On Thursday, Roma honoured the memory of the Roman inmates who rebelled in the so-called “Zigeunerlager” that was part of the German KL Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The president of the Roma Association in Poland, Roman Kwiatkowski, emphasized that through their actions they retained human dignity.
The Museum of Polish Jewish History is announcing recruitment for an international program dedicated to the memory of the Holocaust of Roma and Sinti. The program is addressed to educators and museologists from the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland. Applications are due by May 30th.
The program will last from June to October 2024 and will include two study visits in Brno and Berlin and a series of online meetings. Working in international groups, participants will develop educational ideas related to the commemoration of the Holocaust of Roma and Sinti, which they will present to a wider audience during an online event at the end of the program.
Ewelina Bosak from the W Stroną Dialogu Foundation stated that 87 Roma from Ukraine are camping in the waiting room of the railway station in Przemyśl. There were 44 people there on Sunday, and on Thursday morning there were 87. Most of them were children, the youngest of whom is eight months old. There is also a pregnant woman and a man with cancer.
A festival with Roma in the Spa Park attracted crowds to Ciechocinek. There were over 9,000 people at the concert at the spa. Ciechocinek is famous for its festivals.
A TV crew visited a controversial Roma settlement in Koszary, near Limanowa. The case of these Roma has filled many articles in the Polish press.
During the broadcast of the report, Roma children said in front of the camera that they were called names, ridiculed, attacked and beaten – but the young boys did not present any specific situations. Their parents told that they had no other choice than to burn refuse to heat, something what neighbours hav been complaining a lot.
A festival with Roma music in the Spa Park attracted crowds to Ciechocinek, close to Torun, Poland. There were over 9,000 people at the concert.
Klaudia Wioletta, an academic, and not a whistleblower learned that the Norwegian police had created a register of Roma, a national minority in Norway, and had no choice but to subject it to public and legal scrutiny.
She first came across the Norwegian Roma “family tree” compiled by police officers during a meeting she was invited to on crime prevention activities in Oslo in the fall of 2023. The police officers wanted to expand their knowledge about Roma and invited her because in her research she dealt with issues related to Roma. She photographed the “family tree” and, suspecting that there was a register behind the graphics, accepted the invitation to another meeting with the policemen who presented it.
Her suspicions were right. During the next meeting, the officer showed her the log on his computer and explained how he created it. The register includes 14 people who have been charged in ongoing criminal cases, 74 are their close relatives and 567 other people. The register even includes Holocaust survivors, deceased persons, and Roma children.
An article in the Polish Vogue on the W Stronę Dialogu Foundation campaign aimed at expanding knowledge about the Roma community in Poland and increasing its visibility in our country. People of different ages, different genders, living in different parts of Poland and representing different professions will take part in it.
A video on a talk about Jerzy Ficowski, a Polish author and Romologue.
Władysław Kwiatkowski, director of the Centre for Roma History and Culture in Oświęcim, will talk about the history and present day of the Roma this Tuesday (April 16). There will also be a performance by Józef Merstein Jochymczyk – the bard of Romani music, performing songs and ballads in the Sinti Manousche style and Gipsy jazz. It all starts at 17:00 at the Documentation and Exhibition Centre of Germans in Poland at ul. Szpitalna 11 in Opole.
The Polish press widely reported the riot in a Roma neighbourhood near Limanowo, where Roma attacked firefighters who came to extinguish a fire.
The Roma Association of Poland criticised the reporting, saying that too much was centred on purported Roma “traits” and too many stereotypes were presented in the reporting. They are right.
Inequalities in citizenship and the transnational mobilization of Polish, Czech and Ukrainian Roma in the face of the war in Ukraine will be addressed by an international team of scientists led by Dr. Kamila Fiałkowska from the Migration Research Center (OBM) of the University of Warsaw. Researchers will analyse the behaviour and situation of both Roma people fleeing the war in Ukraine and those who helped them in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The context of the research will be their social status as citizens, as well as prejudices against Roma that influence attitudes towards refugees.
Several articles in the Polish press about the intervention of firefighters in Koszary, a village in the lesser Poland Vojvodeship. They had come to put out a fire but were first insulted and then attacked by local Roma.
This is really bad.
Several hundred refugees from Ukraine – of Roma origin – were left homeless overnight. All because of the closure of the centre in Kidałowice in Podkarpacie. As we found out, the centre was closed due to sanitary problems.
We were alerted to this matter by the W Stron Dialogu Foundation. This is an organization supporting the Roma community in Poland, including refugees who came to our country in the face of a full-scale war in Ukraine. The Foundation knew that there was a centre in Kidałowice in Podkarpacie where several hundred people lived, including women, children and seniors. They told us that overnight they were “put out on the street.”
Several hundred refugees from Ukraine – of Roma origin from the Transcarpathian region- were left homeless overnight. All because of the closure of the centrer in Kidałowice in Podkarpacie. As we found out, the centre was closed due to sanitary problems. Some families decided to return to Ukraine, others are already taken care of in other centres.
A discussion with Dr. Joanna Talewicz.
Well, the results of a survey in Poland are unfortunately not surprising. The least liked people in Poland (in that order) are Byelorussians, Roma, and Russian.
Sad that a local minority is so badly recognised.
Americans, Italians and Czechs, as well as Slovaks, are the favorite nations of Poles. This was shown by a new public opinion poll, TASR took over the report from the Polish news agency PAP. Up to 65 percent of respondents in the CBOS survey expressed positive feelings towards Americans. They are followed in second place by the Italians with 63 percent, ahead of the Czechs (61 percent), Slovaks (60 percent) and the British (55 percent).
Poles have the most negative views of Russians (76 percent), Belarusians (47 percent) and Roma (43 percent).
Another article about a controversy started by Bogdan Trojanek, a Romano Activist and Founder of the Roma band “Terne Roma” and the construction of sewers in the region of Limanowa, Poland. There, he accused the mayor of the municipality to use funds allocated to Roma programs to build the sewers. The municipality strongly denies this claim but had to admit that in previous years, they indeed used Roma funds to build a treatment plant.
The ongoing expansion of the sewage system in Koszary, a village in the Limanowa region does not use funds from the so-called Roma program – as claimed by Roma activist Bogdan Trojanek. However, his allegations are not completely groundless, because in the previous term the commune used such financing for similar investments.
The story of thieves who managed to get into a senior citizen house, pretexting to sell them quilts, and while inside stole money. According to the police, these are “most probably” Roma. The fact of saying so even before these people have been arrested is not good.
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