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414 Ewa Baniowska-Kopacz Polish State are very freguent. In general, the illustrations underline the role of the people presented in the photos and the role of Silesia (Fig. 182) in shaping Polish nationality. The photos in the journal are set in a specific historical context—the time of Piast rule in Silesia. The legendary founder of the Polish State Piast Kolodziej (Piast the Wheelwright) is not present in person on the journal pages, but is referred to many times as the progenitor of the Piast family. The editors, speaking about the rise of the Polish State'’, often refer to the deepest layer of the notion of Polishness. They invoke the myth of the beginning expressed in historical figures, derived from the first royal family, associated with the foundations of Polish statehood. The myth throws historical light on the present days and shows the events of today as reasonable, in accordance with God’s will, even as necessary and inevitable (cf. Assmann 2008: 93). Pictures in the magazine refer to the history of Silesia and Poland as a whole. By recalling people and architectural monuments from the past, they underline the similar fates of Poles from various parts of the country and build the basis of common historical memory. To better understand the mechanism of this process, the concept of lieux de mémoire of Pierre Nora should be used. According to Nora, these “places of memory” are points where memory crystallises, consolidates and spreads (Nora 2001). They generate similar thoughts and reactions among people belonging to the same group, thus building their identity. Memory builds a common history and tradition, drawing a borderline between that which is ‘ours’ and that which of ‘strangers’.'* I believe that the recollection of events and people from the past in the journal was intended to create such ‘places of memory’. By presenting these facts and people the magazine intended to develop in the Poles the feeling that they had been one nation, not just from the proverbial yesterday (when the new Poland’s borders were established), but always. As the region of Silesia had been detached from Poland for several hundred years and regained only after WWII, one of the journal’s objectives, declared in the editorial credo, was to form a common memory in the post-war Polish population and to draw attention to these values (related to the Recovered Territories), which the Poles were not allowed to forget. Recalling the various advantages of the Regained Territories evidently served that purpose. The editors were aware that common memory might be decisive in the process of developing unity (cf. Assmann 2008: 15 Recalling such a distant past was necessary in a certain way. The territories in question belonged to the Polish state (or were linked to it) as early as the 10" century. The process of their detachment started in the 12" century and was finally completed with the partition of Poland and the fall of the Polish state (1772-1795). Most of Silesia was left outside the borders of the Republic of Poland, as created in 1918 (cf. Popiotek 1976). 4 Places of memory may form a complex network understandable only to specific groups, a space saturated with emotions and recollections, both personal and shared. This memory-space link consolidates ties between people and the places where they live (cf: Ricoeur 2006: 537; Poczykowski 2010).
