We are proud to share that our PI, Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska, has been honored with the title of Ambassador of Wałcz, awarded by the Wałcz municipality in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the study and preservation of the region’s history and heritage.
The distinction was presented during the Gala of Leaders 2025, an annual celebration held on March 7 at the Wałcz Cultural Centre. The event celebrated individuals and institutions whose dedication, passion, and everyday work contribute to the development and unique character of the town. Awards were given across several categories, including social, cultural, educational, and business initiatives.
Karolina received the award for her extensive research into the local past—work she continues as part of our project. We warmly congratulate her on this well-deserved recognition!
The idea of the Czech Republic as an atheistic country is a prevalent myth in Poland, but the reality is more complex. Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska sheds light on this topic in episode no. 68 of Czechostacja podcast. Can you be an atheistic Christian? What is secular Christianity? Where does the skeptical attitude towards institutional religions, especially Catholicism, come from? Were the Hussites Protestants? And how does contemporary Czechia relate to all this? It’s important to consider the nuances and complexities of beliefs and attitudes rather than perpetuate simplistic myths.
Programme of Research Stays at The Polish Academy of Sciences – Scientific Centre in Vienna for Doctoral Students from the Doctoral Schools of the Polish Academy of Sciences aims to disseminate and promote scientific activities. The competition is designed to enable PhD students to present their research results to the international scientific community in Vienna. Selection criteria for the winners included the substantive value of the project, innovativeness, interdisciplinarity, and social significance.
More information about the programme you can find here.
On February 4, our PI, Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska, took part in a timely conversation held in the evocative setting of Poznań Castle—a place with a complex and often painful history. Once used by Nazi officials during the German occupation of Poland, the Castle today serves as a vibrant cultural hub. Its layered past made it a fitting venue for a discussion on one of Poland’s most sensitive and enduring topics: the legacy of the “Recovered Territories”—formerly German regions incorporated into Poland after World War II.
Karolina joined Professor Robert Traba (Institute of Political Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences) and Dr. Piotr Oleksy (Faculty of History, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań) to explore how these territories have been negotiated and reimagined by subsequent generations of settlers. Drawing from her own fieldwork, Karolina highlighted the diverse ways in which people relate to and manage formerly German objects—from everyday acts of care to lingering silences and spectral presences.
The conversation quickly expanded into a lively dialogue with the public, reflecting just how deeply the topic resonates today. This event demonstrated not only the ongoing importance of engaging with the past’s unresolved questions but also the need for spaces—like Poznań Castle—where these conversations can unfold with honesty, nuance, and openness.
In March, our team had the pleasure of hosting Mgr. Tereza Juhászová, a PhD candidate at Charles University in Prague and the University of Regensburg, to discuss her ongoing research on the microhistory of the East Slovak small town of Medzev in the 20th century within our internal seminar.
Working with archival materials, oral history interviews, and contemporary press, Tereza explores the dynamics and relationships within a local multinational community affected by World War II in her PhD thesis. In doing so, she challenges the narrative that emphasizes the importance of national categories defined by the Czechoslovak state. On the contrary, Tereza, from her bottom-up perspective, highlights the agency of individuals at the local level navigating new political and social conditions.
Since the population of Medzev was predominantly German until the end of World War II, our researchers were particularly interested in Tereza’s research on the post-war realities in the town. This was evident from the extensive discussion following her presentation. We wish Tereza a successful defense of her thesis and look forward to potential future collaboration.
We are currently recruiting for a position of a financial manager. If you have experience in managing budgets, financial reporting, and compliance in the context of EU funding, we encourage you to apply. For more details, please visit website of ISS PAS.
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.
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.
The guides of the walk, from the left: Marlena, Daniel, Piotr and Karolina, photo: Natalia Borek
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.
Marek Stelar, Marek Łuczak, Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska, Kinga Rabińska, Katarzyna Rembacka, Martin Hanf photo: Robert Stachnik, source: Radio Szczecin
In an interview with Gazeta.pl, Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska and Lidia Raś discuss issues related to the displacement of German and German-speaking populations from Czechoslovakia after World War II. They cover the so-called “wild expulsions” that occurred before the Potsdam Agreement, as well as the later, more organized phases of forced displacement. Our PI attempts to explain the reasons for these displacements, highlighting how public opinion became increasingly radicalized and how social and political attitudes evolved, especially in the context of the communist takeover in Czechoslovakia in 1948.Karolina also discusses the historical context of Czech-German relations, dating back to the 19th century when there was a significant German presence in the Czech lands. She briefly mentions the similarities between the forced displacements in Poland and Czechoslovakia, which are also studied in our project. She points out that the Polish and Czechoslovak governments exchanged experiences at official platforms regarding the organization of both the expulsions and the resettlements.
