood there, until the Nazis invaded her town in March of 1944 when she was 14 years old. She and her parents were taken to a crude work camp in a brick factory before being transported to Auschwitz. They were greeted by another inmate who instructed Edith’s father to lie about her age. By doing so he saved her life.
While in Auschwitz she was able to stay with her mother, her aunt, and her cousin Eva. They were then transferred to a camp called Unterlüss, where their days consisted of heavy labor. Edith fell ill several times but recovered. One day they awoke to no one in the camp, but the next thing they knew German civilians from the nearby town came and escorted them to Bergen Belsen, which Edith recalled as the most horrible place on Earth. They were liberated a few days later by the British.
Edith’s whole family survived the war, and returned to Cluj where Edith continued her schooling. She then met and
married Egon Balas, who was working in Cluj at the time. The couple had one daughter before Egon was arrested and held in solitary confinement for over 2 years. During which time Edith gave birth to their second daughter, who Egon met for the first time upon his release.
The family came to the U.S. where Edith was accepted by the University of Pittsburgh and obtained her PhD in Art History in 1973. She then became a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and taught for 35 years. Edith organized several art exhibitions on the art of Valentin Lustig, in Pittsburgh and internationally, and wrote many articles, books, and essays in her career. She wrote her memoir, A Bird in Flight, Memoir of a Survivor and Scholar, in 2010.
“In a year I was going back to school at University of Pittsburgh, they accepted me as a Ph.D. because I had a philosophical degree and I had taught ancient history for 8 years, and I finished earlier than anybody else, not because of competition but because of competing for myself.”
Edith passed away on November 16, 2024.
-Biography adapted from “In Celebration of Life: The Living Legacy Project” (2016)
Bird in Flight: Memoir of a Survivor and Scholar
Memoir of a Survivor and Scholar is the story of Edith Balas, a self-described “professional survivor.” In 1944 her almost idyllic childhood in the Transylvanian city of Cluj was shattered when Germany occupied Hungary and her family was deported to the death camp at Auschwitz. Miraculously, she survived the horrors of Auschwitz, the slave labor camp at Unterlüss, and Bergen-Belsen. After returning to Cluj she married Egon Balas, a promising young diplomat, and their future seemed bright―until 1952, when her husband, having fallen from favor with Romania’s Communist regime, was arrested and disappeared for over two years. Edith herself became persona non grata. Although her husband was eventually released, their prospects in Romania were dim, and, after years of struggle and disappointment, they finally succeeded in
emigrating to the United States. Since then, Egon has become a celebrated mathematician and Edith a respected art historian, best known for her illuminating insights into the work of both Michelangelo and Constantin Brancusi. Despite the hardships she has endured (including five bouts of breast cancer) her story is ultimately one of hope and triumph, a valuable lesson in how a person can be brought low by fate, yet go on living―and winning. “Bird in Flight―she says―the title of my memoir, was inspired by Brancusi’s famous sculpture, which I consider emblematic of my life.”
The Holocaust in the Painting of Valentin Lustig
In this work of non-fiction, scholar Edith Balas looks at the “sophisticated, complex, and symbolic” paintings of Romanian artist Valentin Lustig as they relate to the unique experience of growing up as a child with the ghosts of the Holocaust. Through her careful criticism of Lustig’s surreal and often horrific images, Balas makes the reality of the Holocaust accessible to generations succeeding those who experienced the tragedy first hand. This text is surely one that will be noted as an excellent tool for promoting the understanding of a historical period which continues to have an enormous impact on humankind.