invited by Susan Wood
Ceija Stojka
Austrian-born, reduced by the Nazis to prisoner
number Z6399. Her family were Catholic Lovara
Romany horse traders. Deported as a young girl
with mother and siblings to Auschwitz, then sent
to Ravensbrück and Bergen-Belsen, liberated in
1945. Almost all her extended family perished in the
camps. Her memoirs, poems, music and art keep
their memory alive and act as a warning against
discrimination. Self-taught artist, depicting images
of Romany wagons in the Austrian countryside,
stark representations of horrendous persecution
in concentration camps, and images of the beauty
of nature, including sunflowers. Ceija Stojka
campaigned tirelessly to promote Romany culture
and the rights of the Romanies.
South London Women Artists I’m Inside, Ring The Bell
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