Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur
@agatumilowicz.bsky.social
Scholar & Writer ✍🏻
Ph.D. NYU Comparative Literature
I write on archive, nature, memory, and layers of Polish, Jewish and German heritage in my native Lower Silesia.
Words in The Brooklyn Rail, Triangle House Review, CEU Review of Books, Apofenie, etc
Ph.D. NYU Comparative Literature
I write on archive, nature, memory, and layers of Polish, Jewish and German heritage in my native Lower Silesia.
Words in The Brooklyn Rail, Triangle House Review, CEU Review of Books, Apofenie, etc
Thank you ♥️ I will let him know ☺️
November 8, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Thank you ♥️ I will let him know ☺️
Polish flag’s waved not to confuse passersby 😉
or
„We’re still here” thought a Pole and a German, simultaneously, looking at this house.
or
„We’re still here” thought a Pole and a German, simultaneously, looking at this house.
November 5, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Polish flag’s waved not to confuse passersby 😉
or
„We’re still here” thought a Pole and a German, simultaneously, looking at this house.
or
„We’re still here” thought a Pole and a German, simultaneously, looking at this house.
Two types of Lower Silesian owls, at your service. The second one was clearly pointing to something, now it’s holding an empty plaque, a common form of absence around here, inscribed into the fabric of the town.
November 5, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Two types of Lower Silesian owls, at your service. The second one was clearly pointing to something, now it’s holding an empty plaque, a common form of absence around here, inscribed into the fabric of the town.
When it’s sunny but in November 🤷🏼♀️
November 4, 2025 at 2:19 PM
When it’s sunny but in November 🤷🏼♀️
In the world of doubles, here’s my latest obsession - two different house numbers 🥲 might create a separate series of it, I’m not sure, but they are certainly not the easiest to spot. It’s as if the two addresses, the one from the past and the present, manage to somehow coexist.
November 4, 2025 at 11:19 AM
In the world of doubles, here’s my latest obsession - two different house numbers 🥲 might create a separate series of it, I’m not sure, but they are certainly not the easiest to spot. It’s as if the two addresses, the one from the past and the present, manage to somehow coexist.
Thank you for your kind words! It definitely motivates me to keep walking 🥰
November 4, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Thank you for your kind words! It definitely motivates me to keep walking 🥰
Blind windows, not very functional, or maybe functional, after all, and able to see…? Both.
November 3, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Blind windows, not very functional, or maybe functional, after all, and able to see…? Both.
Personal example: my great-grandpa got his „second” grave (just an inscription on the family tombstone) in the so-called Recovered Lands. Also, my grandma and some other displaced people brought handfuls of the soil from the Eastern Borderlands to throw in on their graves.
November 1, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Personal example: my great-grandpa got his „second” grave (just an inscription on the family tombstone) in the so-called Recovered Lands. Also, my grandma and some other displaced people brought handfuls of the soil from the Eastern Borderlands to throw in on their graves.
In a parallel move, I think a lot today about the grave of my great-grandfather - a grave I will never see nor find. He perished at the end of WWII and stayed behind where his kids couldn’t stay, in the lands they all called home - Traby, Belarus.
November 1, 2025 at 4:21 PM
In a parallel move, I think a lot today about the grave of my great-grandfather - a grave I will never see nor find. He perished at the end of WWII and stayed behind where his kids couldn’t stay, in the lands they all called home - Traby, Belarus.
For a researcher like me, it’s often frustrating to discover the lacunae of memory. Where are Felicita Vestvali, Katarina Kosack or Emil Kröning? No trace is left of the people, artists, archivists & others, who for so many years formed the fabric of the city. They remain largely forgotten.
November 1, 2025 at 2:30 PM
For a researcher like me, it’s often frustrating to discover the lacunae of memory. Where are Felicita Vestvali, Katarina Kosack or Emil Kröning? No trace is left of the people, artists, archivists & others, who for so many years formed the fabric of the city. They remain largely forgotten.
Some other cemeteries were razed to the ground while schools, parks, or new roads were built in their place. In those cases, the painful phantom of WWII has led the newcomers to erase the heritage and traces of their predecessors. Other cemeteries, overgrown, fell into oblivion.
November 1, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Some other cemeteries were razed to the ground while schools, parks, or new roads were built in their place. In those cases, the painful phantom of WWII has led the newcomers to erase the heritage and traces of their predecessors. Other cemeteries, overgrown, fell into oblivion.
I mean it, sometimes you *really* have to look hard.
November 1, 2025 at 10:31 AM
I mean it, sometimes you *really* have to look hard.
The lettering on the stones is harder and harder to read while the graves, in the absence of their caretakers, get gradually overgrown. Sometimes the only hint of a German grave are the Art Nouveau fences surrounding the plots.
November 1, 2025 at 10:20 AM
The lettering on the stones is harder and harder to read while the graves, in the absence of their caretakers, get gradually overgrown. Sometimes the only hint of a German grave are the Art Nouveau fences surrounding the plots.
As for the other German graves, it's still possible to find some but you need to look for them. They're usually hiding behind the Polish ones as if lurking. But in fact, they're just there like the shadows of a bygone reality, reminding you about the layers the region is built on.
November 1, 2025 at 10:08 AM
As for the other German graves, it's still possible to find some but you need to look for them. They're usually hiding behind the Polish ones as if lurking. But in fact, they're just there like the shadows of a bygone reality, reminding you about the layers the region is built on.
Another example, at a different local cemetery.
Eugen Füllner was the head of the paper machine factory and a great social activist who cared greatly about his employees. Entangling the past and present, current employees of the paper company still take care of his grave today.
Eugen Füllner was the head of the paper machine factory and a great social activist who cared greatly about his employees. Entangling the past and present, current employees of the paper company still take care of his grave today.
November 1, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Another example, at a different local cemetery.
Eugen Füllner was the head of the paper machine factory and a great social activist who cared greatly about his employees. Entangling the past and present, current employees of the paper company still take care of his grave today.
Eugen Füllner was the head of the paper machine factory and a great social activist who cared greatly about his employees. Entangling the past and present, current employees of the paper company still take care of his grave today.
Uh-oh, his grave was also facing the other way, but! Props for the local decision-makers to mark this place as a regional landmark.
As you can see, it's very tight in there.
As you can see, it's very tight in there.
November 1, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Uh-oh, his grave was also facing the other way, but! Props for the local decision-makers to mark this place as a regional landmark.
As you can see, it's very tight in there.
As you can see, it's very tight in there.
One sure way for the grave to survive was its...prominence. If the deceased happened to be an important person for the region – there's a chance his memory is still tangible.
Hugo Seydel, for instance, was the founder of a local museum and an activist of the Karkonosze Society.
Hugo Seydel, for instance, was the founder of a local museum and an activist of the Karkonosze Society.
November 1, 2025 at 10:01 AM
One sure way for the grave to survive was its...prominence. If the deceased happened to be an important person for the region – there's a chance his memory is still tangible.
Hugo Seydel, for instance, was the founder of a local museum and an activist of the Karkonosze Society.
Hugo Seydel, for instance, was the founder of a local museum and an activist of the Karkonosze Society.
In my town, the oldest surviving cemetery (established in 1874) is an example of such "adaptation." The Polish newcomers started to bury their dead in the formerly German cemeteries but gradually they needed more and more space, so more and more German graves were being removed.
November 1, 2025 at 10:01 AM
In my town, the oldest surviving cemetery (established in 1874) is an example of such "adaptation." The Polish newcomers started to bury their dead in the formerly German cemeteries but gradually they needed more and more space, so more and more German graves were being removed.
After the whirlwind of the 1945 resettlement, the Polish newcomers found themselves not only inhabiting German houses but also, having to restart and establish community lives anew in the formerly German spaces. It meant "adapting" cemeteries for the new community's needs.
November 1, 2025 at 10:01 AM
After the whirlwind of the 1945 resettlement, the Polish newcomers found themselves not only inhabiting German houses but also, having to restart and establish community lives anew in the formerly German spaces. It meant "adapting" cemeteries for the new community's needs.
I feel like I’ve shared letter boxes already but because I came across two more today, here they are. A bit redundant these days but kept almost intact nevertheless.
October 28, 2025 at 1:17 PM
I feel like I’ve shared letter boxes already but because I came across two more today, here they are. A bit redundant these days but kept almost intact nevertheless.
Just the other day, my mom takes this table runner out from our wardrobe and says „oh, and this one is from the Germans, too!”
80 years later I STILL find things from the previous inhabitants, randomly scattered around. And it’s got a face.
I guess this story never ends.
80 years later I STILL find things from the previous inhabitants, randomly scattered around. And it’s got a face.
I guess this story never ends.
October 26, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Just the other day, my mom takes this table runner out from our wardrobe and says „oh, and this one is from the Germans, too!”
80 years later I STILL find things from the previous inhabitants, randomly scattered around. And it’s got a face.
I guess this story never ends.
80 years later I STILL find things from the previous inhabitants, randomly scattered around. And it’s got a face.
I guess this story never ends.
Piękne gęby!
October 18, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Piękne gęby!
Not sure about successful, hahaha, but at least, happy to be spreading some of my exciting finds and thoughts. Thank you!
October 2, 2025 at 7:48 AM
Not sure about successful, hahaha, but at least, happy to be spreading some of my exciting finds and thoughts. Thank you!