The outskirts of the city of Lublin in the distance, as seen from within the Majdanek camp. Inmates here would have been haunted by the specter of normal life going on so close to the camp. On the other side, Lublin residents would obviously have known what was happening here. Photo by Mark Baker.
The outskirts of the city of Lublin, Poland, distantly visible from inside the Majdanek concentration camp.
I’m an independent journalist, travel writer and author who’s lived in Central Europe for nearly three decades. I love the history, literature, culture and mystery of this often-overlooked corner of Europe, and I make my living writing articles and guidebooks about the region. Much of what I write eventually finds its way into commercial print or digital outlets, but a lot of it does not.
And that’s my aim with this website: to find a space for stories and experiences that fall outside the publishing mainstream.
In 2021, I published “Čas Proměn” (“Time of Changes”), my first book of historical nonfiction. The book, written in Czech, is a collection of stories about Central and Eastern Europe in the 1980s and early ‘90s, including memories of the thrilling anti-communist revolutions of 1989. The idea for the book and many of the tales I tell there were directly inspired by this blog. Czech readers, find a link to purchase the book here. I hope you enjoy.