Category Archives: Poland

News Eastern Europe Poland

Papuša

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Bronisława Wajs (Papusza) is one of the best know Romani poets. She owes part of the fame to Jerzy Ficowski, a Polish poet and ethnographer who published her poetry. In the article here,  Emilia Kledzik, a professor in the university of Poznan, claims that the poetry were largely constructed by Jerzy Ficowski.

She even uses the word “forgeries”.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poland: A Never-Ending Story

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A team, appointed by the Voivode of Lesser Poland to solve the problems of the Roma community in Koszary has started work. Currently, the settlement located on plots belonging to the Limanowa commune is inhabited by over 120 Roma (including a large group of children), but a large part of them live in unauthorized construction works, which are subject to a valid demolition order. The first proposals were made on how to effectively enforce the law without escalating tensions in the area where the Roma have lived for half a century. One idea is to relocate Roma families to larger cities.

Already a few years ago, families living in the buildings, brick houses with water, sewage and electricity connections, received final decisions requiring demolition. So far, none of them has complied with the order.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poland and Roma

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On June 11, in the centre of Warsaw, Dariusz Gabor, the father of the famous singer Vika Gabor, was brutally attacked by a 34-year-old man. He severely beat Dariusz Gabor and sprayed him with gas. Viki was also injured. A few hours after the attack, the singer’s sister issued a statement. — Unfortunately, Polish society has a big problem with accepting and treating Roma.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poland: Let’s get to know each other

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“Let’s get to know each other” is another part of the campaign of the W Towards Dialogu Foundation about the presence Roma of in Polish society. 72% of Polish women and men do not know a single person from the Roma community as written on the billboards of the campaign, which spread from the Internet to the streets of 15 Polish cities. Posters with Romani women and Roma can be seen, among others, in Warsaw and Wrocław.

News Eastern Europe Poland

More on May 16th

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Two articles on the Roma resistance day and the commemoration in Auschwitz of the resistance of Roma inmates.

News Eastern Europe Poland

May 16th

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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.

News Eastern Europe Poland

International Program on Genocide

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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.

News Eastern Europe Poland Ukraine

Ukrainian Roma Refugees in Poland

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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.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poland: Video of a Festival

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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.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Reportage in a Settlement

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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.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poland: Festival

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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.

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Norway and Roma Register

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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.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poland and Roma

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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.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poland and Roma

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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.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poland, Roma, and a Riot

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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.

News Eastern Europe Poland Ukraine

Warsaw University and Roma Migrations

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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.

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