dr hab. Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska
For years: 2022–2027
Project number: 101041946
ERC Starting Grant
Ghosts are often presented as the spirits of the dead haunting the living. But what if we understood them as material remains, bringing to light overlooked past and enabling us to grasp the experience of the otherness? We propose such an approach in research on displacement, on territories previously inhabited by one culture but after a forced migration resettled by another one.
The displacement comprises expulsion and resettlement. While the former is well-researched, much of the latter remains understudied: especially the settlers’ experiences with things previous inhabitants had left behind. Things act as “ghosts” of previous culture and force settlers to interact with the “spectral” presence of the expellees. Hence, we will operationalize the category of “post-displacement” as a form of afterlife, based on archival records and fieldwork, in 3 regions in Slavic Central Europe where the traces of previous German cultures remained visible, regardless of the efforts to remove them. With hauntology as the proposed research framework and introduction of the category of recycling, we will establish a novel approach in research on the post-displacement regions. Hauntology, a spectral theory of being, shows how the present is pervaded by the past and enables us to engage with unresolved questions, becoming a tool to investigate unexplained phenomena. Recycling is a mechanism of reintroducing the things that were left by expellees into the life of the settlers. Our approach will bring fresh insights into everyday life in the post-displacement regions by providing a more nuanced and coherent understanding of forced migration processes and their continuous reinterpretations in different political and ideological regimes. In understanding what post-displacement things are and the attitude of people towards them, the project presents a showcase study of what we can learn about the emergence of new cultures from the experiences of Central Europe.
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Can a state policy toward children and children’s experiences be analyzed using hauntology? In his blog post, Michal Korhel attempts to do so by examining the example of Czech-German children in post-WWII Czechoslovakia. As their national identity was ambiguous, these children challenged the Czechoslovak authorities’ efforts to create a nationally homogenous state of Czechs and Slovaks. From a hauntological perspective, Czech-German children can be seen as being possessed by German ghosts. Before they could become members of Czech society, the state authorities had to rid them of those ghosts.
Link to the blog post you can find here.
Thanks to the organizing efforts of the Wałcz Land Museum, a historical walk at the Wałcz Military Cemetery took place on February 23. Almost forty participants braved winter conditions for an hour and a half to learn more about the history of this place and the people buried there.
In post-displacement regions, cemeteries hold particular significance. The Military Cemetery in Wałcz Bukowina is one of the largest in the region, housing the graves of Polish and Soviet soldiers who fought against the German army here. The walk through the cemetery was also part of the 80th-anniversary commemorations of the breaking through the Pomeranian Wall, a German line of fortifications, in February 1945.
Among the guides was our PI, Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska, who discussed the history of the cemetery and the moral and ethical complexities surrounding the exhumation of fallen soldiers. Regional historian Piotr Wojtanek highlighted an often-overlooked aspect regarding the religious affiliations of the soldiers buried at the cemetery: it is also the final resting place for soldiers of the Jewish faith. Daniel Iwiński from the Wałcz reenactment group told a couple of stories focused on the material remains of perished soldiers. Marlena Jakubczyk-Kurkiewicz, the director of the Museum, shared stories of individual soldiers, both men and women from various places, who fell in the region.
During the walk, amidst a sea of thousands of names, it was possible to highlight a few individual stories and provide a narrative for the place, which can now serve not only as a site for official commemoration but also hold a deeper, more human meaning for the inhabitants of Wałcz and its vicinity.
Do you feel fully connected to your place of birth or the place where you currently live? What steals away your sense of identity? These were among the key questions discussed during the debate “Świnoujście, Szczecin, Wałcz – The Identity of a Place” held at Radio Szczecin on February 20, 2025.
Participants, including our PI, Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska, discussed the process of acquiring identity as a collective and personal experience, with a focus on when, and if, today’s residents of post-displacement localities in Pomerania truly felt like they belonged there.
Marek Łuczak, a police commissioner and president of the Pomeranian Historical Society, argued that identity is defined by what we build through our actions. For him, being a city dweller is about contributing to the city’s growth, rather than mere symbols. Katarzyna Rembacka, a historian and educator, observed that the region suffers from a lack of local historical narratives. Kinga Rabińska, a cultural animator, highlighted that identity, by definition, should be constant, but in Szczecin, for example, it is ever-changing, influenced by both global conditions and the city’s dynamic history. Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska described identity as a story, noting that Pomerania’s residents have difficulty narrating it. According to her, the process of identity formation faces several obstacles, particularly with the question of place and time. Is 1989 a turning point in the region’s identity? Or perhaps 2004, when Poland joined the European Union? Marek Stelar, a crime novelist, emphasized that identity is shaped through personal experiences and noted that the process of the city’s identity formation is ongoing. Martin Hanf, a German historian and podcaster, compared how people in Poland and Germany were (or were not) discussing topics related to World War II, which was crucial for the development of regional identities in Pomerania.
If you’re interested in learning more, you can listen to the entire conversation on YouTube channel of Radio Szczecin.
