Along with the German objects we found in our attic, there was this notebook, a remnant of a Polish settler. I don't know who Mania, its owner, was, but she must have lived in my house. So we are, in some way, connected.

If cemeteries create a community of both the living and the dead, what happens when the living get displaced? Case in point: German cemeteries in the PL "Recovered Lands." All Saints' Day is a good day to reflect on what happens to memory in the absence of those who remember. 🧵(not an easy read)

Today, Lower Silesia celebrates 15 years as a voivodeship and, as they put it, 80 years of ‘postwar Lower Silesia.’ Whatever the occasion, just wanted to relaunch my posting with this photo from around 8 years ago. That’s exactly when my research started — and so did my layered love for the region.

Hiii there! It’s been a while. Just wanted to say I’ve been busy writing and putting my research out to public differently. Yesterday I had a pleasure to present a paper in my hometown, and next week I will take part in a debate in Warsaw. But if you miss some Lower Silesian posts, let me know!💛🖤

It’s always weirdly moving for me to depart or arrive at this train station. It’s where my grandparents and great-grandma got off exactly 80 years ago, to restart their lives in the shapeshifting postwar Poland. Seeing this sign, the first thing they must have seen, was especially eerie.

How many dust particles are you away from Copernicus? Well. In this episode of “crazy traces in the attics”, let me present a hanger. It taught me about Moritz Leiser’s late 19th century department store in Toruń. Apparently, it was located in a building owned in the past by…Copernicus’ parents.

Prewar tiles, layers and years of paint peeling off - of course I got excited.

He did it! My awesome grandpa turned 100 today! He got congratulatory letters from the Polish Prime minister, Lower Silesian Voivode, a visit from the city Mayor, and he’s happy as a clam!

Good morning from an early 20th century hike, I suppose. Yet another glitch in the space-time continuum.

Happy to report my hometown embraced its German past - at least on postcards.

Took a break from bluesky to clear my head but now, going through the archive left on my attic, I can’t help but share these stamps I found: the big ones from 1946 portray the WWII destruction of Warsaw, the small ones are commemorating the 1948 Exhibition of the Recovered Territories. Nerdy finds!

Let’s normalize traveling out of Poland with a proper ring of kiełbasa! 🙏🏻

Unrelated, but I simply need to say it: Polish Roztocze is a fantastic place 😍

My aunt texts me, a little alarmed: ”I thought the Germans came back!” Phew, there’s something to be said about movies being made in the formerly German lands. You think you’re putting a set design, but you’re reopening a troublesome timeline instead 😅

Me: *Goes to southeastern Poland to take a break, turn off her brain and not think about the Polish-German layers of history, formerly-German objects, etc.* Also me: * immediately finds a cutting board with the prewar image of Gleiwitz (Gliwice)* Can’t untrain the eye, can I.

Everybody knows Polish pierogi🥟 🥟🥟 Have you ever heard of a buckwheat pieróg though? Popular around Lublin and Zamość, this dish is made of buckwheat groats, farmers cheese and potatoes, baked in a yeast-based dough. Typically served with kefir. Delish!

When the dress code is “business casual”. Poles:

I’m sure you’re familiar with the most famous Polish tongue twister - “W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie." But did you know that in the main square of Szczebrzeszyn, a giant, anthropomorphic longhorn beetle is actually buzzing in the reed? 🥲

Just a few Polish windows in the summer for you.

It’s the Warsaw bubble 🤷🏼‍♀️

If you haven’t had a chance yet, give this excellent investigative piece a read. As someone who writes non-fiction, I often struggle with how storytelling inevitably tends to fall into fiction at times, but as I see some authors out there love fiction more than fact. observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

(An old woman, seeing a local drunk coming in to our bus stop, carrying a beer) -Ohhh, and so it goes, it started raining! (the local drunk) - yeah, it’s a good thing. Let it rain! But why does it have to rain now, when I’m coming out for a beer?! Poles. Happy and unhappy, all at the same time.

On the topic of nostalgia drinks, I got to drink this today. Did it really taste like something I drank in my childhood? 90% yes. Never drank it during communism though so who knows. Glad to see the label says „no ration cards necessary.”

“Is the likelihood of nuclear war an obstacle to creative work?”

A big shoutout to @ceureviewofbooks.bsky.social, happy 2nd bday! 🎊 If you click on the link, in the highlights you will see my musings on Poland’s post-1945 border shifts and German expulsions as seen through @karolinarogalska.bsky.social awesome book “Ziemie”. Enjoy & 100 lat, CEURB!

To continue on the subject of nostalgia drinks, I have to give a loud shoutout to these two 1950s wonderful European attempts to compete with Coca-Cola: Yugoslavian (Slovene) Cockta and Czechoslovakian Kofola 🥰 Which one is your fave and what other nostalgia drinks I should try?

In unexpected trips down the memory lane that is not my own, I was given this Finnish drink with a phrase: “It was brought about for the 1952 Olympics but it tastes like my teenage years” 🙃 About to plunge in the sea of Finnish memories then, wish me luck.

Listen, it’s jagodzianka season in Poland and it’s important. People here take their bilberry buns very seriously, tirelessly searching for the perfect one around. Did I just throw my hat in the ring? Perhaps.

I was just scrolling through fb and stumbled upon an official post by the US Embassy in Poland where applicants for a nonimmigrant visas are asked to list all of their social media handles and are URGED to make all of their accounts public…this is so wild, I thought it was a joke account, but NO 😳

That’s cool. Does it mean I can now call on the National Museum in Poland to return the artifacts to the respective museums in the “Recovered Territories” so that the objects come back to their proper regions? Or is it still too early?

Today I was introduced to this German contraption: Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher 😳 just, why

Śnieżka, the highest peak of the Giant Mountains, imagined in the future by the Germans at the beginning of the 20th century vs Śnieżka AD 2025, Polish long-weekend. Spot the differences. (Pics by GOPR. I am not a fan of crowds.)

Just a moment of appreciation for this 1960s Slovenian design - K67 Kiosk. It stopped me in my tracks on my last trip to Ljubljana because, strangely, it reminds me of home. In the 90s these “jugokioski”, with newly flourishing, private businesses, populated our Polish post-communist landscape.

I have also contributed to this extraordinarily interesting SN issue :) Really you shoud have a look :)

Finally, the entire "Presenting and Experiencing History in Post-Displacement Regions" issue is out! If you're interested in the Polish-German and Czech-German borderscapes, historical layers, and intertwined legacies, you will likely enjoy it. My humble contribution-"Unsettled" - is also there :)

Me, when I finally focus on writing and look away from BlueSky, pretending the world is not on fire vs the mean world at my arm’s length, about to pounce.

Dear medieval historians, what pulled you into the medieval world? If you were to identify a feeling, a drive, anything, that made you plunge into the Middle Ages, what would it be? I’m trying to understand someone I’m currently researching so any feedback would be appreciated!

Someone kept telling me they were going to a conference in Regensburg, and I was like, Regensburg, Regensburg...never heard of it. Turns out I do...it's Ratyzbona! Just one of those cities that Poles randomly rebranded, skipped German and went full retro via Celtic and Latin. What even is life?🤷‍♀️

So I guess ASEEES must be doing something right to deserve this treatment. Never been a prouder member.

Next up: probably the most famous whale in the world. Yes, you will find this pulpit in Lower Silesia 😎

Ok, it’s time. I’ve found so many fantastic creatures I need to start a new thread. Animals of Lower Silesia, all of them at least a hundred years old, all of them reflected in different ways, in different forms… Enjoy my animalium!

"I sigh and I gulp and then I say: I am an independent scholar; it’s a fancy name for someone who is unemployed in academia but still has the misfortune of dwelling on important subjects and absolutely no home to take it to."

Emerging from the election haze, trying to find comfort in my little, Lower Silesian homeland, I stumbled upon this beauty: a newly-renovated townhouse in Wrocław, history preserved in old inscriptions but this time both Polish and German, enmeshed together. Historical coexistence. 📸M.Wlazlo

Apparently, Tusk is going to ask for the vote of confidence, so I guess the joke is on all of us who thought we at least had two years before this country turns completely bonkers.

Kindly reminder, when you look at the results of the election and grunt "wtf, Poland" do have in the back of your head that the difference in votes was 369,591 (1,78%), the smallest difference in the presidential election post-1989. Divided we are, yes. But give some of us a break, we tried.

This is overpowering. Being from one of the yellow spots feels ...lonely. [wins by local districts]

I'm still dwelling on Trzaskowski declaring victory last night. At first, I thought (very Polish woman of me, perhaps) I would never have had the confidence to do it in such uncertain circumstances. Either they know something we don't, or...oh no, nothing to see here, just the regular PO cockiness🤷‍♀️

Election Day in Poland and I’m terrified. In this respect I’m very Polish: always assume the worst, so you’re prepared for the worst outcome. And if not, you will be pleasantly surprised. Oh boy, it’s gonna be a long day.

From the series:Things Emerging from Underground in L. Silesia- here's an 1862 signpost uncovered during roadworks nearby. It's like waking someone up from a coma. Hey, you're still pointing to the right places, but the names changed, the country’s different, and oh, we no longer use Prussian miles🤷🏼‍♀️

Last weekend I visited the eeriest train station I’ve ever seen. You know how I love doors so I was naturally drawn to it. And then I saw it —flapping. Flapping in the wind along with the windows. Like a simulacrum of better days yet to come —or perhaps never to come at all.