Category Archives: Poland

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Ukraine Roma Refugees

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Two articles in the Polish press about a Romni activist and Ukrainian refugee currently in Poland.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poznan: Telenovela

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The fate of a Roma camp in Poznan never ceases to make the headlines. This time it is because a needed environmental decision by the local government has been postponed, meaning the project of building a housing estate (and removing Roma) cannot go ahead…

News Eastern Europe Poland Ukraine

Roma in the Ukraine

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An interview with Anzhelika Belova from Zaporozhye, now lives in Uzhgorod with her husband and daughter; activist, president of the Voice of Romni organization. She says that nobody should be ashamed of being Roma. We live in Ukraine and we are Ukrainians.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poznan: Respite

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The Roma encampment at ul. Lechicka in Poznań will not be closed anytime soon. Developers had applied for a building permit to build several apartment houses on the site. They also applied for an environmental permit in order to start construction. This decision has been suspended by the city, meaning that they cannot proceed.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Papuša

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An article on Papuša, a Romani poet. The article makes a lot of incorrect statement. That she was considered a traitor, that writing is not a gift for Roma, on the contrary, etc. In brief, it continues stereotypes.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poland, Schools, and Roma

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Robert Bladycz, a Rom teaching assistant from schools in Kamienna Góra, has been trying to get a teaching job for many years, he tells Radio Wrocław. He has a higher degree in education, has been working in schools for 20 years, and despite repeated attempts, he has never been offered a position as a beginner teacher.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Auschwitz Commemorations

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Today, on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, about 20 former prisoners of German camps and representatives of the Auschwitz Museum management laid a wreath and candles at the Death Wall in the former Auschwitz I. It was the first part of the celebration of the 79th anniversary of the liberation of the camp on January 27.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poland and the Genocide

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A video on the history of the extermination of the Roma from Borzecin and Szczurowa is available on the History Hiking.

The presenters describe two stories related to the Nazi murders of the Roma population. On a Saturday in July 1942, the gendarmes stopped a group of 30 Gypsies near Wał Rudy: three men, five women and the rest – children. In carts driven by local peasants, the Germans took them to the Kisielina River between Wola Radłowska and Wał Ruda. Local people begged the Germans and Polish policemen not to kill Gypsies near the village. The Germans took the victims along the road towards Borzęcin. The execution took place in the forest. Probably one man managed to escape. The murdered belonged to the Majewski, Kwiatkowski, Chmielewski and Cioroni families. The names indicate that they were Gypsies from the Polska Roma tribe and local settlers (Cioronie). The victims of the massacre were exhumed in 1959 and placed in a mass grave at the cemetery in Borzęcin Dolny.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poznan and Roma

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Roma immigrants of Romanian origin live in former allotment gardens at Lechicka Street in Poznań. The city has had problems with the encampment for years. Now, the city hall has an application for an environmental decision for a new investment – multi-family buildings on that site.

Question is what will happen with the Roma?

News Eastern Europe Poland

82 years

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On January 12, 1942, the Germans completed the liquidation of the Roma camp located in the Litzmannstadt Ghetto in Łódź. The Germans took 5,000 people to Łódź. Mostly Roma from the border of Austria and Hungary. Many of them died in the camp, the rest were murdered in the gas chambers.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Litzmannstadt: 82 years

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On Tuesday, January 9, Łódź commemorated the 82nd anniversary of the liquidation of the Roma and Sinti camp established in the Litzmannstadt Ghetto.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Litzmannstadt – Łodz – Ghetto

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In November 1941, in the Litzmannstadt Ghetto, Nazis established a sub-camp to which Roma and Sinti were brought from the Burgenland. After several weeks, on January 5, 1942, the deportation of prisoners to the extermination camp in Chełmno nad Nerem began, where several thousand people were brutally murdered.

News Eastern Europe Poland Ukraine

Ukrainian Roma Refugees

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Natalia Yuzypchuk, a Ukrainian Romni, fled to Warsaw from Lutsk, Ukraine, seeking safety for her grandchildren. A year and a half later, Natalia is the driving force behind the Roma Community Centre in Warsaw, run by the W Stroną Dialogu Foundation and supported by UNICEF.

Since the first months of the war, the situation of Roma refugees has been much worse than that of other groups of refugees from Ukraine. Roma refugee families face many barriers in accessing basic services due to administrative obstacles and lack of documents. This leads to bigger obstacles, including: in access to financial support, health care, education, housing and the labour market. Many people also tell us that they have faced overt discrimination as a result of prejudice and stereotypes.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poznan Roma Camp

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Roma settled in the area of former allotment gardens near Lechicka Street in Poznan in 2014. The area had previously had to be abandoned by the Polish Allotment Owners’ Association following its purchase by a private person. Now, a request for building several apartments in the are has been submitted, which could mean the end of this camp.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poland, Social Housing, and Roma

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Another article in a long series about Roma in the city of Pułlawy, Poland. This time about Roma who illegally live in vacant premises in social housing…

The real questions i.e. why are there vacant premises, and why can’t the Roma get to them legally are not addressed here.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poland: Interview

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An interview with Sonia Styrkacz, a psychologist from a Silesian Roma family married to a Carpathian Polish Rom.On Christmas traditions, she says: “On Christmas Eve, various traditions mix in our house – Romani, Polish, Catholic, Silesian, highlander. I am a Silesian Roma, my husband is a mountain Roma from Podhale, so our family traditions are different. In my family home, holidays were a time of meeting, peace and conversation. Religious aspects receded into the background. For my husband, there are no holidays without mass. We also have different culinary traditions – my husband’s family fasted on Christmas Eve, while mine ate meat. We weren’t preparing maybe 12 dishes, but there had to be a lot of food – stuffed cabbage rolls, pork chops and minced meat, roulades, which we took over from Silesian cuisine.”

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poland, Prisons, and Roma

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Reports and complaints about the improper treatment of Roma in Poland’s prisons have reached the ombudsman’s desk and indicate the widespread use of stereotypes and violations of prisoners’ rights.

Bad, but not surprising.

News Eastern Europe Poland Ukraine

Romnja in Poland

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“Being a Roma woman is being a warrior.” Racism is everyday life for Roma. “We are independent, we are strong and we make our dreams come true” – this is how 28-year-old Olena, a lawyer from Ukraine, replied to the question about what Romani women are like. Olena is one of the 6 heroines of the second instalment of the series of portraits of Roma women prepared by the W Torona Dialogu Foundation. The goal of the campaign is clear – it’s time for Roma women to come out of the shadows and talk about themselves on their own terms and in their own words.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Sobibor

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The Museum and Memorial Site in Sobibór has been nominated for the prestigious title of European Museum of the Year 2024. The competition is organized by the European Museum Forum – an independent, non-governmental organization operating under the auspices of the Council of Europe, whose mission is to promote innovation in museology. The winners will be announced in early May 2024. The European Museum of the Year Award is considered the most important distinction for European museums.

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