Things in Women's Hands: Reclaiming Domestic Space After the War

The aim of this work is to present the results of qualitative research on the diaries of women living in the “Recovered Territories (RT)” after World War II in Poland. In particular, the diaries of the first settlers of the “RT” have been subjected to analysis. These women, between 1945 and 1956, were creating, organizing, and domesticating the new and unfamiliar space of the “RT.” The fundamental questions guiding my considerations concern how women coped with domestic and material space in their new places of residence, including dealing with their foreignness, the abundance of some items and the lack of others, essential for daily life, and the relationships between space, objects, and people in the process of domestication.