Poland – rroma.org https://rroma.org Tue, 28 Apr 2026 15:00:41 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://rroma.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/cropped-greenwheel_large-1-32x32.png Poland – rroma.org https://rroma.org 32 32 Sinti and Roma in Poland https://rroma.org/sinti-and-roma-in-poland/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sinti-and-roma-in-poland Tue, 28 Apr 2026 15:00:41 +0000 https://rroma.org/?p=32381 A Polish view on the Sinti and Roma naming which misses the point that in Poland, most Sinti call themselves Sasytke Roma – German Roma …

]]> Auschwitz Exhibition https://rroma.org/auschwitz-exhibition/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=auschwitz-exhibition Mon, 27 Apr 2026 15:24:24 +0000 https://rroma.org/?p=32363 The traveling exhibition “Auschwitz. Not so long ago. Not so far away” will be shown at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum next year. The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum announced this on Monday. Using original artifacts, the exhibition conveys the history and significance of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp.

]]> Adam Fedorowicz https://rroma.org/adam-fedorowicz/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=adam-fedorowicz Fri, 24 Apr 2026 14:06:42 +0000 https://rroma.org/?p=32335 He was one of the most important ambassadors of Roma culture in the region and in Poland. Through his artistic and social work, he promoted the richness of Roma music and customs. Adam Fedorowicz, president of the Hitano Roma Culture Association, musician, composer, and songwriter, has died.

Te javel I phuv lokhi.

]]> Romani Media https://rroma.org/romani-media/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=romani-media Mon, 06 Apr 2026 14:59:42 +0000 https://rroma.org/?p=32132 Grzegorz Szczepański, assistant editor-in-chief of Romano Atmo, the Roma minority newspaper published by the Polish Roma Union in Szczecinek, discusses the most important events of the last year and what is happening now in the latest issue of “Roma Magazine.”

]]> Romani Pupils https://rroma.org/romani-pupils/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=romani-pupils Tue, 31 Mar 2026 13:17:39 +0000 https://rroma.org/?p=32044 An article about Romani pupils in Polish schools. It says that for a Roma child, the threshold of school is often a threshold to a completely different linguistic world. In homes, especially in groups like Polska Roma, which cultivate a stronger tradition, the first language is Romani. It is an intimate, homely language, acting as a guardian of identity. At school, students must rapidly adapt to Polish grammatical structures to master reading and writing, which represents a tremendous cognitive effort.

Well most of them are bilingual… So not sure about that statement.

]]> Zigeunerlager https://rroma.org/zigeunerlager/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=zigeunerlager Sat, 28 Feb 2026 15:40:45 +0000 https://rroma.org/?p=31636 Roma and Poles commemorated the 83rd anniversary of the establishment of the so-called Gypsy camp (Zigeunerlager) by the Germans at Auschwitz II-Birkenau on Thursday. They jointly paid tribute to the victims. Twenty-one thousand Roma and Sinti died in Auschwitz.

]]> Clothing https://rroma.org/clothing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=clothing Sat, 28 Feb 2026 15:39:51 +0000 https://rroma.org/?p=31633 An article about Roma cloting in the Polish press.

Classic ethnographic studies emphasize that clothing in Romani communities served a social and symbolic function.

Ethnographer Lech Mróz, author of, among others, The publication “Gypsies: Diversity and Intolerance” pointed out that dress was one of the most visible signs of cultural distinctiveness and an element in maintaining intergroup boundaries. However, it was not immutable – it evolved along with living conditions.

For women, traditional clothing – long, full skirts, covered shoulders, and expressive jewelry – was associated not only with aesthetics but also with social norms, including the rules of ritual purity (marime), present in some Romani groups.

There is no single “Roma costume”.

]]> Viki Gabor https://rroma.org/viki-gabor-7/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=viki-gabor-7 Sat, 28 Feb 2026 15:38:55 +0000 https://rroma.org/?p=31630 Another flury of articles about Viki Gabor, a singer, who married just before Christmas. And now all sort of stereotypes about Roma weddings, traditions, and so on.

Painful.

]]> Poland and Neighbours … https://rroma.org/poland-and-neighbours/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=poland-and-neighbours Mon, 16 Feb 2026 16:50:52 +0000 https://rroma.org/?p=31485 An article in the Ukrainian press about who is popular in Poland… Poles feel the most sympathy for Italians – 58% of respondents expressed a positive attitude. They are followed by Czechs (55%), Slovaks (52%) and the British (49%).

Poles traditionally feel the most hostility towards Russians – 74% of respondents noted a negative attitude. A high level of hostility is also observed towards Belarusians and Roma (46% each). A noticeable increase in hostility was recorded towards Jews, Americans and Ukrainians, while sympathy towards these groups decreased by several percentage points.

]]> Reaction to Newsweek Article in Poland https://rroma.org/reaction-to-newsweek-article-in-poland/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=reaction-to-newsweek-article-in-poland Sat, 14 Feb 2026 16:20:15 +0000 https://rroma.org/?p=31459 Several Roma  organisations reacted to the artcile about Roma in pland published by Newsweek. The full text sates:

Subject: Letter to the editor – regarding the article “How do Romani women live in Poland?” (Newsweek,

7.02.2026)

Dear Editors,

Dear Author,

We are referring to the article published on February 7, 2026, on the Newsweek.pl website, “How do Romani women live in Poland? I went to their village. Fifteen is a good age for having children,” by Elżbieta Turlej (https://www.newsweek.pl/polska/spoleczenstwo/jak-zyja-romskie-kobiety-w-polsce-pojechalam-to-sprawdzic-do-wsi-maszkowice/kf443xc ). We believe that this article fits into the well-known and frequently criticized way of talking about Roma people in the Polish media, which leads to the stigmatization of Roma communities in Poland. Despite its reportage style and declared sensitivity, the publication does not offer a new perspective or in-depth reflection, but reproduces established interpretive patterns. The title and lead alone are sensational and simplistic, reducing the experiences of Roma women to a catchy, stigmatizing, and stereotypical image.

The text then revolves around the gesture of entering the world of the Other, understood as a journey to the Roma settlement in Maszkowice, the observation and selection of stories, with the author remaining the primary interpretative authority. This method of constructing the narrative should be explicitly called a form of epistemic violence. Knowledge about Roma women is produced over their heads, without real control over how their experiences are framed, hierarchized, and evaluated.

Roma women appear as protagonists of the story, but not as subjects co-creating its meaning. Their voices are filtered, organized, and instrumentalized in such a way as to confirm a preconceived narrative of tradition, oppression, and imprisonment between worlds. Selective empathy, focused on the most dramatic and intimate fragments of biography, leads to the fetishization of suffering rather than a thorough analysis of the social, institutional, and political conditions of these experiences.

The logic of contrast is particularly problematic. On the one hand, the settlement and tradition are presented as spaces of oppression and cultural confinement, while on the other, individual women’s stories are constructed as exceptions or evidence of the possibility of change. This narrative reinforces the hierarchical division between the imprisoned and the more modern, shifting the responsibility for change to individuals rather than to the structural mechanisms of exclusion, discrimination, and unequal access to public services.

Although the text appears critical, its language remains paternalistic and devoid of self-reflection. It lacks consideration of the power relations inherent in the act of reporting itself and the social consequences of perpetuating such images of Roma people in public debate.

We want to emphasize that such narratives have an impact on institutional practice.

Simplified and sensationalized images of Roma communities often translate into administrative decisions and the design of public policies and support programs based on stereotypes, control, and cultural correction, rather than on equal rights and state responsibility.

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