Memory-making and Vampire-hunting: A Hauntological Study of the “Recovered” Pomerania in the 1950s

Summary This article explores the memory strategies and approaches to German materiality in the lands incorporated by Poland in 1945, the so-called Recovered Territories, specifically in Central Pomerania. The research method involves a comparative narrative study of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and a group of bureaucratic documents from 1958, related to a trade in formerly German cemetery stones in the Koszalin region. This case study reveals the legal and political complexities of dealing with formerly German property and heritage in 1950 s People’s Poland, as well as the attempts by local authorities to control and limit access to these cemetery stones, seen as valuable and scarce resources. The results show an inner dynamic of remembrance and forgetting, unveiled through the tension between center-imposed solutions from the ministries in Warsaw and locally decoded meanings. This study provides a new reading of the multifaceted history of the second half of the 1950 s in the People’s Republic of Poland, partially established in the formerly German lands. The findings are significant as they contribute to our understanding of the complex memory processes in the post-war period, shedding light on the interaction between central and local memory strategies and the handling of formerly German property and heritage.