Paul Polansky

Paul Polansky
Paul Polansky at Saronno, Italy in September, 2011
Born	Mason City, Iowa, United States
Occupation	author
Citizenship	United States
Alma mater	Marquette University
Genre	Poetry Human Rights Oral histories
Subject	Roma people, Boxing
Notable awards	City of Weimar Human Rights Award, 2004
Website
paulpolansky.net

Paul Polansky is an American author and activist working for the rights of the Romani people in Eastern Europe and the Balkans.^[1]

Biography

Paul Polansky is a graduate in journalism major, history and speech minors, at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (USA). In the early 90s, he founded the Czech Historical Research Center (USA),^[2] and holds conferences in several American and European universities in the field of human rights in Eastern Europe.

In the 1990s he discovered 40,000 documents in Czech archives on the Gypsy camp Lety run by the Czechs during World War II.^[3] After this discovery, he moved his residence in Czech Republic to pursue his studies, and began to hold conferences, one of them at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.^[4]

In 1999 Polansky start to work for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,^[5] to serve as their advisor on Roma (Gypsy) refugee issues in Kosovo.

He went on to become head of the Kosovo Roma Refugee Foundation (KRRF),^[6] an NGO working with the afflicted residents of the UN Camps in north Kosovo. From July 1999 until September 2009 he was head of mission for the Society for Threatened Peoples in Kosovo and Serbia. On December 10, 2004, the City Council of Weimar awarded its "Human Rights Award" to Polansky.^[7]

Author

Polansky has published twenty-seven books, including eighteen books of poetry, and a number of non-fiction books^[8] including UN-Leaded Blood, which denounces described the inaction of UNMIK, as many children died from lead poisoning in the UN camps in north Kosovo.

Film

Polansky produced a documentary film, Gypsy Blood, which won best informative film at the 2005 Golden Wheel International Film Festival in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia.^[9]

Polansky was closely involved in a further exposé of inaction regarding the continuing lead poisoning of Roma in north Mitrovica. Dateline's UN's Toxic Shame, a scathing review of the UN's inaction on this scandal by Amos Roberts, aired in Australia on April 26, 2009.^[10]

Publications

• Antonin Dvořák, My Father, by Otaker Dvořák and Paul J. Polansky, published by Czech Historical Research Ctr (1993), ISBN 978-0963673404
• Living Through It Twice: Poems Of The Romany Holocaust, G PLUS G editions (1998), ISBN 978-8086103112
• Black Silence: The Lety Survivors Speak, G PLUS G editions (1998), ISBN 978-0893042417
• Not a Refugee; The Plight of the Kosovo Roma (Gypsies) After the 1999 War, Voice of Roma editions (2000), ASIN: B000GYAEWY
• The River Killed My Brother, Norton Coker editions (2001), ISBN 978-1879457751
• The Blackbirds of Kosovo, Left Curve Publications (2001), ASIN: B000I80VT4
• Bus Ride in Jerusalem, Roma Refugee Fund, (2003)
• To UNHCR, with Love, Divus editions, (2003), ISBN 9788086450278
• Kosovo Blood, published by KRRF (2004), ASIN: B004GV1UYO
• Sarah's People: Nish Cemetery Poems & Photos, published by KRRF (2005), ASIN: B004GUXZDE
• UN-leaded Blood, published by KRRF (2005), ISBN 978-1879457959
• Safari Angola, self produced (2006), ASIN: B004HEHZUI
• Gypsy Taxi, self produced (2007), ASIN: B006ZY7AQ2
• One blood, one flame: the oral histories of the Yugoslav gypsies before, during and after WWII, Kosovo Roma Refugee Foundation, (2008), ISBN 9781879457720
• Undefeated, Multimedia Edizioni 2009
• Deadly Neglect, self produced (2010)
• Boxing Poems Volo Press edizioni, 2010
• Poesie, Damocle Edizioni 2011
• The Storm, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (2011), ISBN 978-1463755409
• Black Silence, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (2011), 978-1466295742
• La mia vita con gli zingari, Datanews, 2011, ISBN 9788879813259
• The silence of the violins – Il silenzio dei violini, con Roberto Malini, Il Foglio Letterario 2012
• The hand of God – La mano di Dio, con Roberto Nassi, Il Foglio Letterario, maggio 2012
• Cry, Gypsy, poems of Germany's Forced Deportations of Kosovo, Volo Press edizioni, 2012
• Carmine Voices, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015

References

External links

• Official website
• "Toxic camp angers Kosovo Roma", BBC.co.uk 2005
• "Kosovo's poisoned generation" BBC.co.uk 2009
• "Paul Polansky and the Kosovo Roma", Tomás Ó Cárthaigh, The Telegraph (July 30, 2008)