- Paul Polansky
Paul Polansky is an American author and activist working for the rights of the
Roma people (also called Gypsies). He has worked for the advancement of Roma and acceptance of them throughoutEastern Europe . Today he heads the Kosovo Roma Refugee Foundation (KRRF), anNGO working with the afflicted residents of theUN Camps in north Kosovo . He is also head of mission forSociety for Threatened Peoples in Kosovo and Serbia.Polansky has published twenty-five books, including fifteen books of poetry. His latest book of poetry "Gypsy Taxi" (2007) was reviewed on BBC radio. Polansky's most controversial book "UN-Leaded Blood" described the inaction of UNMIK, as many children died from lead poisoning in the UN camps in north Mitrovica. Other books by Polanksy included a novel, "The Storm", and a collection of oral histories of Czech Roma Holocaust survivors, called
Black Silence .On
December 10 ,2004 , theCity Council ofWeimar unanimously awarded its "Human Rights Award" to Polansky. He was nominated for the award byGuenther Grass , recipient of theNobel Prize for Literature .A documentary film, "Gypsy Blood", produced by Polansky won best informative film at the 2005
Golden Wheel International Film Festival inSkopje ,Republic of Macedonia .Polansky's latest work (2007/2008) is a three volume collection (1,349 pages) of oral histories of the Yugoslav Gypsies before, during and after World War II. The collection, "One Blood, One Flame" was a three-year project, filming interviews with 154 Gypsy survivors of WWII throughout the former Yugoslavia. Each volume contains a DVD with excerpts of the filmed interviews.
External links
* [http://www.paulpolansky.nstemp.com/ Official Website]
* [http://www.radio.cz/en/article/24391 Radio Prague interview with Polansky]
*"Living Through It Twice" - holocaust poems by Polansky (ISBN 80-86103-11-0)
* [http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/B/battle/page4.html Black Silence, a testimony of genocide from the survivors.]
* [http://www.celtichosting.com/downloads/kosovo.mpg Video]
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