Paul Polansky
Paul Polansky (February 17, 1942 – March 26, 2021) was an American writer and Romani activist. He earned degrees in journalism, history, and rhetoric from Marquette University. In the early 1990s he started the Czech Historical Research Center in the United States and spoke at many human-rights conferences in Eastern Europe.
Polansky found about 40,000 documents in Czech archives about a Gypsy extermination camp in Lety, built during World War II. After this discovery, he moved to the Czech Republic to continue his research and helped organize conferences at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
In 1999 he began working for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as an advisor for Roma refugees in Kosovo. He led the Kosovo Roma Refugee Foundation, helping residents of Romani camps in Mitrovica. From July 1999 to September 2009 he led the mission of the Association for Endangered Nations in Kosovo and Serbia.
On December 10, 2004, the Weimar City Council awarded him the Human Rights Award. Polansky died in 2021 after an illness.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 00:59 (CET).