News

On October 8, 2025, the studio “Duży Pokój” hosted a debate titled “What Remains: Experiencing History in Post-Migratory Central Europe.” The discussion was inspired by the latest issue of the journal Sprawy Narodowościowe. Seria nowa, which was edited by Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska and Michal Korhel (link to the editorial) and focuses on memory, identity, and heritage in regions affected by forced migrations. The issue also includes texts based on research conducted within the ERC Spectral recycling project. Karina Hoření, Magdalena Bubík, and Michal Korhel explored how memory and history are experienced through different lenses: Karina discussed the construction of national identities and ethnic tensions in the First Czechoslovak Republic; Michal examined the role of theater in Slovakia in bringing to life the memory of displaced German communities; Magdalena, in a review, focused on the emotional and historical significance of everyday objects in postwar Polish cities.

The event featured scholars: Kamila Fiałkowska (University of Warsaw), Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur (New York University), and Dariusz Stola (Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences). The debate was moderated by Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska, project leader of the ERC StG Spectral Recycling and co-editor-in-chief of Sprawy Narodowościowe.

Participants explored questions about what it means to experience history and what remains with us in everyday life. They reflected on the nature of memory and the complex intertwining of personal biographies with collective history.

We thank everyone for their presence, thoughtful questions, and inspiring conversation!

Participants of the event. Photos: Wiktoria Nylec.

At our first seminar after the summer break, we discussed the upcoming themes for this semester and, above all, exchanged experiences from the past months of fieldwork. Much of our work this season unfolded in Slovakia, which naturally became the central point of our conversation.

Karin opened the meeting with reflections from her Slovak fieldwork, focusing on the tensions between two distinct strands of local memory: the remembrance of a German past and the commemoration of the Slovak National Uprising. Her observations led to a broader discussion about the position of the ethnographer in the field: how researchers are perceived by local inhabitants, and how aspects such as gender and appearance may influence these perceptions. As these issues remain insufficiently theorized within our field, the discussion raised important methodological and ethical questions.

Michal also shared insights from his time in Slovakia, presenting how he approached memory through walking, following his experiences from Czechia, which he wrote about in one of the blog posts. By retracing parts of the Slovak National Uprising trail, he explored how movement and sensory engagement can contribute to an understanding of memory in place. His presentation prompted a collective reflection on accessibility in fieldwork: which spaces and communities are open to us, which remain closed, and on how these dynamics may intersect with broader processes of depoliticizing the German past.

Karolina then presented her ongoing work in Pomerania, where she is completing her field research. She focused on her collaboration with the Wałcz Land Museum, where she is engaged in preparing an exhibition as both part of her ethnographic engagement and her responsibilities as a member of the museum’s scientific council. Her reflections highlighted the intersections between research, curatorial practice, and institutional cooperation.

Although Magdalena could not attend the meeting in person, she shared a written report from her fieldwork in Northern Bohemia. Her research in these couple of months followed the trajectories of objects connected to Protestant communities, exploring how material traces mediate memory and belonging in the region.

The seminar served as a valuable space to reconnect after the summer and to consider how our individual field experiences speak to each other. The discussions revealed the thematic continuities across our projects: from the politics of memory and local heritage to the position of the researcher within these entangled landscapes.

Karina Hoření shares reflections from her visit to the archive in Most, a city in northern Czechia marked by a complex history of displacement. Following the post-war expulsion of its German-speaking population, the historic town was demolished in the 1970s to make way for coal mining. Her trip, grounded in the framework of critical archival studies, focused on uncovering materials related to the German history of North Bohemian industry.

During her research, Karina examined identification cards of women from the Soviet Union who had been forced labourers in a carpet factory in Maffersdorf/Vratislavice nad Nisou. As she handled the documents, two photographs detached from their cards, severing the connection between faces and names. This moment prompted a reflection on the nature of archives—not as neutral repositories of factual knowledge, but as spaces shaped by specific individuals, events, and material conditions.

Karina also describes the people, places, and atmosphere of the institution itself, considering how these elements influence the production and transmission of knowledge within the archive.

Blog post you can find here.

Magdalena Bubík returns to her hometown to see it with fresh eyes – as both a researcher and someone who has always lived on the border. In this conversation, she talks about her fascination with the Bridge of Friendship, the lingering ghosts of history in Cieszyn, and how academic research became a path to understanding her own identity.

This is not just a story about the past, but about how the past still shapes the present – through memory, displacement, and life between cultures.

We invite you to read the full interview (in Polish) in “Głos” and see Cieszyn through Magdalena’s eyes – the link is available here.

In mid-September, Karina and Karolina met in Berlin to present our team’s initial findings on the subsequent forms of recycling. The occasion was the Genealogies of Memory conference, which this year sought to address the question of what was left of World War II.

Starting with the example of Josef Bubák’s locksmith shop in Vratislavice near Liberec, which became the subject of 1970s Czech press coverage about German inscriptions (as Karin discussed in her blog post), Karina and Karolina explored what remained of the formerly German and what was subsequently recycled. They presented an initial typology consisting of three phases, illustrating how approaches to formerly German properties differed immediately after the war, during the socialist decades, and after 1989. They emphasized the variability within each period and the internal differences between them, as well as highlighted how comparisons between Czechia, Poland, and Slovakia provide valuable insights into local and national policies of dealing with the formerly German.

The conference, held in the atmospheric spaces of the German Academy of Sciences, offered a perfect setting to discuss our findings and reflect further on our work. It was also a perfect opportunity to speak with other scholars interested in material culture, which remains crucial in conference experiences.

In a recent conversation for TVN24’s historical series, Karolina Ćwiek‑Rogalska reflects on the complex legacy of the so‑called “Recovered Territories” (Ziemie Odzyskane) in Poland. She discusses what these regions were, who was resettled there, and how memories and identities around these areas continue to evolve — especially as new generations reinterpret the past.

Date: October 8, 2025
Time: 18:00
Venue: Pracownia Etnograficzna, Warecka 4/6, Warsaw

We invite you to a public debate organized around the latest issue of Sprawy Narodowościowe. Seria nowa. The discussion will center on the complex ways histories are remembered, lived, and negotiated in post-displacement Central Europe. In the lead-up to the debate, we’ve been featuring the articles from this issue on our Facebook page. Be sure to check them out for background and insights!

We especially encourage you to read Michal Korhel’s and Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska’s editorial – they offer an introduction to the issue’s central themes.

Participants:

• Kamila Fiałkowska (University of Warsaw)
• Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur (New York University)
• Dariusz Stola (Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences)

Moderator:
Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska (our PI and Co-Editor-in-Chief of Sprawy Narodowościowe)

The event will delve into themes of memory, identity, displacement, and the legacies of migration in the region. It is free and open to all. We warmly welcome your presence and contributions.

In the interview in “Wysokie Obcasy”, journalist Dorota Wodecka speaks with Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska, our PI and author of the acclaimed book “Ziemie. Historie odzyskiwania i utraty” (“Lands: Stories of Recovery and Loss”). The conversation delves into variety of postwar experiences of millions of people who were resettled to Poland’s so-called Recovered Territories, but also tackles the questions we research in our project.Karolina compares how these processes looked like in Poland and postwar Czechoslovakia, but also shows the long inheritance of them. How are our genealogies intertwined with the post-1945 policies and decisions of our acenstors? Why Polish settlers decorated German graves, especially in the early years after the war, when they had no graves of their own loved ones nearby? How cultural recycling shaped the new communities, from reusing German furniture and religious monuments to transforming war memorials into Polish shrines? It all contributes to a wide range of emotional inheritance the inhabitants of post-displacement regions face on the daily basis.

In May, our researcher Michal Korhel participated in a student-led march from Postoloprty to Žatec in northwestern Czechia, held in remembrance of the tragic events of late May and early June 1945, during which hundreds, possibly thousands, of German-speaking civilians — including women and children — were killed in Postoloprty.

Throughout the march, participants symbolically carried the names of the victims, aiming to foster a personal connection with the past and to restore individual identities to those who have long remained anonymous in historical records.

The route traced key locations linked to the massacre, and the experience was marked by several deeply emotional moments — including an encounter with a local resident whose father was among the victims, and stops at memorials established by activists.

While silence persists in some local communities, memory initiatives — often spearheaded by individuals from outside the region — continue to play a crucial role in preserving awareness of this painful chapter of history.

The march was not only an act of remembrance, but also a call for historical accountability — an attempt to address the overlooked and unspoken aspects of the past and to give voice to those who have been silenced for decades.

In the accompanying text, Michal reflects on his experience, shares conversations held during the walk, and situates these moments within the broader framework of local memory culture.

Link to the blog post you can find here.

In the latest issue of the Zeitschrift für Slawistik you can find an article written by Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska titled “Memory-making and Vampire-hunting: A Hauntological Study of the “Recovered” Pomerania in the 1950s”.

This article examines how memory and materiality were managed in the Recovered Territories, lands incorporated by Poland after 1945, through a case study set in Central Pomerania. It juxtaposes Bram Stoker’s Dracula with 1958 bureaucratic documents concerning the trade in cemetery stones from former German graveyards near Koszalin. The study reveals how local and central authorities in People’s Poland navigated the legal, political, and symbolic challenges of dealing with remnants of German heritage. By exploring tensions between top-down directives from Warsaw and local interpretations, the article sheds light on broader post-war memory processes and the contested legacy of German material culture in the 1950s.

Link to the article you can find here.

fieldwork in Pomerania, photo: Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska