Kwiek Dynasty

   Several families named Kwiek emigrated to Poland from Romania, via Hungary, at the beginning of the 20th century. They established a royal dynasty, which continued until shortly after World War II. These kings were not recognized by the long-settled Polish Romanies, who had their own chief with the title Shero Rom. In the period between the two world wars, there was sometimes more than one claimant for the title of king.

   King Michal II (elected in 1930) was invited to the Bucharest Conference in 1934 and addressed a meeting in London's Hyde Park later that year, putting forward the case for a Gypsy state in Africa. Janusz Kwiek was crowned king in 1937 by the archbishop of Warsaw. He, too, was influenced by Zionism and asked Benito Mussolini to grant the Gypsies an area of land in recently conquered Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia). He disappeared during the Nazi occupation of Poland. In 1946 Rudolf Kwiek was declared king but, living in a Communist state, he changed the title to that of president of the Gypsies. He died in 1964.