Ealing Historical Association Talk – ‘Where Are the Poles?’

Professor James Bjork looks at the shaping of a national identity

St. Mary's Basilica, Kraków

December 29, 2025

The Ealing Branch of the Historical Association will open its 2026 programme with a talk by Professor James Bjork on Tuesday 13 January, from 7.30pm to 9pm, at Ealing Green Church, W5 5QT. His lecture, Where are the Poles? Redefining National Belonging in Poland after the Second World War, explores how ideas of Polish identity were reshaped in the turbulent years following 1945.

Although postwar Poland is often described as having become ethnically “homogeneous”, Professor Bjork argues that this narrative conceals a far more complex reality. While the devastation of the Holocaust and the emigration of most surviving Jewish citizens dramatically altered the country’s demographic landscape, the question of who counted as “ethnically Polish” remained deeply contested. His research uncovers the debates, anxieties and divergent historical experiences that lay beneath the surface of supposedly uniform postwar Poland.

The talk will also examine the role of the Roman Catholic Church, widely seen as the guardian of Polish national identity. Professor Bjork will discuss how the Church grappled with mass migration, cultural difference and the challenge of integrating diverse communities into its parish life during the postwar reconstruction period.

Professor James Bjork is Professor of Modern European History at King’s College London. His acclaimed book Neither German nor Pole: Catholicism and National Indifference in a Central European Borderland won the Kulczycki Prize for the best first monograph in Polish Studies. His current work focuses on migration and ethnic diversity within Polish Catholicism after 1945.

Further details are available at www.ealinghistory.org.uk.

Admission is £5 for visitors, free for students, and included in the £15 annual membership fee.

Further details are available at www.ealinghistory.org.uk

Admission is free for students. Visitors are welcome to attend for a fee of £5, while annual membership to the Ealing Branch is available for £15. Further details can be found at www.ealinghistory.org.uk.

Meetings are usually held on the second Tuesday of each month at Ealing Green Church at 7.30pm, with the exception of the November meeting which takes place at Twyford School at 6.30pm. Talks are live events but with the speaker’s permission the association aims to make a recording available afterwards to those registering on Eventbrite (the booking link will be available on the society's website one month in advance of each talk).