REFLECTIONS ON POGROMS. A COMMENT ON THE EVENTS OF 1981 IN OSWIECIM (Refleksje o pogromach. Na marginesie wydarzeń w Oswiecimiu w 1981 r.)

(Title in Roma language: Das godi pal-o pogroma: rigate dikhindor o ondimata Oswiecimate dr-o b. 1981). The author presents the historical context of the violent attack on the Roma community in Oswiecim which took place in October 1981. With the help of the interviews conducted with the witnesses of the event, the situation has been presented from the point of view of the Roma as well as from the perspective of the non-Romani inhabitants of the town. Then the author focuses on how Roma remember the pogrom and on the role of that remembrance in the self-perception of the members of the Association of the Roma People in Poland which has its headquarters in Oswiecim. In the final parts of the essay the author uses the case of Oswiecim to reconcile two main ways in which anti-Roma violence has been explained in Polish sociological literature: the 'ethnic scapegoat' approach and that based on the idea of 'crossing the social border'. Finally, the author comments on the relation between the persecution of Roma in the time of the Holocaust and the more recent forms of anti-Romani violence.