News

In mid-March, our team met in Dresden to attend the 6th Congress on Polish Studies (March 14-17th). Thanks to Michal Korhel, who put together a panel entitled “Presenting History in Post-displacement Regions” we had a chance to present our research and compare it with several other case studies of memory cultures in Lower Silesia, Warmia or Żuławy. 

During the panel, which was chaired by Karolina Ćwiek- Rogalska, the audience enjoyed four presentations. The first paper was presented by Anna Kurpiel (University of Wrocław) who was talking about the history and current re-inventing of the folk costume in Lower Silesia (“Lower Silesian Folk Costume as an Object of Contradictions: Presenting Pre-War Heritage within Folkloristic and Regional Frameworks”). Secondly, our colleague Michal Korhel talked about his research on local museums in formerly German regions of Western Pomerania (“German Objects: Local History Expositions in Western Pomerania”).  Next, we had a chance to listen to Agnieszka Pufelska (University of Hamburg) who presented a case study of the post-war history of a museum in Olsztyn under the title “Fractureless Appropriation in the Fractured Time”. Last but not least was Joanna Szkolnicka (Polish Academy of Sciences) who presented her paper on the memory activism in Elbląg (“An upheaval with regard to the German past and cultural heritage in the cities of former East and West Prussia: New perspectives and narratives based on the example of Elbing/Elbląg”). 

After the panel, there was a lively discussion based on comments from our discussant Karina Hoření. She raised questions about the specifics of museums in/of post-displacement regions, topics omitted from the newly emerging narrative of displacement, or possible backlash to it. Our audience discussed the future of Heimatstuben, i.e.  small museums of lost “homeland” that were built by German expellees from Poland and Czechoslovakia in western Germany.  

On Saturday, March 16th, Karolina participated in another panel, entitled “How to change urban identity? Transitions in Polish towns in regional and transregional context”. She presented some results from the fieldwork in Wałcz in a paper “Recovering the City-Text of a Topolganger: A Case Study of the Pomeranian Town Deutsch Krone / Wałcz”.

It was not the end of our team’s activities in Dresden, as we were also presenting our poster that uses the symbol of a haunted dollhouse full of post-German objects to capture the essence of our project (you can see our poster here).

The Congress was a perfect occasion to share our research with other academics, meet new people, and listen to fascinating presentations from a wide field of Polish studies.

During the first two weeks of March, our Principal Investigator, Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska, served as a tutor at a workshop organized by the Polish Children’s Fund in Lusławice in southern Poland.

The Krajowy Fundusz na rzecz Dzieci, or the Polish Children’s Fund, is an exceptional organization that has been making a significant impact for nearly 40 years. The Fund supports talented students in Polish schools, helping them develop their cognitive, artistic, and musical talents. It provides a platform for these students to deepen their knowledge, broaden their horizons, and integrate various fields of science and art. The Fund collaborates with hundreds of scientists and artists from the best universities, research institutions, and art schools in Poland. This collaboration provides students with access to a wealth of knowledge and expertise. The Fund encourages community engagement, with many former beneficiaries becoming volunteers to give back to the organization.

Karolina, as one of them, frequently engages in various activities. This time, she was involved in several activities connected to the topic of post-displacement heritage. She gave a guided tour of two WW1 cemeteries in the region, discussing how various parts of memorial architecture can be interpreted. Together with students, they also watched and discussed the film “Prawo i pięść” by Jerzy Hoffman and Edward Skórzewski, which depicts the reality of post-war Recovered Territories. Karolina also gave a lecture on the meanings behind objects and landscapes of the Recovered Territories.

Furthermore, as the Fund aims to collaborate with the local community, she also engaged in a series of workshops and lectures at the local Secondary School Complex named after Józef Piłsudski in Zakliczyn. One of these was a workshop she led entitled “How to read monuments?”.

In the aftermath of World War II, the geopolitical landscape of Central Europe underwent significant changes. One such event was the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia, a historical process that continues to resonate today.

The 14th episode of the Czechostacja podcast, created by Jakub Medek, a Czech-Polish journalist, entitled “Czystka etniczna po czesku. Wypędzenie Niemców Sudeckich” provides an in-depth look at this event. A guest in the episode was Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska. Together, they delve into the circumstances leading to the expulsion, the experiences of those affected, and the lasting impact on the region of the Czech Borderlands.

It was a great opportunity to bring these events closer for the Polish listeners. You can listen to the podcast, in Polish, here.

We are happy to announce that a new article by our principal investigator, Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska, was published in the journal Acta Poloniae Historica.

The article delves into the memoirs of Polish soldiers who settled in the Recovered Territories after World War II, examining how they convey the stories of Poland’s acquisition of the formerly German lands in 1945. Karolina identifies two main forms of storytelling: myth and lore. The myth represents authoritative and obligatory stories, while lore involves flexible and optional storytelling. She also discusses how the myth of the ‘recovery’ evolved into lore over time, from the immediate post-war period to the 1970s. This analysis sheds light on the various ways in which personal and collective experiences shape the narratives of historical events.

The article is available in open access on the web page of Acta Poloniae Historica and our our website. We’d like to encourage you to check the whole issue of the journal as well.

During her archival research in the local archive in Liberec, Karina Hoření found a document that connects the issue of property changes after the war with the history of the Holocaust of the Roma and Sinti. After the war, a nomadic wagon that was supposed to be sold was found in Liberec, but the rightful owner claimed it at the last minute. In her essay, Karina not only describes this story and object in detail but reflects on the role it can play in our understanding of the forgotten culture of the North Bohemian Sinti.

Link to the text you can find here.

On January 21st, Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska was a guest at the Skarbiec Nauki Polskiej audition at the Second Programme of Polish Radio. The audition, broadcasted in collaboration with the Foundation of Polish Science, aims to introduce the listeners to the research done by the former stipends of the Foundation.

Karolina was able to recall the recent discoveries made by the Spectral Recycling team, as well as to talk about her previous research in western Bohemia. She presented the fundamental intuition of our project: that the expellees are somewhat still present in the cultural landscape of the post-displacement regions by the things they left behind. She briefly discussed how hauntology works and how to engage with that theory while doing ethnographic research.

You can listen to the audition, in Polish, here.

We are pleased to share a new article by our principal investigator, Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska, published in the journal of Environment & History. In this article, Karolina explores the complex and often invisible histories of two orchards left behind, Baberow (Bobrowo) and Rieselei (Porosty), located near Wałcz, a town in northwestern Poland that underwent drastic demographic and political changes after 1945.

Drawing on ethnographic and archival data, Karolina reveals how the orchards are not only sources of fruit but also sites of memory and belonging for different communities. Moreover, she argues that the orchards are multitemporal entanglements, where the past and the present, the human and the nonhuman are constantly interacting and influencing each other. She invites us to rethink our relationship with nature and history and acknowledge the orchards’ agency and resilience.

The article is available in open access on our website. We’d like to encourage you to check the whole issue of the journal as well.

Hauerland. This is the name of the predominantly German speaking region in central Slovakia, but also the name of a new play in the J. G. Tajovský Theater in Zvolen, directed and written by Petr Palik. The play depicts the everyday life of a multi-ethnic community in central Slovakia and how it was largely negatively affected by the historical events of the 1930s and 1940s. In the following lines, you can learn about Michal Korhel’s impressions from the play he saw on December 13, but also about its significance in the context of the Slovak culture of remembrance with regard to the local German-speaking population.

Link to the text you can find here.

On January 8-10, 2024, the third in person meeting of the entire Spectral Recycling Team took place. This time, we met in Warsaw. On Monday, we discussed our plans for the new year. Since we plan to continue our field and archival work this year, it was crucial to make some plans in advance. We had a chance to follow with our analyses, especially what “post-German” can mean in the context of post-displacement regions of Czechia, Poland and Slovakia. In the evening, we decided to see the illumination on the Royal Route, which refers to the Christmas decorations popular in the 1950s and 1960s. Such a way to make some more conversation on the meaning of things in Central European pasts!

The next day was an opportunity to present preliminary research results to a wider audience. The presentation took place during an open seminar of the Department of Literary and Cultural Studies of the Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences. It had a hybrid form. Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska, Karina Hoření and Michal Korhel together gave a presentation entitled “Introduction to Ghost-Hunting. Spectral Objects, Recycling Strategies and Human-Nonhuman Relationships in Post-Displacement Regions of Czechia, Poland and Slovakia”. In the presentation, each of the theoretical concepts we work on was presented on the basis of one case study from each studied region. Thus, we talked about Czech ghosts, Polish recycling strategies and the role of non-human actors in the resettlement in Slovakia. Questions for the Team members concerned, among others: the layers of recycling that we investigate, whether we meet friendly or unfriendly ghosts, what emotions accompany the people we interview, what challenges we face and whether we have already had first successes and failures, regarding the original assumptions. 

The meeting was followed by a workshop with dr hab. Dobrochna Kałwa, from the Faculty of History at the University of Warsaw. Our conversation focused on oral history as the basis for conducting interviews (more information about our last workshop you can find here). This topic is constantly present in our considerations and we are planning further meetings with ethnologists and historians concerning that matter.

Wednesday we spent on summarizing three days of meetings and planning the new year. It was also an opportunity to determine how we want to follow with the knowledge acquired during workshops on using the MAXQDA program (more about our training here). We also had the opportunity to reflect on the current method of collecting materials, both field and archival. 

We are looking forward to new challenges and promise to share with you our discoveries, successes, but also the difficulties we encounter. We encourage you to follow our website and Facebook profile (link).

Starting in September and finishing in early November – with a short break – our PI, Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska, was carrying out another round of her fieldwork in Central Pomerania. Late summer and early autumn were a perfect time for looking closely at various forms of cultural recycling, as the falling leaves and dying grass revealed abandoned villages, such as Doderlage / Dudylany, or allowed her to examine formerly German cemeteries in the vicinity, as well as recycled monuments.

Karolina did various forms of participant observation, a fundamental ethnographic method. She was able to take part in official commemoration celebrations in the military cemetery in Bukowina, stroll through the woods, looking for abandoned lonely farms, only briefly inhabited after the war, together with her interview partners, as well as expand her research into some new areas. Among them were Borne Sulinowo, formerly German Gross Born, and later a Soviet military base, and Złotów, formerly German Flatow, where a robust Polish minority used to live before the war.

She also collected materials, stored at the state archive in Piła, formerly German Schneidemühl. In our project, we follow both ethnographic and archival sources, treating them not in comparison, but in connection, as they reveal various points of view and modes of telling the stories of the German ghosts in post-displacement regions.